Congressman Blumenauer: Oregon Could "Break the Dam" on Marijuana Prohibition

[RainDog]

10. recreational mj use peaked in the mid to late 70s

Marijuana use among high school seniors peaked in 1979. At that point, nearly 60% of high school seniors had tried mj at least once. Once the tail end of the baby boomers started to settle down, btw, mj usage rates fell as well...or, after Carter, with Reagan's War on Drugs, fewer were willing to admit to it. But, according to the MPP, the highest rates of mj usage before age 21 is for those who were born between 1961-1965... however, the figures are really close, for that sort of usage, for those born between 1956-1970. Those born between 1966-1970 showed 51.4% who tried marijuana before age 21- and that was the lowest figure between the three age groups.



During the "Summer of Love" years - far fewer teens used mj than after, tho, as the report below indicates, by 1970, 43% of college students had ever tried - while only 28% were regular users.

iow, most people did not attend Woodstock (contrary to what they may now say, lol) while those who listened to the Woodstock album in high school were more likely to have been stoned while doing so...

The earliest survey data on marijuana use in the U.S. was obtained through a Gallup Poll in the spring of 1967. The nationally-based telephone poll of college students found a 5% lifetime prevalence of marijuana use. Two years later, this proportion jumped to 22%. A Gallup Poll of the adult population in the summer of 1969 found a 4% lifetime prevalence, with 12% of those in the 21-29 year old age group, 3% in the 30-49 year old group and only 1% of those aged 50 and over reporting ever trying marijuana. In the fall of 1970, another Gallup Poll of college students found 43% reported trying marijuana, with 39% reporting use in the past year and 28% reporting use in the past 30 days. By 1971, over half (51%) of the nation's college students reported lifetime use, and annual and thirty day prevalence rates stood at 41% and 30% respectively. These Gallup telephone polls document the explosion in marijuana use among college students during the late 1960s, with a leveling occurring in the early 1970s, such that by 1971, over half of the nation's college students had at least tried marijuana. It is commonly hypothesized that marijuana use first burgeoned among college students, and then spread to younger ages. A national survey of males in their finalyear of high school (aged 17-18 years) in 1969 found a 22% lifetime prevalence of use.

In 1970-1971, the New York Narcotic Addiction Control Commission conducted a major general population survey of New York State (Chambers and Inciardi, 1971). The research study used state-of-the-art techniques and, to that time, gave one of the best assessments (albeit limited to New York State) of the nature and extent of drug use. The study found that 12.3% of the New York State population had ever used marijuana. They further found that regular users (defined as at least 6 times per month) made up 3.5% (487,000 individuals) of the State's population. Of these regular users, over 70% were under the age of 25 and nearly half defined themselves as students at the high school or college levels.