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Comment by Alex3917 | Hacker News Reader

"If I were to give my non-expert experience, I would guess that about 50% of the people I met in the USA had ever smoked weed"

It's actually roughly 85% of people in the US smoke weed at some point in their lives, as you can see here on p. 103:

http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/monographs/vol2_2009...

(You need to adjust upwards a couple of points to account for those who don't make it to 11th grade, who are assumed to use drugs at 50% higher rates, and also to account for a couple other factors that are discussed in the methodology.)

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>> It's actually roughly 85% of people in the US smoke weed at some point in their lives, as you can see here on p. 103:

Not my family, not most of my friends.

Edit: For my circle the estimate is totally wrong, beyond inaccurate. I doubt I'm in the minority.

And 85% seems really low to me. Out of the 20 people in my 10th grade honors science class I was the only student who had not smoked weed at least once. After that I have asked many people and the overwhelming majority have said they smoked pot at some point in time.

PS: 15% of the population is a lot of people, you would expect to find large clumps of people that don't smoke.

Why did you even bother to mention this? I'd think it goes without saying that there will clusters of people who don't smoke.

Your last line seems to imply that you doubt the results of the study, but that's a bit ridiculous to do based on personal anecdote.

I find it difficult to believe that it's a foregone conclusion that more than 2/3 of adults in the United States of America, my home, have involved themselves with an illegal drug.

I'm not doubting the study, I can't grasp the outcome.

Cannabis is not some terrible thing that turns people into thieves and low-lives. Plenty of the people you interact with every day (and likely have pleasant interactions with) use these substances. Perhaps some of this is location based, as I know on the west coast the general consensus is that people don't give a damn. Every single person I know has a friend or family member that smokes, often times successful and happy people, and it's not a big deal if they do or they don't. Public sentiment is changing every day and I truly believe that in the next 20-40 years cannabis prohibition will be a thing of the past just like alcohol prohibition.

One question for you - which do you think causes more health and addiction problems for people in the US ? Cannabis ? Or alcohol and prescription medications ?

People also download music, drive over the speed limit, and call in sick to work when they're perfectly healthy. The past three presidents have all admitted to trying illegal drugs. What's so surprising?

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