Perhaps, but you can also gather data on usage, which suggests [1] the % of Americans using marijuana is close to flat after a brief bump in usage during COVID (which would make sense - people were home more, had less to do, and were pretty stressed out). It's also a lot lower than I'd have thought; after living in Berkeley for a few years 13% seems awfully low <.<

Note that marijuana has become legal in a LOT more jurisdictions during the timeframe of this chart: it was illegal in every state at the start of that graph, and is now legal for recreational use in 24 states, including many of the largest. So this is despite it becoming much more available and much less risky to use.

[1] https://news.gallup.com/poll/284135/percentage-americans-smo...

So many people who want to have a say regarding policy don't understand this.

My country has a particularly high rate of sugar consumption. Are we a nation with a sweet tooth? Hardly, as it's inversely correlated with alcohol consumption as measured via sales figures and the process of moonshine production is greatly enhanced by the use of sugar as feedstock.

Meanwhile there's a whole movement that aims to limit alcohol availability in stores. A noble pursuit, but a misguided one, as the reported increases in alcohol sales over the past years are actually a sign of people preferring to buy instead of producing their liquor now that they can afford it.

It's mostly the large-volume users buying illegally when legal options are available; as a percentage of total users it is small. Weed is very cheap relative to other drugs and alcohol; nobody's seeking out a sketchy dealer to save a few bucks every few weeks, and now that prices have come down so much, dealers aren't interested in selling (to them) tiny amounts on an irregular basis.

Prices varied wildly by geography and how savvy you were, but years before legalization it wasn't uncommon to buy weed for $60/8th aka $17/gram for 3.54g. That was weed of far lower potency than what you buy today in the dispensary. Adjusted for inflation and potency, if you were to buy an eighth today for $60 you would be effectively paying a quarter of that price - but nobody's buying $60 eighths in 2024: you can now buy _legal_ $60 ounces in some places and $140 legal ounces in most states. Again, adjust for inflation and potency and we're comfortably under 1/10th the price of years ago - of what was already a cheap drug! There's just no motivation for illegal sales if you're an occasional user.