Just like mental health, there has been a stigma surrounding cannabis use that goes back at least a century.
With mental health though, the stigma goes back thousands of years. For a long time anybody who was mentally ill was deemed possessed by demons by the church. It’s really unfortunate imagining all the people who are condemned to a life of suffering in the years past just because of a medical problem. But then again, the same thing happened to people who were born deformed or with other physical disabilities. We take it for granted these days how accepting a lot of groups of people seem to be as well as businesses and public spaces. There’s a long way for us to come in accepting the disabled equally, but it’s definitely an improvement for sure. Along with the social stigma associated with mental health, the social stigma associated with cannabis use is also breaking down over time. When I was a kid cannabis was considered a gateway drug to harder drugs like cocaine or heroin. We had to go to these classes where guidance counselors would try to terrify us against using the plant. There was a little bit of education regarding alcohol abuse, but not nearly as much as what was focused on marijuana. These days over 40% of adults admit to using cannabis from time to time. That’s a huge improvement in the social stigmas associated with cannabis use. Now lots of people are happy to use it since cannabis products are legal in so many places as well.