COVID-19 Has Changed The Weed-Smoking Habits Of 70% Of US Cannabis Consumers

By Dwight K. Blake, from American Marijuana.

To limit the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, people have no choice but to stay home. Since the coronavirus is highly contagious, even the World Health Organization advises people to practice basic protective measures against it.

It’s been more than a month now since lockdowns and quarantines were implemented. Left with no choice but to deal with everybody else’s hobbies and habits at home, how did pot smoker’s immediate family and friends feel about their smoking habits now?

The cannabis website AmericanMarijuana.org conducted a survey that involved 1,017 US cannabis consumers to see how COVID-19 affected their weed-smoking habits with families and friends.

Weed-Smoking Habits Amid the Pandemic

It has been confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO) that smokers and tobacco users are at higher risk of COVID-19 infection as the act of sharing products such as water pipes often involve the sharing of mouth pieces and hoses.

Despite the high risk, 28.35% of weed consumers in the US still share their joints, bongs, bowls, pipes, spliffs, vape pens, and others while 71.65% of them stopped since the outbreak.

Out of the 28.35% that still share, 29.89% of them said they just don’t see any reason why they should stop sharing. 32.07% of them share to just have fun with their friends and relieve some stress.

The remaining 38.04% said they just can’t get rid of the habit of sharing even though they know the consequences of their actions.

See Also: Two Years After Prop 64: California Cannabis Industry At A Crossroads

What about their friends? According to 34.82% of the participants, their stoner friends still share their weed with them amidst the pandemic. But 65.18% of them stopped to reduce the risk of getting infected with the virus.

They were also asked if they think smoking weed makes smokers more susceptible to coronavirus. 54.35% of the participants with lung problems and 34.47% without lung problems agreed to that statement.

On the other side, 45.56% of participants with lung problems and 65.53% of participants without lung problems don't agree that smoking weed makes them more susceptible to COVID-19.

How Attitude Towards Weed Smoking Has Shifted Due to COVID-19

Now that the US cannabis consumers are forced to stay indoors due to the lockdown policy, did they change their smoking habits at home?

With all the time at their disposal, it’s expected that a lot of them would consume more since the lockdown policy. However, only 29.28% of them smoked more weed compared to 26.50% that smoked less weed.

5.70% of them even quit smoking while 38.67% of them remained smoking the same amount of weed since the outbreak.

Were they worried about not being able to get cannabis stocks?

Only 36.67% of the participants are worried about not being able to pay for their cannabis since the outbreak. 63.33% aren’t worried at all.

But how about their preferred consuming methods after the outbreak? Since smoking increases the chances of getting coronavirus, have they considered changing their consuming method?

According to 28.04% of the 1,017 US cannabis consumers, they switched to other marijuana consuming methods such as consuming oils, eating edibles, etc. The remaining 71.96% decided to remain smoking cannabis.

What about trying out other anxiety relief supplements?

Well, 34.51% of them did try to resort to other anxiety relief supplements but 76% of those that tried said weed is still more effective and only 24% of them said weed is less effective.

The remaining 65.49% didn’t bother trying any other anxiety relief supplements.

Lastly, how did their families and friends respond to their pot-smoking habit at home during a lockdown?

13.25% of the 1,017 participants said their family is against it, especially during a pandemic. 13.56% of them saw some negativity but not too serious.

See Also: Amidst The COVID-19 Pandemic: Interesting Findings From The US Cannabis Consumers

Even though 69.18% of them felt nothing had changed, 4.01% of them were discriminated against for smoking weed during the pandemic.

Photo via American Marijuana.

The preceding article is from one of our external contributors. It does not represent the opinion of Benzinga and has not been edited.

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