Educating instead of verbally abusing: How the media’s opinion on cannabis has changed

Over the centuries, people have incorporated facets of everyday life into our artistic forms of expression. Snapshots of popular opinion at the time of creation can be gleaned from the old penny plays and murals.

A good barometer of public opinion can be read from the various forms of media that are available to us today. Just as the advancement of technology has dramatically improved the viewing experience, the content has shifted over time to adapt to current public opinion on topics. While the legalization of cannabis is not unanimously supported, its exposure in the mainstream media has gained momentum in educating the public about the positive effects of cannabis use. Even in an area that reports cannabis legalization, there are biases that affect the overall impact of the item.

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The timetable for general public opinion on cannabis legalization may begin with Richard Nixon’s successful War on Drugs. This campaign regulated cannabis as a List I drug and was so effective in its terrorist tactics that by 1989, 64% of Americans viewed drug abuse as the nation’s biggest problem, after rising from a measly 2-6%.

Attitudes towards cannabis have changed significantly over the past three decades due to a number of interlocking factors. After comparing it with modern disasters, the risk of cannabis was reassessed. The widespread public skepticism about post-opioid pain relievers that devastated communities across the country, potential financial opportunities presented by the cannabis business, and the potential for many other unknown medical benefits of medicinal cannabis have all contributed to the legalization of cannabis.

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As with many other hotly debated topics, there is a lot of misinformation on all sides of the argument; In the cannabis industry in particular, great emphasis has been placed on education to counter opposition to legalization.

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In a 2019 study entitled “How and why has attitudes toward cannabis legalization changed so much? “Felson et al. conducted the first comprehensive and empirically-based study to find out why and how public opinion has changed on cannabis legalization. Their results showed that American public opinion had become noticeably more liberal because of “a decline in religious affiliation, a decrease in criminal liability, and a shift in media design”.

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While there seems to be general support for cannabis legalization in public opinion, this is not the case everywhere. In traditional media sources such as news networks and newspapers, the representation of cannabis in non-nationwide media can determine a territory’s general attitude towards legalization.

The media representation of cannabis legalization depends mainly on the target groups. By and large, the mainstream media has taken an educational and investigative approach to cannabis and cannabis legalization.