【N.J】 More people smoke weed than cigarettes, what a world (JEFF EDELSTEIN COLUMN) – – – New Jersey News

More people smoke marijuana than smoke cigarettes. I mean, that’s bananas. What a world.

Seriously: What a world.

If you so chose, you can legally buy weed and then legally place a sports bet now in New Jersey. All that’s left is to legally pay for sex, and the triple play of sin is complete. (For the record: I kinda do think prositution should be legalized. I mean, it’s happening even though it’s illegal, and prohibition never works, and everyone would be safer if it was above-board, and no, I’d never want my daughters — or my son — to sell themselves for money once they’re adults, but overall, it seems like legalizing it makes a ton more sense than keeping it illegal. We’d have a whole state department dedicated to this: The New Jersey Department of Prostitution. What a job title that would be. “Hi, this is Bob, he’s the executive director of the New Jersey Department of Prositution. Anyway …)

Anyway: The fine folks at Gallup — you know the company was started in Princeton by George Gallup back in 1935 — have been tracking Americans’ views on cigarettes and alcohol and marijuana for decades.

Dig this: Back in 1969, when the marijuana question was first asked, 4% of Americans reported ever using cannabis. Today, that number is 48%, and 16% of Americans say they are regular marijuana smokers.

As for cigarettes? Only 11% of Americans currently smoke cigarettes. (And booze? Pretty much the same as it was back in 1935, when 63% of Americans said they drank. Now the number is 67%.)

But the fact marijuana has become so popular — really, according to this poll, roughly one in six American adults smoke weed — is crazy.

When I first started smoking pot back in 1990, it was still so under the radar. You had to know a guy who knew a guy, or else you were driving to Washington Square Park in New York and buying weed (literally) out of garbage cans. Let the record show the salesmen in the park were not always of the honest variety.

Fast-forward to today and … I mean, have you been into Zen Leaf in Lawrence? It feels like you’re walking into the Banana Republic. It’s beautiful. Well-run. Well-lit. Always crowded.

Yes, I’ve been there. I’ve sampled the goods. And I gotta tell you — marijuana has passed me by.

I stopped smoking in 1999, but once it became legal, I figured I’d give it a whirl. My experience? Maureen Dowd-lite. I can’t ingest it without getting entirely too high. One puff and I’m in la-la land. I prefer, based on my 1990s usage, to be in the vicinity of la-la land, but not there. Fact is, the THC content is way too high for my personal taste. I miss the old dirt I’d buy in dime bags.

So yeah: For me, I’ll still take three fingers of Maker’s Mark over three bong rips any day of the week.

But, I’m guessing, based on trends, I might one day be in the minority.

Is it possible marijuana will one day eclipse alcohol as Americans’ intoxicant of choice?

I mean, why not?

In the meantime, puff ‘em (and puff ‘em, and pass ‘em) if you’ve got ‘em, and if you’re still part of that 11% of cigarette smokers … come on. Give it up. I did, and I’m an impulsive idiot.