Marijuana and Media: A Strategic Comparison of Popular Press and Opinion Upon Cannabis Legalization Over Time

April 2, 2023

In order to gather information for this paper, I used the iPhone News application to search recent articles under the terms ‘marijuana,’ ‘marijuana reform,’ ‘cannabis,’ and ‘weed.’ By using the News application, I was able to see both local and major publications in order to gain a wider insight into my research question. Under these terms, I filtered the search so that I would only see articles published less than six months ago. When collecting the 2010s data, I searched the archives of the New York Times, Forbes, and Washington Post, so that I could find dated yet comparative and applicable sources. Additionally, I used Google Scholar to find scientific articles that related to my research topic.

Since cannabis legalization began in 2012 when Colorado and Washington became the first states to allow the recreational usage of the substance, popular media, as well as public attitude, has seemed to shift towards a shedding of the stigma that the press once held towards marijuana. When comparing media coverage from the early-to-late-2010s with current reporting from large publications such as New York Times and Washington Post, there is a large difference between the content and tone of articles sourced from the past decade and those that have been recently published.

In an article featured in the University of Pittsburgh student newspaper The Pitt News, columnist Adrianne Glenn states that “The media consistently represents marijuana as a dangerous substance that leads to issues with psychological addiction, drug lords, mental problems and inevitable abuse of other drugs” (para. 2). Even in the twentieth century, television and published articles (newspaper, magazine, et cetera) have perpetuated certain stereotypes within their coverage. In his 1996 book The Media, The President, and Public Opinion, author and professor of public relations William J. Gonzenbach writes, “Drug users portrayed on the television news tended to be poor, inner-city Blacks addicted to crack cocaine or heroin and middle- or upper-class suburban White users of cocaine or marijuana” (p. 4). The harsh political conversation regarding the “War on Drugs” (and its subsequent policy changes) introduced by Richard Nixon and continued by Ronald and Nancy Reagan also contributed to the unpopularity of the public opinion when put in tandem with negative media portrayals and disproportionate incarceration statistics. In her published paper “Marijuana & the Media: The Influence of Media Narratives on Legalization Outcomes”, sociologist Ruth Rothstein wrote:

Overall, the data gathered from the content analysis indicated the presence of distinct narratives within each state’s media coverage of marijuana legalization…. For example, marijuana conceptualizations included legalization in the context of other state’s measures, as a complex or controversial notion, and as a movement seeking financial support. In California, the LA Times largely framed marijuana legalization in terms of fractionalized support and anxieties around negligent and dangerous drug users. Colorado newspapers largely defined the amendment through the frame of the challenges faced by state and administrative institutions and the existence of tensions with the federal government. Further, the data suggest that variations in media legalization narratives combine to produce different frameworks that influence public reactions and subsequent political responses. (Rothstein, no date)

Even within the state legalization process of marijuana, individual states seem to be in contest in regards to the proccess, citing independent reasoning for their sole legalization. Rothstein’s choice of Colorado stems from it being one of two states that legalized the recreational usage of marijuana in 2012. 

When searching the archives of the New York Times, the first article listed under the search term ‘marijuana’ is a 2010 report entitled “Researchers Find Study of Medical Marijuana Discouraged”. In this article, National Institute on Drug Abuse spokesperson Shirley Simson is quoted, saying, “As the National Institute on Drug Abuse, our focus is primarily on the negative consequences of marijuana use… We generally do not fund research focused on the potential beneficial medical effects of marijuana” (para. 23). In the present day, the first article (at the time of writing) listed under the search term for ‘marijuana’ leads to the 2023 article “Is Cannabis Good or Bad for Sleep?” wherein the author notes that “limited studies have found that low doses of THC can improve sleep” (para. 7), linking to a 2004 study by Nicholson, Turner, et. al that compares the effects of CBD and THC on overnight sleep activity. The findings of the study are as follows: “Fifteen milligrams THC would appear to be sedative, while 15 mg CBD appears to have alerting properties as it increased awake activity during sleep and counteracted the residual sedative activity of 15 mg THC” (Nicholson, Turner, et. al, 2004). Additionally, subsequent (unrelated) articles under the same search terms seem to speak of cannabis in a positive light – using amusing and playful phrases like “Danksgiving” (Bryant, 2022) and “Cannaphobia” (Southall, 2022) in recent headlines. 

Another noticeable difference between the press headlines of the early 2010s and the mid 2020s is the increase in coverage of legalization, dispensaries, and even interviews with independent marijuana farmers. According to a 2018 poll done by Gallup, sixty-six percent of Americans believe that marijuana should be legalized, in contrast to thirty-one percent in 2000 (Mccarthy, 2018, Figure 1). According to a 2018 study, researchers found that access to media has accelerated the average American’s views on legalizing cannabis, stating that:

Both the media and social science research have given a lot of attention to the problems with mass incarceration (Ramirez, 2013), especially as it relates to cannabis possession… These ideas lead to our final hypothesis… As more Americans have come to believe that the criminal justice system is too harsh, they have become more supportive of legalizing cannabis. (Felson, Adamczyk, Thomas, 2018)

In addition, the aforementioned researchers also made a separate hypothesis: “As attitudes about cannabis changed, there was also a significant increase in the number of newspaper articles framing cannabis as a medical issue” (Felson, et. al., 2018). They support this hypothesis by stating that, “The use of the medical frame in the New York Times rose during the 1990s and then leveled off in the early 2000s. Pro-legalization attitudes rose throughout that period” (Felson, et. al., 2018). 

The power of social media has also been cited in the University of Wisconsin’s Cannabis Advertising and Social Media Study (CASM) as an “influence” towards both the rise of the legalization of marijuana but also the usage of the substance (Whitehill, Jenkins, 2019). CASM also found that one-third of minors that live in states that have legalized recreational marijuana usage engage with “marijuana marketing on social media” (Whitehill, Jenkins, 2019, para. 1) and that “adolescents who liked or followed marijuana marketing on social media were five times were more likely to have used marijuana over the past year compared to those who did not” (Whitehill, Jenkins, 2019, para. 2). In February 2023, Twitter officially became the first social media platform to allow marijuana companies to advertise and promote products on their site. With social media being a low-cost means of publicity and advertising, both directly and through influencers, its use as a marketing tool has become widespread. CASM found that tactical social media marketing and advertising has introduced marijuana to a much higher percentage of adolescents than in the pre-social media world.

With social media and popular press being so ingrained in the daily life and culture in today’s world, it is no surprise that the stance of media outlets regarding marijuana legalization and usage has changed over time. However, a stigma still seems to exist in media representation and media reporting alike. As of February 2023, the Council of State Governments stated that “20 states and the District of Columbia have legalized the recreational adult use of marijuana. By contrast, there are 20 other states to have decriminalized marijuana-related offenses such as small quantity marijuana possession, cultivation, and transfer” (para. 1). According to the Council of State Governments, these numbers will only increase. While marijuana is still criminalized on the federal level due to the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, the popular press and current media have begun to legitimatize the discussion of cannabis usage, and will continue to both advance and affect the public opinion.