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PaperclipPerfector  26d ago (text post)   33683 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 9, 2024

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Isn't consumption of all drugs, including alcohol, way down for young people? The only thing that's really up is public opioid use, but not use in general.

People stay at home and consume digital media instead of getting intoxicated.

I may be wrong but I feel like I've read a lot of articles talking about this.

IIRC, marijuana use is way way up. Especially habitual use.

I wouldn't be surprised if youth drinking (under 21) is down, because that would require one to leave the house and have friends. For the population at large, I couldn't find good data for alcohol consumption. What I did find cut off in 2016 or 2019, which is too early to capture marijuana legalization.

When I went to look I found that drug use among Swedish youth is down, especially among boys, but only alcohol use is really down.

Perhaps it's different in other places and only alcohol use is down everywhere. I might have conflated English language articles about decreased alcohol use with Swedish articles about general decline.

Weed is still really unacceptable in Sweden in a way it's not in the Anglosphere, right? I know teenagers in the US are less likely to drink but much more into pot.

Define unacceptable. I'd say that most younger people who aren't shut-ins or teetotalers have at least tried weed at some point. Habitual use among respectable adults is very rare and you most certainly wouldn't smoke with colleagues even if you might get drunk with them.

I'd say it was really unacceptable in the 90s, somewhat unacceptable and naughty in the 00s and almost whatever from the mid 10s and on, among younger people anyway.

I think Sweden might be at the late 00s level of American acceptance?

America sees it as kinda meh outside of pillarized religious or deep rural pockets, or a few blue collar bubbles where marijuana is a big no-no for professional reasons(cops and truckers mostly), pot is a resounding meh in the US(which is much more pillarized than Sweden), even if the olds don't like it. Certainly not surprising to anyone if a respectable adult uses.

So maybe late 00's/early 10's.

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