The world has been talking a lot about weed in the last month. Canada passed legislation to fully legalise the drug, becoming only the second country to do so (after Uruguay); meanwhile the US approved its first marijuana plant-derived drug for epilepsy, and in the UK calls for cannabis to be legalised for medical use are getting louder by the day following the high-profile case of 12-year-old Billy Caldwell. The medicinal cannabis oil that he uses to treat his epilepsy was confiscated at the UK border, to mass uproar, and Home Secretary Sajid Javid is now considering making cannabis easier to prescribe for medical use.
Cannabis use is a contentious topic, with people arguing passionately for and against its legalisation in the UK. But many young people wonder what all the fuss is about. Many see cannabis as safer than alcohol, and recent figures from NHS Digital showed that British secondary school pupils were more likely to have taken cannabis in the previous year than any other drug. In the UK, a recent study also found that more young people are turning to marijuana rather than cigarettes or alcohol as their substance of choice.
Of course, both cannabis and alcohol come with a host of well-documented negative side-effects, but people persist in taking both regardless. Three women told Refinery29 UK why they avoid alcohol in favour of cannabis.
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Michelle Davison (not her real name), 23, from Annan, Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland, started smoking cannabis when she was 20 and has been teetotal for almost a year.
"I didn’t like the effects drinking alcohol had on my body – weight gain and hangovers mostly – so I decided to take a break from drinking and found taking cannabis eliminated any desire I had to drink alcohol. I haven’t even missed it.
"I decided to start smoking cannabis because I suffered from quite intense migraines and lack of sleep and after doing some research I found that the medicinal properties in cannabis had helped many people with migraines and a whole list of other health problems. I find that cannabis has only a fraction of the health risks associated with alcohol or even cigarettes, and the benefits of it on my health completely outweigh any risks. It has also played a major part in helping me overcome anxiety and depression.
"The current generation of 18-30-year-olds are much more open-minded about cannabis and there has been a real shift in attitudes towards legalisation. Even in professional environments like the one I work in, there's widespread cannabis use among my peers.
"Some of my non-smoking peers are surprised when I tell them I don’t drink alcohol and they're always interested to learn about my reasons for taking cannabis. But mostly they aren't surprised by it. They usually just ask if they can have the details of my supplier!
"It isn’t harming anyone around me so I see no reasons why there would be any ethical dilemma associated with cannabis. Just like we have the choice to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes, I feel the law should allow us to make our own decisions in relation to taking cannabis."
Andrea Lopez (not her real name), 26, from Milton Keynes, has been teetotal for nearly eight years and has been a cannabis smoker for six of them.
"I decided to be teetotal as, growing up in pubs all my life, I've seen the effects alcohol has on people and their relationships with others. I've never been a keen drinker and neither has my mother, who ran the pubs most of her life. When I did start drinking more at about 18, I noticed the negative effect it had on my body straightaway. More often than not it would make me physically sick, I'd spend most of my night in the toilet throwing up and it felt as though the hangover lasted for over a week.
"I dabbled in cannabis in my teens but never contributed to buying it, nor did I smoke it every day, but six years ago I started smoking it due to stress and anxiety. I've suffered with anxiety most of my life and was prescribed medication by my GP, but the tablets weren't giving me what I needed and I didn’t like the thought of having to dose up on tablets every day. I then had to take other tablets to counteract the damage the anti-anxiety medicine was causing. I rediscovered cannabis through a friend who also used it for medicinal and recreational reasons. As soon as I had my first proper joint I knew it would be more beneficial than my prescribed medication.
"Alcohol made me sick, emotional, spotty, bloated and I couldn’t deal with the hangovers, so it just didn’t seem worth drinking. I don’t mind people who drink – each to their own – but I've had so many more bad experiences with alcohol than I've ever had with cannabis, and it's disappointing that most of what people do these days is centred around drinking.
"This lifestyle is very common among my friendship group, but outside of that most of them are drinkers and do not smoke. Most people aren't too fussed about it, or they'll tell me while drinking a pint of Fosters that they'd rather be smoking a joint."
Danielle Thompson (not her real name), 34, from Wiltshire, started smoking cannabis when she was 20 and goes through phases of being teetotal.
"I started smoking cannabis to help me stay clean from class A substances. It helps to ease my pain, keep my mind in check and I also feel it helps me sleep at night. Whereas I believe alcohol to be a more dangerous drug because it's legal, and more people die using it.
Most of my peers don't smoke cannabis, but they do drink every day and smoke tobacco. Some of my peers are surprised, but after discussing why I do it they usually understand. I've had people look down on me because I don't drink but I do smoke."
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