Baby boomers who hit their formative years as the counterculture movement flourished in the 1960s would be more likely to try cannabis – or increase their use – if it was legalised than any other generation, according to new research.
A team from the University of Queensland and the University of New South Wales analysed National Drug Strategy Household Survey data collected from almost 160,000 Australian residents aged 18 to 79 between 2001 and 2019.
They found significant differences in people’s attitudes based on when they were born, with larger increases in all cannabis use intentions among those who entered the world in the 1950s and 1960s than those born before or after.
The researchers said: “As emerging adults, people in this generation experienced a decade in which the counterculture movement flourished from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s across many western countries including Australia.
“The social movement was marked by a revolution in social norms that were positive towards cannabis use.
“Living through this period appears to have influenced the attitudes [of] this generation, making them more accepting of cannabis use than adults who were members of earlier or more recent birth cohorts.”
However, the team said there are signs that people born in the 1990s are catching up with the baby boomers in their intention to try or use cannabis more often if it was legal.
They added: “This appears consistent with a previous study that found [an] association between medical cannabis legalisation and initiation of cannabis use, and more frequent use, among youths.”
According to their analysis, the positive shift in use intentions started in 2007, nine years before medicinal cannabis was legalised in Australia.
The team said this could be due to the impact of medicinal and adult-use legalisation in the US during the study period, positive media coverage of patients benefiting from medicinal cannabis and pro-legalisation discussions in social media challenging the status quo.
They added: “Exposure to positive narratives on patients using medicinal cannabis have been found to increase positive attitudes and cannabis use intention in the general population, including non-users.
“Our analysis suggests that the growing support for medicinal cannabis may have convinced the government to approve access for patients (rather than the other way around).”
