US states legalizing the use of marijuana baffles many Chinese

Apuzzling occurrence to many Chinese visiting the United States in the last four years is that marijuana has been legalized by a growing number of states, and support for its use among the public is also rising.

This is quite a contrast to the fact that most people in China still associate drugs with the country’s bitter Opium War in the mid-19th century, a war forced upon it by the British to legalize its opium trade in China.

So far, 29 US states and the District of Columbia have legalized the use of marijuana for medical use, and some of them have also allowed recreational use since the states of Colorado and Washington became the first to legalize recreational use in 2012.

A Pew Center survey last October found that 57 percent of US adults said the use of marijuana should be legal, while 37 percent said it should be illegal. The view a decade ago was the reverse, with just 32 percent favoring legalization and 60 percent opposing it.

A Gallup poll found that 13 percent (or 1 in 8) of US adults in 2016 said they were using marijuana, while that number was only 7 percent in 2013.

A US federal law states it is illegal to use, possess, sell, cultivate or transport marijuana. But the federal government has articulated that if a state passes a law to decriminalize it for recreational or medical use, it can do so under the condition that a regulation system for marijuana is in place.

Such a bitter collective memory means it would be much harder for any prospects of legalizing marijuana in China.