Legalization Of Peer Pressure

With the recent legality of marijuana use in some states and the slow but sure erasure of the stigma surrounding marijuana use, it is no surprise that there are fears about whether legalization will result in increased rates of use. However, legality is not the only thing that affects an individual’s use. When thinking of marijuana use, most view it as an individual’s decision to use the drug. However, it is known that peer pressure often plays a large role in an individual’s choice to use marijuana. Going beyond the traditional understanding of peer pressure surfaces the question of how a person’s relationship with his friends affects the pressure to use marijuana. Does peer pressure have a larger impact when the individual considers his peers …show more content…
Abbott et al. cited similar factors that contributed to the discouragement of marijuana use which was referred to as “prosocial family processes (rules, monitoring, and attachment), (Abbot et. al, 2001). Close monitoring, which generally consists of a parent’s “awareness of children’s activities, coupled with rules to establish and enforce acceptable boundaries,” actually demonstrated an inverse relationship with marijuana use (Noonan & Tharp, 2011). Abbott et al.’s study found similar results, not only resulting in a lower likelihood of substances use in children with efficient monitoring, but also a decrease in substance abuse if the child was already engaging in this form of deviant behavior (Abbott et al., …show more content…
Like Noonan and Tharp found, Bahr et al. also found that an individual’s attachment to his parents serves as an effective drug use deterrent (Bahr et al., 2005). However, in keeping with Abbott et al.’s findings that parental relationships seem to decline in influence when an individual reaches adolescence, Bahr et al.’s study discovered that despite the prosocial factors of a parental relationship being quite effective in deterring an individual’s marijuana use, peer influence and “drug use had stronger effects than any of the other variables,” (Bahr, et al., 2005). When taking into account parental perceptions of drug use and a parent’s own pattern of drug use, individuals are more inclined to use marijuana if their parents approve of the use other drugs such as tobacco or alcohol and are less prone to drug use if their parents disapprove, but regardless of parental relationships and approval, individual marijuana use seemed to be more influenced by peer use than anything else (Bahr et al.,