Why Do People Smoke Marijuana?

Have you ever wondered why people smoke weed? Who was the first guy to find some plant leaves and think to himself, “Hey, I wonder what would happen if I lit this on fire and put it in my mouth?” We may never know the root from where this leafy phenomenon stems, but we do know that the first guy to inhale some of that leaf smoke apparently liked what he felt. He also must have showed his buddies what he had learned. This shows that, while people may smoke alone at times, the way people learn how to smoke is through social interaction. 

  One sociologist in the 1950s had the same question that I had. What motivates people to burn plants and inhale the smoke to have fun? Howard Becker studied this and wrote a now famous article entitled, “Becoming a Marihuana User” No I didn’t spell marijuana wrong, Becker did. He found that in order for someone to become a habitual marijuana user, someone has to learn how to properly smoke it from others, feel the effects of the drug, and interpret those effects as pleasurable. Most of these things arise from social interaction. Sociologists call this Social Learning Theory.  People will not learn the proper technique for smoking without others teaching them, with weaker strains of marijuana they may need help recognizing the effects, and often times what makes people like the effects of weed is being around other people while they are high. So, if you boil it all down, the reason people smoke is because their friends are doing it and their friends have learned to like it.