In some cases, folks are both monthly pot smokers AND union members...
As I continue my research for my forthcoming book, NORML’s Big Book of Marijuana Facts, I find information that even after years of study on the issue manages to stun me.
My latest factoid? There are more monthly adult marijuana consumers in America than workers who belong to unions.
Straight from the “Union Members – 2010”, Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Dept. of Labor, there are 14,700,000 workers in public and private employee unions in America. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health for 2009 cited 14,995,632 cannabis consumers aged 18 years and older who had used at least once in the past month.
Fifteen million monthly tokers is quite a large demographic group. There are more monthly adult tokers than there are Asian Americans (14,014,000), more than LGBT Americans (12,700,000), and more than Illinois (12,910,409). There are more of us than the membership of MoveOn.org (5,000,000), the NRA (4,000,000), PETA (2,000,000), NARAL Pro-Choice America (1,000,000), the Human Rights Campaign (750,000), the ACLU (500,000), and the NAACP (425,000) combined (13,675,000).
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Unfortunately, you have to adjust these numbers for people actually supporting the cause. Some number of consumers are dealers, and don’t want to see legalization ever happen. Some are die-hard hippies and would rather keep it illegal than let “the man” sell it. Some just like the underground culture.
I have no idea how relevant it is to say this, but it feels like if there were 15 million strong supporters of just about ANYTHING, a change in law wouldn’t be so much work.