# Guys and pot **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 14, 2017, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-and-pot/782183 "2017-03-14T18:28:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-and-pot/782183/1 "2017-03-14T18:28:52Z")
Why do you think it is that guys are so much more likely to use or get hooked on weed than girls are? I’ve known lots of girls who smoked, but the major potheads were all guys. They seem to keep it up throughout their lifetime too. ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-and-pot/782183/2 "2017-03-14T18:35:19Z")
Anecdotally, this is consistent with my own observations. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-and-pot/782183/3 "2017-03-14T18:39:05Z")
Consistent here as well, with an exception, of course. The biggest pothead I know is a girl. Most consumptive pothead by far. If it weren’t for her, I might take issue with the term “hooked”. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-and-pot/782183/4 "2017-03-14T18:40:54Z")
I smoke most days and have for much of my adult life. Among my friends both guys and dolls are happy to partake socially. No idea why (or if) guys predominate overall. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-and-pot/782183/5 "2017-03-14T18:44:43Z")
Because guys do everything cool. In all seriousness, males are the deviants on just about every measure both bad and good. It doesn’t mean that most of us do anything abnormal. It is just the few outliers that stand out from murder to chess playing ability. The average male is just a cuckholded dweeb. However, I will question your premise. I have been to “alternative” bookstores in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco and the chicks that worked there were rocked out of their mind. I live in Massachusetts where recreational marijuana is officially legal now but I have never done it myself and wouldn’t even know where to find it. The only time I have ever seen it was with college girls. The best answer is that you will get an occasional male that is a perpetual deviant or adolescent that really likes Mary Jane. That doesn’t apply to the vast majority of us however. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-and-pot/782183/6 "2017-03-14T18:54:37Z")
I wonder if body image plays a role. I’m a guy and I absolutely _love_ weed, but the major reason I stopped / curbed off use for many years was because it makes me so hungry, and I have trouble controlling my appetite (and thus, weight) as it is. Way more likely to binge eat and gain weight if I am smoking regularly. Girls are more likely to care about that in general. (That said, there are still plenty of skinny stoners who somehow manage to smoke all the time and not just eat uncontrollably. I don’t know how they do it) ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-and-pot/782183/7 "2017-03-14T19:08:05Z")
When I was younger both sexes seemed to imbibe equally. As we all get older though, more women than men seem to be saying, “I don’t like it anymore, it just gives me a headache and makes me tired”. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-and-pot/782183/8 "2017-03-14T19:25:15Z")
Maybe the “stoner” persona is more noticeable when a man has it than a woman does. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-and-pot/782183/9 "2017-03-14T19:31:07Z")
Heavy drinking is more common in men than women. Maybe something similar is going on with pot. > **[GENDER AND ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION: PATTERNS FROM THE MULTINATIONAL GENACIS PROJECT](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2844334/)** > > To evaluate multinational patterns of gender- and age-specific alcohol consumption.Large general-population surveys of men’s and women’s drinking behavior (N’s \> 900) in 35 countries in 1997–2007 used a standardized ... ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-and-pot/782183/10 "2017-03-14T19:31:14Z")
Yeah, chicks are always giggling, looking confused and eating everything in sight anyway, am I right? Come on, who’s with me? Don’t leave me hanging, bro! ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-and-pot/782183/11 "2017-03-14T19:44:15Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Yeah, chicks are always giggling, looking confused and eating everything in sight anyway, am I right? Come on, who’s with me? Don’t leave me hanging, bro! No, Scooby Doo proved that isn’t true. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-and-pot/782183/12 "2017-03-14T20:09:39Z")
When I was in college back in the 60s, I lived with a bunch of hippies for a while. Everyone seemed to be high or stoned or tripping much of the time, regardless of gender. Now, as adults, things are different. For one thing, men have more disposable income than women, and drugs are not only more affordable but more readily available. ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-and-pot/782183/13 "2017-03-14T22:10:52Z")
I know of two couples where the husband is somewhat indifferent to pot but hunts for it because the wife wants it. On the surface the guys appear to be the potheads and the wives just shy occasional users when it is really the opposite. It’s unfair to start off with the assumption that guys are always the ones with the bad habit. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Gay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@Enola\_Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Gay)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-and-pot/782183/14 "2017-03-14T22:34:18Z")
I think guys are also bigger risk takers --they have more car accidents too, which is why I pay waaaay more for my teenage son’s car insurance than I do for my daughter’s. Pot is illegal in most jurisdictions, so using it might be risky. Women as a generalization tend to be more risk averse. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-and-pot/782183/15 "2017-03-14T22:36:46Z")
What qualifies as being “hooked” on weed? I smoke every single day but I absolutely do not consider myself “hooked”. I smoke everyday because it’s enjoyable _and_ it helps greatly with a few health issues I have. But id still smoke even if there were no health benefits. Because I like it. ---
**Author:** ![Crazy\_Canuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazy_canuck/32/5282_2.png) [@Crazy\_Canuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazy_Canuck)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-and-pot/782183/16 "2017-03-14T22:38:51Z")
This thread surprised me, as it doesn’t really match my observations and I sold the stuff for years. I know just as many women as men who are regular users. So I asked a female friend who is still in the business, and she agreed with me. She did have an interesting theory though, which I am sharing here. Her theory was men are way more likely on average to publicly identify as a stoner than women are. Comparatively, on average women tend to be far more discreet regarding the use of illegal drugs, and more aware of and averse to the negative social judgement that comes with being labelled a pothead. She believed this was primarily due to gender politics, and how men are judged less harshly then women for risk-taking behavior. This does match up more closely with my experiences. In particular, my female clients who were middle-class or higher tended to be much more discreet than my male clients. I’ll also second Shagnasty’s comment on how men tend to be the most extreme at almost everything. The same factor that results in men being the most extreme chess-players also results in men being both the most extreme potheads and the most extreme straight edgers as well. So chances are that the most extreme pothead you ever met was a dude, which leads to confirmation bias down the road. Added on preview: I’ve seen the behavior Shiftless describes a lot more than twice, it’s actually really common. Much like mowing the lawn, picking up the grass seems to be the guy’s job in a relationship. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-and-pot/782183/17 "2017-03-14T22:40:15Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > What qualifies as being “hooked” on weed? I smoke every single day but I absolutely do not consider myself “hooked”. I smoke everyday because it’s enjoyable _and_ it helps greatly with a few health issues I have. But id still smoke even if there were no health benefits. Because I like it. Considering yourself hooked is not one of the qualifying criteria. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-and-pot/782183/18 "2017-03-14T22:43:01Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Considering yourself hooked is not one of the qualifying criteria. That’s not an answer to my question. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-and-pot/782183/19 "2017-03-14T22:57:17Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Considering yourself hooked is not one of the qualifying criteria. I wasn’t asking for what _isn’t_ included in the criteria, I was asking what is. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-and-pot/782183/20 "2017-03-14T23:00:30Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > When I was in college back in the 60s, I lived with a bunch of hippies for a while. Everyone seemed to be high or stoned or tripping much of the time, regardless of gender. Now, as adults, things are different. For one thing, men have more disposable income than women, and drugs are not only more affordable but more readily available. Are they? Nobody ever tries to sell me anything anymore. I assume it’s because I’m now middle-aged and probably look pretty square. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-and-pot/782183.md?page=2)