As more and more states make the sale and smoking of marijuana legal, more and more studies about it are coming out. From who’s buying it, its effects both long term and short term, to everything in between, research about the topic are popping up left and right. In keeping with the theme of analyzing who’s smoking pot the most, a new study has found that bisexual women smoke way more weed than straight women or lesbians.
The study by Dr. Margaret Robinson, who is both a research scientist at Ontario HIV Treatment Network and a bisexual, found that not only are bisexual women even three times more likely to smoke pot than women of any other sexual orientation, but bisexual women smoke even more than bisexual men and bisexual men smoke more than straight men. Basically, bisexual women are smoking A LOT of weed. But why is this the case?
Dr. Robinson found in her research that the reason some many bisexual women are choosing to smoke so much weed is because they need a way to deal. The participants in the study noted that they often feel like they have no community to turn to and because they are often told they must choose a sexual orientation, they are prone to feelings of isolation and sadness. Essentially, it’s the biphobia that can even be found in the LGBT community that keeps these women wanting to get high as a means to deal with the social issues that surround them in their search for a place where they are accepted for being attracted to both genders.
According to Robinson, bisexual women are often lacking in the ability to cope, because they don’t have the support system that other specific groups have. For them, because they don’t fall into the gay or straight category, they’re constantly searching for contentment and peace from the day-to-day of just being who they are.
Although smoking pot is hardly something to raise massive alarms or call for an intervention, what the findings of this study do mean is that socially we’re ignoring bisexuals and not giving them the support system they need or the one offered to people of other sexual orientations. That has to change. Hopefully this study can lead the way in awareness of their struggles.
