[pwthornton]

Maybe in some Protestant circles, but in many parts and communities of the country, that was never the case. Catholics, Jews, Germans and some other immigrants 100 years ago were very much into drinking, as it is part of their culture.

[georgieporgie]

I know plenty of people who smoke pot. Despite this fact, in light of national legislation against it, I don't consider it to qualify it as "socially acceptable".

Anyway, the point is that alcohol has waxed and waned in popularity. For every article I read about binge drinking related problems, I read another about the benefits of moderate alcohol consumption. I expect our current trend of binge drinking to fade, for awhile, but I certainly don't see alcohol consumption in general going away, ever.

[corin_]

In the UK I'd say that in lots of non-smoking circles, weed is indeed fairly socially acceptable. Not universal, maybe not even for the majority of people (I've no idea how the figures add up).

But for my company, as an example, if I walked into the office on Monday and said "I had a great weekend, was permanently stoned" (not true!), my CEO would be very critical - to what extent I don't know - but he's already critical of my smoking (he attempted to bribe me to quit with a new coffee machine for the office, which almost tempted me), the rest of my colleagues would have no problem with it, so long as I never did it immediately before or during work. Not only with people who don't smoke weed (possibly everyone in our company I believe) but those who don't smoke cigarettes, too.

[leoedin]

Certainly in my peer group of 3rd and 4th year university students, weed is entirely accepted. (Perhaps a distorted view...) I don't personally smoke weed, but people will have no qualms about talking about it and I don't think I've ever heard anyone say anything more than "I don't do that" about it.