Bisexual women tend to smoke a whole lot of weed, and it's probably because of the incomparable oppression they face.
Numerous studies determined marijuana use among bisexual women is significantly higher than that of straight and lesbian women, according to The Daily Beast.
Data from the 2000 National Alcohol Survey, for example, found marijuana usage was reported in 38 percent of bisexual women while only 5 percent of straight women and a little more than 20 percent of lesbians reported smoking.
In a more recent study, researchers found bisexual female college students in the US were three times more likely to smoke weed than straight and lesbian women.
Dr. Margaret Robinson of the Ontario HIV Treatment Network found an explanation for this data after interviewing several bisexual women both one-on-one and in groups.
She wrote in Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity bisexual women are more likely to try marijuana because they are often alienated by straight and lesbian women, making their support systems tragically low.
A 43-year-old woman told Dr. Robinson,
As a bi person, you can feel homeless. Like you don't have a community backing you, necessarily. So it may be that the weed is a way to sort of distract yourself, or cope.
Another bisexual woman told Dr. Robinson she smoked a lot to escape the psychological effects of choosing between men and women.
She recalled,
I had to pick one. And you know, going back and forth and having a boyfriend and having a girlfriend … it caused a lot of anxiety just based on that alone [and] smoking pot would just alleviate that.
Bisexual men experience similar problems, and as several studies have reportedly shown, they smoke more weed than straight men do.
But, research conducted on college students in 2006 found sexual orientation played a greater role in the marijuana use of bisexual women compared to bisexual men.
Dr. Robinson told The Daily Beast,
The big difference, I think, is that bisexual women are exposed to sexism as well as biphobia and homophobia.
Bisexual women could also be treated with more discrimination than bisexual men because they are among a sex that has been conditioned to keep sexual impulses bottled up.
Dr. Robinson's findings suggest the plight of bisexual women should be given nationwide attention due to how alone and disrespected they remain in an increasingly accepting world.
Citations: Why Do Bi Women Smoke So Much Weed (The Daily Beast)
