by Jeanine Moss, Founder of AnnaBis Handbags and Accessories

Someone, someday is going to demonstrate their disapproval of you by choosing a distinguishing characteristic and labeling you with it. Like horse face. Or eagle beak. Or pothead stoner.

It’s called stigma, and it’s a form of prejudice that is especially fascinating to me because I’m one of the cadre of professionals who wants to bring cannabis out of the alley and onto Wall Street.

I am the founder of AnnaBís, a company making fashionable, functional and odor-controlled accessories to carry cannabis. We’re dedicated to helping women feel free and sophisticated when carrying their medicine, recreational supplies, or both.

So we asked Penn Schoen Berland (PSB) to ask a nationally representative sample of 800 Americans, 18+, about their attitudes toward people who consume marijuana, alcohol, and cigarettes. We wanted to know: Who is most judgmental? Against whom? For what?

Here’s what we learned:

• More than half of people surveyed either don’t care or are favorably disposed about marijuana usage among their friends, co-workers and family members.
• Nearly 50% are neutral or favorably disposed about the marijuana usage of teachers, elected officials, doctors and police officers. Though all respondents were most judgmental of police officers who consume cannabis, even in this group more than 4 in 10 either don’t care, or are favorably disposed.
• Alcohol remains less of a stigma, but cigarettes are pretty close to cannabis when you consider they’re a legal product.

The overarching question we asked was:

“How would your opinion of each of the following people change if you knew they were a responsible consumer of marijuana / alcohol / cigarettes? (Much more favorable, somewhat more favorable, no more or less favorable, somewhat less favorable, much less favorable.)

We also learned that Republicans are the most judgmental about marijuana consumption, particularly when it involves police officers, doctors, and elected officials. And the majority of Democrats say they are either more favorable or no more or less favorable towards people who are responsible consumers of marijuana across the board:

Based on 61 percent of Americans being in favor of marijuana legalization (according to AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research) and our data reflecting positive or neutral attitudes about responsible consumption among key community members, we think we’re experiencing a tipping point in favor of tolerance and choice. Additional findings are coming soon, and this will serve as a benchmark to see how things have changed in a few months. We’ll keep you posted!

Jeanine Moss is the Founder of Annabis, LLC, a member of NCIA since November 2015. She grew up in Venice, California, so she is no stranger to cannabis. The daughter of an artist and a rocket scientist, she loves doing things that have never been done before and also owns Turning Point Solutions, a marketing firm established 13 years ago to help companies capitalize on change. She created the first computerized horse buying and breeding registry, the first newsletter for women business travelers, the first New York City Fun Pass, the first Bring Your Parents to Work Day, the first luxury accessories for women who consume cannabis, and is especially proud of her work as communications chief for The September 11th Fund.