Despite the stereotype that comes along with being seen drinking Starbucks, enough people buy their products that they have become the largest coffee company in the world. Coffee, and by extension caffeine, is one of the most globally consumed and purchased products. Caffeine is a mild stimulant which affects our brain's chemistry. It's also mildly addictive, but society views drinking coffee as a social norm and does not shame people for drinking five cups of coffee per day.
Those five cups of coffee, however, start to add up. Let's say you spend $5 a day on a cup of coffee from your local Starbucks. In a week, you spend $35 on coffee. In a year, you would spend approximately $1,825 dollars. That's not including paying for at home coffee products, such as K-cups or coffee grounds.
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However, the average American drinks 2.1 cups of coffee per day, and that number is shown to increase with age. The amount of money you spend on coffee, then, goes up to approximately $3,832.50. These numbers are approximate, of course, but the fact remains: Americans spend a lot of money on coffee. It's no surprise that coffee has become a $20 billion industry.
Marijuana is one of the most commonly consumed drugs in the United States. As of August 15, 2016, 14.6 million Americans report using marijuana in the previous month. In Pennsylvania, an ounce of "medium quality" weed generally costs $278. An ounce contains approximately 28.35 grams of marijuana, while the average joint itself contains only .4 grams of marijuana. If a user were to smoke approximately a gram per day, their ounce would last them 28 days, or a little under a month. At that point, they would be spending approximately $3,336 per year, which is still approximately $496.50 less than the amount of money the average American spends on coffee.
Many smokers, however, do not buy ounces at a time. It is common for users to buy in either eighths of an ounce, or by the gram. An eighth of an ounce of weed is approximately 3.54 grams. The average eighth costs anywhere between $40-$50, while the average gram costs between $10-$20 depending on the quality and the dealer's prices.
If the average user bought a gram at a time, and smoked a gram a day, every day for a year, they would spend approximately $3,640 on marijuana, which is still approximately $192.50 less than the average American spends on coffee per year.
All of these calculations are approximate, exaggerated to the maximum, and it is hard to get an accurate statistic on how frequently marijuana is used. Due to its illicit nature, there are only two places to look for statistics: arrest records, and online anonymous polls. Arrest records are not accurate because there are more users who do not get caught, and their numbers are then not accounted for. Online surveys are not accurate because not every user is able to provide their answer, and not every user is willing to give their answer.
However, it is clear that doing drugs such as marijuana can actually be cheaper than consuming coffee. Each of us has our own drug of choice, whether it be coffee (caffeine), marijuana, or other substances. What matters is what we're willing to spend our money on.
