--- title: Study: Pro-Pot Twitter Accounts Reach Hundreds of Thousands Of Youth description: A study showed that marijuana-related Twitter accounts send messages to hundreds of thousands of followers each day, most younger than 19. canonical: https://time.com/2935091/pot-twitter/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-28T12:17:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:55:34.628Z og:title: Study: Pro-Pot Twitter Accounts Reach Hundreds of Thousands Of Youth og:description: A study showed that marijuana-related Twitter accounts send messages to hundreds of thousands of followers each day, most younger than 19. og:url: https://time.com/2935091/pot-twitter/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt977c897747608979/698699c535ba6f5d90c02cf8/134099140.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: marijuana og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Study: Pro-Pot Twitter Accounts Reach Hundreds of Thousands Of Youth twitter:description: A study showed that marijuana-related Twitter accounts send messages to hundreds of thousands of followers each day, most younger than 19. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt977c897747608979/698699c535ba6f5d90c02cf8/134099140.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Study: Pro-Pot Twitter Accounts Reach Hundreds of Thousands Of Kids  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jun 28, 2014 12:17 PM UTC  Reefer madness Reefer madnessGetty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jun 28, 2014 12:17 PM UTC In a trend decried as concerning by some, a [recent study](http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/27077.aspx) showed that marijuana-related Twitter accounts send messages to hundreds of thousands of followers each day, more than 70 percent of whom are the under the age of 19. “It is important to remember that \[marijuana\] remains a dangerous drug of abuse,” said Patricia A. Cavazos-Rehg, an assistant professor of psychiatry and a lead researcher on the study. “I’ve been studying what is influencing attitudes to change dramatically and where people may be getting messages about marijuana that are leading them to believe the drug is not hazardous.” The study, conducted by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and published online Friday in the _Journal of Medical Internet Research_, showed that 73 percent of followers of pro-weed Twitter accounts are 19 or younger and nearly 20 percent are 16 or younger. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2935091/pot-twitter/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2935091/pot-twitter/"},"headline":"Study: Pro-Pot Twitter Accounts Reach Hundreds of Thousands Of Kids","datePublished":"2014-06-28T12:17:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:55:34.628Z","description":"A study showed that marijuana-related Twitter accounts send messages to hundreds of thousands of followers each day, most younger than 19.","url":"https://time.com/2935091/pot-twitter/","keywords":["Living","Marijuana","Drugs"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt977c897747608979/698699c535ba6f5d90c02cf8/134099140.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt977c897747608979/698699c535ba6f5d90c02cf8/134099140.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"marijuana","caption":"marijuana","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2935091/pot-twitter/","name":"Study: Pro-Pot Twitter Accounts Reach Hundreds of Thousands Of Kids"}}]}] ```