How the pandemic created a new generation of stoners

Americans who rarely, if ever, smoked marijuana before the pandemic now say they're turning to weed to help them cope

Three years ago, Ricardo Capuano, 32, didn't know how much a gram of marijuana cost. Now, after years of lockdown and an extended period of overwhelming anxiety, he has become something of a weed connoisseur.

Capuano was never a stoner; sure, he dabbled in high school, but beer and mezcal were always his weapon of choice". It wasn't until the summer of 2020, in the pits of Covid despair, that he found himself reformed as a proud, regular toker. In fact, Capuano found himself actually proselytizing about the splendor of cannabis to his friends during their weekly online poker games. I was starting to become an advocate," he laughs.