Phenomenological Study of the Meaning of Life among Marijuana Users: Case Study of Youth in the City of Rasht, Iran

Nowadays, Marijuana use is one of the today’s social issues. Official reports show the increase of marijuana use in Iran. The aim of this study is to investigate the biological experience of marijuana use among the young people in Rasht, Iran. 

Methods and Data:

 This study was conducted qualitatively with a phenomenological approach. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews of 20 young people in Rasht with a history of marijuana use and selected by purposive sampling and they were analyzed using the thematic method. 

Several themes were extracted from the interviews, including moving towards selection, forming repetition, sense of responsibility and position, and confrontation, how the youth of Rasht use their actions to define the meaning of life and express their conceptual views about it. 

This study shows that the actors choose Marijuana due to their perception of the functions of its use and the situations that this use provides for them. Marijuana consumption does not play a role in the meaninglessness of actors' lives, but it can be a conscious behavior according to the requirements of life and overcoming repetition, which lead them to choose it so that they can give meaning to their lives in their own opinions. 

Key Message: 

The desire to consume Marijuana in the interviewees—despite the social moral standards and the resulting anxiety—shows that the actors are involved freely in the choice of their consumption and their action. Based on this, they can take responsibility for their choice of using marijuana.