84% of Americans believe that weed should be legal. And yet, some stigma remains even when it is. Culture simply hasn't normalized cannabis like alcohol or even tobacco.

What can this industry do to eliminate the last lingering qualms with the substance to take it truly mainstream? As the cannabis industry balloons toward $21 billion in revenue by 2021, the design consultancy Frog wanted to figure out how to make legal weed more acceptable to the public–and set out to build a research brief about such a product strategy. "The question I had in my mind was, what would it take for a group of moms and dads organizing a school event to swap a bottle of wine for an edible or cannabis treat?" recounts Tim Morey, VP of Strategy at Frog. "Because right now that's inconceivable!"

After polling 2,195 people in the U.S. and interviewing several experts across the industry, Morey had his answer–and other new insights into how design could help change cannabis culture in America.

[Photo: Aniko Gerendi Enderle/iStock]

1. Your Opinion On Weed Depends On Who You Know

"The most intriguing finding for me is that cannabis is widely accepted. We cross-tabulated against politics, and how liberal vs conservative you are, and age and sex. It was almost uniform in distribution. I was getting upset with my data set," he says. "The only thing [that] correlates tightly is, 'do you know someone who is a consumer of cannabis?' If you do, your feelings toward the product change."

In short, if you know someone who consumes cannabis, your views of cannabis will be much more positive than if not.

"That in some ways should comfort the industry. They're further ahead than they think," Morey continues. "The flip side is, you sense that it's not something you talk about. You don't invite your mates over and show off your vintage cannabis!"