Google Trends Deathmatch: What's Your Poison?

Google Trends: pot|marijuana|weed|dope, drugs, beer, tobacco, television

Does this trend tell us anything?

Well it definitely tells me that tobacco's got nothing on weed or TV, when it comes to engagement with its users. (Such a measly little interest level...spiking slightly when a story about lung cancer is played on TV, grabbing the last few people who still haven't learned that cigarettes are bad for you.) And beer doesn't fare too shabbily either.

It seems like there could be many interesting relationships between these items: Take early 2006, for example. The trend for beer takes off upwards; and the trend for drugs drops off for a long period after a smallish spike. At the same time the trend for drugs drops, so do searches for pot. Television also drops during this period, but not before a large upwards spike, and with the future trend looking upwards as well.

One might suggest that events that (e/a)ffected searches for "drugs" could also affect/effect searches for "pot" and its synonyms. This is a fair premise. Searches for "beer" appear not to be affected by the same event. Searches for "television" might be affected by the same event indirectly, or be affected by a later event that also affects the searches for "drugs" and "pot" (for example, generally lower search volumes for recreational activities). But whatever that event was, it did not seem to affect the upward trend of "beer".

Looking at the regional data is also entertaining. Seattle loves the buds, Philly loves the suds (and the buds too).