For much of America – and maybe much of the world – the image of a person who uses cannabis comes from Hollywood. And Tinsel Town has not exactly made them look all that appealing.

Funny? Sure. Laid back and kind of cool? To a lot of people, yeah. But hardly a group of go-getters or people you would trust with, say, driving your brother’s sports car or delivering an important package.

Just check out the list of characters most people immediately associate with marijuana: Jeff Spicoli from “Fast Times At Ridgemont.” The Dude from “The Big Lebowski.” Cheech and Chong. The guys in “Pineapple Express.”

Stoner Image Reboot

That image of people who use marijuana has never been entirely true.  And now a new marketing campaign is making sure people know it.

Faces of Cannabis

A new campaign launched by Lift.co takes on the stereotypical stoner image, offering people a look at those who actually use cannabis in the real world, not on the movie screen.

They include Brown University professor Nancy Spotton, who uses marijuana as part of her cancer treatment regimen. Or the Muslim mixed martial arts fighter who uses marijuana for pain management.

Called Faces of Cannabis, the campaign uses the images and stories of a wide variety of marijuana users to combat the long-held stoner image. That image, Lift’s head of media Jordan Smith told Now Toronto, has “been drilled into us.”

Lift is a Canadian company that connects consumers with cannabis products and companies.

The campaign is designed to not only help change the image of cannabis users, but also to help those who use cannabis to come out of the shadows. “You don’t need to feel ashamed that you are using cannabis,” Smith said.

Catching Up With The Public

In some ways, the public perception and image of the typical marijuana user is catching up with what has been happening among consumers for years across the country.

Even here at Dispensaries.com, a large swath of cannabis products or services featured are medicinal in some way. Many contain cannabidiols that do not even have THC (the active ingredient that gives people the “high” feeling). People have obviously moved ahead on marijuana in a way that popular culture and marketing is just now catching up on.

Many surveys bear out this line of thinking. For example, a Yahoo News/Marist poll earlier this year found that 52 percent of Americans have tried cannabis. Of those, 65 percent are parents and 30 percent have children under the age of 18.

That’s a far cry from The Dude.

What’s more, the poll found that 44 percent of those who tried marijuana are still using it.