Chemically, cannabinoids are not really antidepressants (which mostly affect the serotonin system) or pain killers (opioids affect the opioid receptors). Cannabinoids have a variety of effects due to the endocannabinoid system, which is naturally occurring in the human physiology and does affect mood, memory, etc. However, it's simply not chemically accurate to call them pain killers or antidepressants, cannabis lies in a separate category.

The point is that it is how many people use it (and alcohol, and other drugs).

Our society is a hollow shell of the reality of the one we evolved in for millions of years. So we watch sports, porn, and run in place at the gym to simulate the feeling of actually doing something. And we all have our super awesome, super cool tech gadgets to thank

Having first child soon, and i'm thinking big picture about stuff like this. I remember growing up in the 90s , running around neighbor all day until the street lights came on. It's true, we had gameboys (not iphones) so there were some screens we looked at. But i didnt get a cell phone till i got a car. When we went out for dinner as a family you would play with the placemat and crayons. now you just shove an iphone in a kids face and let them use all your 4g data on youtube while the parents stare at their own iphones in silence.

Is this an American only issue? I was under the impression that marijuana is very popular everywhere.

No, it's merely popular to attack the US.

Iceland - widely considered one of the great societies on earth - uses anti-depressants as much as the US.

Here's next in line on the list of anti-depressant usage (in order of use):

Australia (10% lower usage than the US), Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Portugal, UK, Finland, Belgium (30% lower usage than the US)

Most of the countries with the highest standards of living on earth, have the highest rates of anti-depressant use. The sole exception to this are Japan and South Korea, which have particularly low rates of use due to a cultural aversion (even though Japan has a notoriously high suicide rate).

Poor and middle-tier countries can't afford routine anti-depressant use. Income levels map very nicely to anti-depressant usage. US, Iceland, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Sweden are 6 of the 8 or so highest median income nations (Norway doesn't track as well, it's down the ranking), and they're the top six anti-depressant users.

But actual prescribing of anti-depressants and painkillers is considerably higher in the US than elsewhere.

Poverty, loneliness, helplessness, hopelessness, lack of other healthcare options, lack of community, overwork, hate by others (racism, sexism, etc.), lack of any say in government, getting fucked over by companies over and over again, etc. I bet all those are top reasons for self-medicating in America. When you're one accident away from being homeless, alone, and have no hope of changing anything about your life, it's likely you'll self-medicate. When you can't get treatment for your work injury and have to work in pain all the time to keep from being homeless, you're likely to self-medicate. Do I really need to keep going? I think the causes of self-medication in America are incredibly obvious but most people choose to put their heads in the sand and not see them.

With the exception of healthcare options (and then only for a subset of Americans) none of these are problems unique to American life.

Sure, but the discussion is about the fringes. The US has a higher poverty rate than most other developed nations. Poverty isn’t unique to American life, but it impacts a larger percentage of Americans than in French, Brits or Australians.

I never claimed they were. They are quite ubiquitous in America, however.