A new poll has found that most people think alcohol is more harmful than marijuana. Despite that way of thinking, more people would still rather drink than consume cannabis.
The survey of 19,918 American adults, conducted by YouGov, flat-out asked, “Which one do you think is more harmful to a person’s health? Regular alcohol use, regular marijuana use, neither, or not sure?”
A whopping 58% of the responses were “regular alcohol use,” while just 19% said marijuana. 10% replied neither, and 13% said they weren’t sure.
They were then asked, “Which do you personally use more often?” 27% said they use alcohol more, 11% said marijuana, and 4% said both equally. Interestingly, 52% of the respondents said they don’t use either one.
Perhaps that answer has something to do with another question that was asked in the survey: “Which do you personally enjoy using more?”
Alcohol was chosen by 27% of the poll-takers, while just 13% said marijuana. 5% replied that they enjoy both equally. 48% said they don’t enjoy either of them.
While those survey results are certainly eye-opening, Marijuana Moment cited another poll that also revealed some interesting numbers.
In January, a survey conducted by the cannabis telehealth platform NuggMD found that more than half of marijuana consumers say they drink less alcohol, or none at all, after using cannabis.
Asked how consuming marijuana affected their alcohol use, 54 percent of respondents said they “tend to drink less or not at all.” Another 22 percent said there wasn’t a relationship between use of the two substances, and 14 percent said it “depends on the circumstances.” Just 9 percent said they tended to drink more alcohol after using cannabis.
“Today’s cannabis consumers are turning to the plant more for wellness than indulgence, a trend we consistently have been observing in our polling data,” Alexandra Arnett, lead researcher and fact checker at NuggMD, told Marijuana Moment.
“From a public health perspective, the replacement effect cannabis use seems to have on alcohol consumption is a positive shift,” she said. “Many people are substituting a potentially fatal substance with one that isn’t. However, this replacement is only a safe, practical option in state-legal recreational markets. Our internal estimates show that 47 percent of Americans and 37 percent of domestic cannabis consumers still live in states without access to these markets.”
“Although there has been a positive shift from alcohol use to cannabis use, from a policy standpoint, federal and state prohibition is restricting the potential benefits cannabis could offer society.”
Another survey recently conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that 19 to 30-year-olds are nearly three times more likely to use marijuana than alcohol on a daily or near-daily basis. Meanwhile, people 55 to 65-years-old are more than twice as likely to use alcohol. Among 35 to 50-year-olds, the split was almost equal.
H/T: brobible.com
