Is Candy Worse For You Than Cannabis? The People Say Yes.
Attitudes towards cannabis are shifting in the United States as more and more states continue to approve the plant for medical and/or adult-use. Over 60 percent of Americans now support legalizing marijuana, with many arguing it’s safer than alcohol and even prescription drugs. In another sign of the times, it was recently determined that the majority of Americans think pot is even safer than another popular substance – candy.
In a new survey from NBC News/The Wall Street Journal, respondents were asked to pick which substance “is the most harmful to a person’s overall health”: marijuana, sugar, tobacco or alcohol. Americans determined that tobacco is the most dangerous of the four, with 49 percent of respondents stating it was the most dangerous. Alcohol came in at 24 percent, followed by sugar at 15 percent. Only 8 percent of those surveyed said marijuana was the most dangerous.
Obesity-Related Deaths on the Rise
Tobacco was the leading cause of preventable death up until just this last year, when it was announced that obesity is on track to take over the top spot. Poor diet and physical activity kills an average of 300,000 people annually. Tobacco use has declined steadily over the years but is still responsible for an average of 480,000 deaths per year, however more than one-third of Americans are obese. Alcohol-related deaths total about 88,000.
Cannabis Has (Still) Never Killed Anyone
Meanwhile, there has never been a single death associated with abuse of cannabis. While that doesn’t mean there aren’t health risks involved with marijuana use – they just appear to be less than other popular vices.
“Anyone who takes a truly objective look at the evidence surrounding these substances could not possibly arrive at any other conclusion,” Mason Tvert, communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project, said in a recent interview with The Huffington Post. “The public’s understanding of marijuana is more in line with the facts than ever before. Marijuana is not entirely harmless, but there is no longer any doubt that it poses far less harm to the consumer than many of the legal products ingrained in American culture.”
Source: The Weed Blog