Survey: Adults Say Alcohol Poses Greater Risks to Health Than Marijuana

By a nearly 3 to 1 margin, US adults say that alcohol consumption poses greater health risks than does the use of marijuana, according to nationwide survey data compiled by YouGov.

Fifty-eight percent of respondents agree that regular alcohol use is “more harmful to a person’s health” than the regular use of cannabis. Only 19 percent of respondents think that marijuana is more dangerous. (Thirteen percent answered “not sure” and the remaining ten percent responded “neither.”)

Nearly 20,000 adults participated in the survey.

Its results are consistent with those of prior polls finding that most adults perceive marijuana to be safer than alcohol.

The findings of a British study published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology determined that alcohol use is associated with greater physical, psychological, and social harms than cannabis. The study’s authors concluded: “Alcohol was confirmed as the most harmful drug to others and the most harmful drug overall. A direct comparison of alcohol and cannabis showed that alcohol was considered more than twice as harmful as cannabis to users, and five times as harmful as cannabis to others.”

Separate data published last year in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs found that adults are more than six times more likely to acknowledge having experienced secondhand harms, including marriage difficulties, physical harm, or financial difficulties, because of someone else’s drinking than as a result of someone else’s cannabis use.