Considerably extra Individuals now say they smoke marijuana than cigarettes—with younger individuals being greater than 5 occasions extra more likely to devour hashish than tobacco, based on new Gallup polling information.
Total, 17 % of Individuals say they smoke hashish, in comparison with 12 % who reported smoking any cigarettes up to now week.
The distinction is very stark in relation to youthful adults. Amongst these aged 18-34, 26 % stated they use hashish, in comparison with simply 5 % who smoke cigarettes.
Eighteen % of adults aged 35-54 smoke marijuana, which can be greater than smoke cigarettes (16 %).
Adults 55 and older, nonetheless, had been barely extra more likely to smoke cigarettes up to now week (13 %) than who smoke hashish (11 %).
The marijuana query—which requested particularly about whether or not individuals “smoke” the substance—probably doesn’t mirror general present hashish use given the vary of non-smokable merchandise that folks devour akin to edibles, tinctures and vapes.
“Individuals’ reported marijuana smoking has greater than doubled since 2013, when Gallup first added the query in its annual Consumption Habits survey,” the polling agency stated. “That yr, seven % stated they did.”
“Age is a big driver of the chance of smoking marijuana,” it stated.
Through Gallup.
Additionally, the survey exhibits that roughly 50 % of Individuals say they’ve tried hashish at the least as soon as of their lifetime. When Gallup first polled individuals about whether or not they’ve experimented with marijuana in 1969, simply 4 % of respondents stated that they’d.
The 2023 information on marijuana utilization charges had been updated as of Monday, displaying a one share level enhance over 2022 ranges. The separate cigarette-related survey was initially released final August.
Because the state legalization motion has expanded, so too has assist for the reform, with Gallup discovering a file 70 % of Individuals again the coverage change.
On the similar time, amid elevated consciousness concerning the harms of tobacco, charges of cigarette smoking have reached historic lows. Individuals think about marijuana to be much less dangerous than alcohol, cigarettes, vapes and different tobacco merchandise, Gallup present in a separate survey launched final yr.
One other ballot revealed by the Journal of the American Medical Affiliation (JAMA) final yr equally exhibits that folks more and more view smoking marijuana or being uncovered to secondhand hashish smoke as safer than smoking or being close to tobacco smoke.
A separate survey launched by the American Psychiatric Affiliation (APA) and Morning Seek the advice of final June additionally discovered that Individuals think about marijuana to be considerably much less harmful than cigarettes, alcohol and opioids—and so they say hashish is much less addictive than every of these substances, in addition to know-how.
Additionally, a research revealed final Might discovered that state-level legalization is related to a “small, sometimes vital longer-run declines in grownup tobacco use.”
In the meantime, a ballot Gallup performed in 2020 additionally discovered that 70 % of Individuals view smoking hashish to be a morally acceptable exercise. That’s greater than their views on the morality of points akin to homosexual relationships, medical testing of animals, the dying penalty and abortion.
Photograph courtesy of Martin Alonso.