Using Marijuana Helps Most People Reduce Their Alcohol Consumption, New Poll Shows

Greater than half of marijuana shoppers say they drink much less alcohol, or none in any respect, after utilizing hashish, in keeping with a brand new ballot.

The survey from hashish telehealth platform Nuggmd shared completely with Marijuana Second is likely one of the newest items of proof supporting the concept of ​​a substitution impact, with folks more and more turning to hashish as a much less dangerous various to alcohol.

Requested how consuming marijuana affected their alcohol consumption, 54 % of respondents stated they “are likely to drink much less or under no circumstances.” One other 22 % stated there was no hyperlink between use of the 2 substances, and 14 % stated it “depends upon the circumstances.” Solely 9 % stated they tended to drink extra alcohol after utilizing hashish.

That is based mostly on survey information collected from 381 hashish shoppers from Jan. 9-12, with a 5 % margin of error.

“Right now’s hashish shoppers are turning to the plant extra for wellness than indulgence, a pattern we have constantly noticed in our voting information,” Alexandra Arnett, lead researcher and truth checker at Nuggmd, instructed Marihuana Second.

“From a public well being perspective, the substitution impact hashish use has on alcohol use seems to be a constructive shift,” she stated. “Many individuals exchange a probably deadly substance with one that isn’t. Nonetheless, this substitution is simply a protected, sensible possibility within the state’s leisure markets. Our inner estimates present that 47 % of People and 37 % of home hashish shoppers nonetheless reside in states with out entry to those markets. “

“Whereas there was a constructive shift from alcohol use to hashish use, from a coverage standpoint, federal and state prohibition limits the potential advantages that hashish can present,” Arnett stated.

The NUGGMD survey outcomes stack neatly in opposition to a rising physique of scientific analysis indicating that client traits are shifting as spreads on state-level legalization strikes and extra adults are in a position to legally entry marijuana merchandise from licensed retailers.

By way of NUGGMD.

For instance, a survey supported by the Nationwide Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and launched final month discovered that younger adults are almost thrice extra seemingly to make use of marijuana than alcohol on a day by day or near-daily foundation.

That survey provided extra detailed, age-specific findings than an identical report revealed final yr, and located that extra People general smoke marijuana drink alcohol on daily basis—and that alcohol drinkers have been extra more likely to say they might profit from limiting their use than are hashish shoppers.

A separate examine revealed within the Journal -past habit can equally discover that there are extra American adults who use marijuana on daily basis than who drink alcohol on daily basis.

The brand new analysis additionally comes at nearly the identical time as a Bloomberg Intelligence (BI) examine indicating that substitution of hashish for alcohol is “rising” because the state-level legalization motion expands and relative perceptions of hurt shift. A major share of People additionally stated in that ballot that they’re changing marijuana with cigarettes and painkillers.

A separate BI evaluation from September predicted that the increasing marijuana legalization motion will proceed to pose a “important risk” to the alcohol trade, citing survey information that implies extra persons are utilizing hashish as an alternative to alcoholic drinks corresponding to beer and wine .

Yet one more examine on the influence of marijuana consumption on folks’s use of different medication launched final month urged that hashish could act as a less-erry substitute for a lot of, serving to folks scale back their consumption of gear corresponding to alcohol, methamphetamine and might scale back Opioids corresponding to morphine.

One other examine from Canada, the place marijuana is federally authorized, discovered that legalization was “related to a decline in beer gross sales,” suggesting a substitution impact.

The Analyzes evaluate to different latest survey information which have seemed extra broadly at American attitudes towards marijuana versus alcohol. For instance, a Gallup ballot discovered that respondents view hashish as much less dangerous than alcohol, tobacco and nicotine vapors – and extra adults now smoke hashish than smoke cigarettes.

A separate survey launched by the American Psychiatric Affiliation (APA) and Morning Seek the advice of final June additionally discovered that People view marijuana as considerably much less harmful than cigarettes, alcohol and opioids – and so they say hashish is much less addictive than any of these substances, even when expertise.