Marijuana Use Now Outpaces Cigarettes
Aug. 30th, 2022 08:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerI've seen a few articles in my newsfeed today that cigarette smoking is down and marijuana use is up in the US... so much so that the latter now outnumbers the former. Rather than cite the articles here I figured I'd go the the source. The source is a Gallup publication, "Americans and the Future of Cigarettes, Marijuana, Alcohol" published 26 Aug 2022 from a poll conducted in July. I read that study and the more detailed breakouts it links to. (Yes, I just cited primary source documents to support my opinion online. That's how I roll!)
One Gallup survey question was, "Have you, yourself, smoked any cigarettes in the past week?" A record low of 11% answered yes. That's a big drop from 16% a year earlier and rates of 40%+ five decades ago.
Some news articles reporting this Gallup release cross reference it with another recent publication, "Global Smoking Report" from NiceRx, to show how smoking rates vary by state within the US. (It's not a primary source, per se, but it does disclose its methods and sources— which include the World Health Organization and Our World In Data.) This report finds that, globally, the smoking rate is 22.3%. Within the US it breaks down smoking rates by state. The smokiest state is West Virginia, with a smoking rate of nearly 24%. Kentucky is only a hair behind at #2. The least smoky state is Utah, at 7.9%. Gotta love the Mormon faith that abjures alcohol, tobacco, and even caffeine! The second least smoky state is California, with a smoker rate of 10%.
Back to the Gallup poll and the headline about pot use overtaking cigs. While cigarette smoking has dropped to 11%, the same survey found that 16% have used marijuana recently. And that's despite marijuana being not only illegal at the federal level but also classified as a Schedule I drug— nominally the most dangerous and addictive drugs, with a "high potential for abuse". 🙄 I'm not a marijuana advocate, but there's no medical evidence pot belongs in the same category as heroin. I mean, even fentanyl, about which there's been much wailing and gnashing of teeth the past several years for its highly addictive nature and mortal danger, is only a Schedule II drug (primary source document again).
One Gallup survey question was, "Have you, yourself, smoked any cigarettes in the past week?" A record low of 11% answered yes. That's a big drop from 16% a year earlier and rates of 40%+ five decades ago.
Some news articles reporting this Gallup release cross reference it with another recent publication, "Global Smoking Report" from NiceRx, to show how smoking rates vary by state within the US. (It's not a primary source, per se, but it does disclose its methods and sources— which include the World Health Organization and Our World In Data.) This report finds that, globally, the smoking rate is 22.3%. Within the US it breaks down smoking rates by state. The smokiest state is West Virginia, with a smoking rate of nearly 24%. Kentucky is only a hair behind at #2. The least smoky state is Utah, at 7.9%. Gotta love the Mormon faith that abjures alcohol, tobacco, and even caffeine! The second least smoky state is California, with a smoker rate of 10%.
Back to the Gallup poll and the headline about pot use overtaking cigs. While cigarette smoking has dropped to 11%, the same survey found that 16% have used marijuana recently. And that's despite marijuana being not only illegal at the federal level but also classified as a Schedule I drug— nominally the most dangerous and addictive drugs, with a "high potential for abuse". 🙄 I'm not a marijuana advocate, but there's no medical evidence pot belongs in the same category as heroin. I mean, even fentanyl, about which there's been much wailing and gnashing of teeth the past several years for its highly addictive nature and mortal danger, is only a Schedule II drug (primary source document again).
