In an unexpected finding, the Gallup Organization Director Dr. Frank Newport found that marijuana smoking now surpasses cigarette smoking in the U.S. 16% to 11%. Newport thinks that cigarette smoking would continue to decline, while marijuana smoking was likely to increase as more states pass medical and recreational cannabis laws. Newport said that Gallup measured 45% of U.S. citizens smoking cigarettes in the 1950s, a whopping reduction today. When it comes to cigarette smoking, there’s no question that medical science has offered the best proof yet that cigarette smoking causes a wide range of deadly health conditions including lung cancer, emphysema and heart disease. Gallup reported that 53% of the 16% of marijuana users believe that it has positive medical benefits. There’s no long-term medical research proving that medical benefits of pot.
Congress has yet to take decisive action to remove cannabis from the federal drug registry, making cannabis legal by virtue of the fact that it’s no longer a controlled substance. FDA and Drug Enforcement Agency [DEA] have yet to make the necessary changes to allow cannabis-related businesses around the country to make use of the federal banking system, currently prohibiting cannabis from sales across state lines. Billionaire entrepreneur Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has called on 79-year-old President Joe Biden to do what’s needed to remove remaining obstacles to legalizing cannabis. Biden comes from the old school that produced government propaganda films like “Reefer Madness,” blaming marijuana smoking for leading users to more dangerous drugs. Biden has not made it his priority to end the FDA and DEA’s ban on cannabis products.
Musk wanted to make the point that Biden has practically stood on his head to get 31-year-old WNBA Britney Griner out of a Russian jail for marijuana possession. Musk asked Biden that if he’s put so much effort to get Griner out of a Russian jail, why wouldn’t he work just as hard to release cannabis offenders from federal and state prisons? Gallup’s new findings show a stunning reversal from the Hippie days in 1969 when only 4% of U.S. citizens used weed. Gallup’s poll showed that 53% of marijuana users thought it had positive health benefit, certainly, at this point, a subjective finding, since the verdict is still out on how chronic weed smoking, vaping or edibles affect long-term memory and brain development. Medical research has overwhelmingly emphasized the health risks of cigarette smoking, affecting practically every organ system. Future research could show the same thing for weed.
Gallup’s poll shows that attitudes toward cannabis use have changed over the last 50 years, with the Baby Boomers now approaching old age. Gallup found the 83% of Americans think that cigarette smoking is harmful to your health, with a 2013 study finding that 90% believe that cigarette smoking leads to cancer. Tobacco companies have been denying the link to cancer for years, insisting, despite all the medical research, that there’s no way to prove such a link. But cigarette makers and their lobbying groups are content peddling their products to Asia, Eastern Europe, Mideast and Africa, where most citizens think less about health and more about the pleasurable aspects of cigarette smoking. “Smoking cigarettes is clearly on the decline and is most likely to become even more of a rarity in the years to come,” Newport said. Public awareness has made a big difference in cigarette use.
Newport isn’t as certain about the future of marijuana smoking, vaping or edibles. “The future of marijuana used is, I would say, somewhat up in the air, but the probability is higher that its use will increase rather than decrease . . . the trend is toward increased legalization, and this is supported by attitudes of the significant majority of the American public,” Newport said. It only makes sense that if the FDA and DEA remove cannabis from the federal drug registry, more people would find less objections to using the products. When opponents of medical and recreational cannabis argued against cannabis, they said the government would be approving the widespread use of cannabis products. Gallup’s finding show that there’s no dramatic increase in marijuana use, still hovering at 16%. When it comes to alcohol consumption, there’s little change, 67% say they drink alcohol regularly.
Newport finds that alcohol uses showed remarkable consistency when the first Gallup poll posed the question in 1939, finding that 63% of the U.S. population used alcohol regularly. “The future of alcohol drinking presents the most fascinating sociological case study out of the three substances,” Newport said. “It’s use continues to be intertwined with many aspects of American culture . . . If the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, then the best guess would be to predict no significant change in alcohol use going forward,” Newport said. All the opponents of marijuana legalization from the beverage industry turned out to be wrong. With cannabis running at 16%, it could bump up slightly in the future but nothing compared with alcohol consumption. Federal action to remove cannabis from the FDA, DEA and federal drug registry would legitimize its future use.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
