Americans now think marijuana is much less harmful than alcohol, tobacco or e-cigarettes, according to new polling results from POLITICO and Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health released Monday.
Just 1 in 5 Americans believe marijuana is very harmful to people who use it. Twice as many said the same about alcohol, 52 percent characterized e-cigarettes as very harmful and 80 percent said tobacco cigarettes are very harmful.
“Ten years ago, we were jailing people for marijuana,” said Robert Blendon, professor of health policy and political analysis at Harvard who conducted the poll of 1,007 Americans. “Now people see this as not essentially very harmful.”
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Marijuana legalization has spread rapidly across the country since Colorado and Washington passed ballot referendums in 2012 authorizing adult use. There are now 33 states that have legalized either medical or recreational use. However, the federal government still classifies marijuana as a drug with high potential for abuse and no medical usefulness.
The poll shows marijuana largely has avoided a perception hit following nearly 2,000 cases of vaping-related lung illnesses, including at least 37 deaths. The most recent numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that more than 80 percent of vaping products linked to lung problems contained THC — the psychoactive component of marijuana. Most of the vaping products tied to the outbreak were bought on the black market, although a handful of deaths have been tied to products purchased through state-legal marijuana dispensaries.
The poll was conducted in early October, at least a month after news broke of health issues associated with vaping.
“Right or wrong, people have decided that vaping could be very dangerous,” Blendon said. “At the same time, that’s not true for marijuana.”
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