Cannabis Seen As Safer Than Alcohol - Or Sugar

Sugar is highly addictive, damages teeth and over use can lead to diabetes.

At least cannabis won't give you cancer, liver damage, cavities or diabetes. And it turns out that it might even protect against some symptoms of alcohol abuse.

Most Americans today recognize that consuming cannabis poses fewer harms to health than does the consumption of tobacco, alcohol, or sugar, according to the findings of a nationwide Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll conducted in January, 2018.

Tobacco products seen as most harmful

Respondents were asked which of the four substances they believed to be "most harmful to a person's overall health." Most respondents chose tobacco (41 percent), followed by alcohol (24 percent) and sugar (21 percent).

Paul Armentano is Deputy Director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Only nine percent of those surveyed said that they believed that marijuana was most harmful to health. That percentage is nearly identical to the total reported by pollsters in 2014, the last time they surveyed the issue.

Steady support for legal adult access to cannabis

Sixty percent of respondents also acknowledged that they favored the passage of state laws permitting "adults to purchase small quantities of marijuana for their own personal use from regulated, state-licensed businesses."

That total is consistent with those of other recent polls finding that a strong majority of voters support legalizing and regulating adult marijuana use.

Cannabis may mitigate liver damage

Cannabis use appears to be protective against liver disease progression in subjects who frequently consume alcohol, according to data published online ahead of print in the journal Liver International.

An international team of researchers from the United States and Canada assessed the relationship between cannabis use and incidences of liver disease in individuals who regularly consumed alcohol.

Investigators reported that, "[A]mong alcohol users, individuals who additionally use cannabis showed significantly lower odds of developing alcoholic steatosis (fatty liver disease), steatohepatitis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (the most common type of liver cancer in adults).

"Our findings suggest that cannabis use is associated with reduced incidences of liver disease in alcoholics."

Prior studies have reported that those who use cannabis are also significantly less likely than non-users to be diagnosed with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.