More Americans assume smoking marijuana daily and secondhand publicity is safer than inhaling tobacco regardless of medical analysis displaying in any other case, a examine has discovered.
Nine researchers printed the examine Friday in JAMA Network Open. They surveyed 5,035 adults about their perceptions of the 2 substances in 2017, 2020 and 2021.
Respondents perceived every day smoking of hashish or smoke publicity to be safer than tobacco and more and more favored hashish over tobacco in every succeeding survey, the examine reported.
The findings present the necessity for additional analysis to teach shoppers as extra states legalize marijuana, mentioned Beth Cohen, a co-author of the examine and professor of drugs on the University of California, San Francisco.
“It seems natural that if you see something used more often and it’s legal to purchase, you would start to perceive it as less risky,” Dr. Cohen advised The Washington Times. “As cannabis industry advertising and promotion increase, people are exposed to more positive messages about cannabis, and that could contribute as well.”
More than one-third of adults surveyed mentioned every day smoking of hashish was safer than tobacco, with that quantity rising from 1,742 individuals (36.7%) in 2017 to 2,107 individuals (44.3%) in 2021. There was an analogous enhance in attitudes towards secondhand marijuana smoke, the place the variety of individuals who discovered it safer than tobacco elevated from 1,668 (35.1%) adults in 2017 to 1,908 (40.2%) in 2021.
Younger individuals aged 18-29 and the single have been extra probably than retired adults to maneuver towards safer views of marijuana smoking, the examine famous.
Doctors have warned that tobacco and marijuana smoke comprise comparable particles, carcinogens and toxins that may injury the lungs, coronary heart and airway tissue, regardless of the shortage of detailed analysis into the dangers of hashish.
“We do know from animal studies that tobacco and cannabis smoke exposure lead to similar concerning cardiovascular effects,” Dr. Cohen mentioned. “Researchers have also analyzed hundreds of chemicals in tobacco and cannabis smoke and found they contain many of the same toxins and carcinogens.”
According to the examine, current analysis has linked marijuana to “multiple negative health outcomes, including cannabis dependence, increased respiratory symptoms, worse cognitive performance and increased incidence of psychiatric disorders.”
Much like alcohol, specialists say smoking marijuana can impair driving, turning it right into a freeway security danger. Getting “high” earlier than getting behind the wheel slows response time, distorts distance notion and reduces coordination.
The examine comes as marijuana smoking has elevated lately and entails larger concentrations of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. THC is the psychoactive substance in hashish that, in larger doses, can produce intense nausea and scream-vomiting or “scromiting” in customers.
The common efficiency of marijuana plant materials has jumped from 1% to three% THC content material within the Seventies to 18% to 23% right this moment, based on Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a corporation that warns in regards to the potential hurt of hashish use.
More than 20 states have legalized leisure marijuana over the previous decade, together with Maryland final month and Minnesota this month.
On Thursday, Gallup reported that fifty% of adults responding to a nationwide survey say they’ve tried marijuana of their lifetimes, a brand new excessive in additional than half a century of polling.
Gallup first surveyed the query in 1969, when simply 4% mentioned they’d tried marijuana.
“As marijuana has become more available to Americans and legal in an increasing number of states, their reports of use and experimentation have increased too,” Gallup mentioned.
Meanwhile, cigarette smoking has dropped to new lows amongst all however the oldest adults. But growing numbers of younger folks report utilizing digital cigarettes, which carry comparable well being dangers.
More than 1 in 10 younger adults now use e-cigarettes within the course of often called vaping, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported final month.
Vaping entails utilizing battery-operated e-cigarettes to warmth a liquid resolution, creating an aerosol that customers inhale into their lungs.
The CDC discovered 11% of adults aged 18-24 reported utilizing e-cigarettes, together with 11.6% of males and 10.3% of girls, making them the likeliest age group to vape. The federal company collected the information from a nationwide well being survey in 2021, the latest yr for which figures can be found.
Many vapes comprise nicotine. All comprise chemical substances docs have warned may be extra addictive than conventional cigarettes, moreover growing the danger of coronary heart, lung and blood vessel ailments.
Public well being officers have condemned e-cigarettes in all instances aside from folks utilizing them to stop cigarettes, main public locations to ban tobacco vaping.
In a July 17 assertion, the American Heart Association flagged “independent health risks” within the nicotine, together with the flavoring brokers, sweeteners, propylene glycol and vegetable glycerol used to make e-cigarettes.
The assertion famous that “e-cigarette use more than doubled from 2017 to 2019 among middle and high school students.”
Disposable vapes have appealed to youthful customers by quite a lot of candy flavors — together with watermelon, berry, mango, chocolate peppermint, candy cream and low — that state and federal officers have moved to ban.
In 2020, the Food and Drug Administration enacted a “flavor ban” on all vapes aside from menthol and tobacco-flavored merchandise. Last yr, the Supreme Court refused to halt a California regulation banning in-store gross sales of all flavored vape and tobacco merchandise.
According to Dr. Cohen, rising analysis backs up individuals who consider “smoke is smoke” and foyer public locations to ban marijuana alongside tobacco.
“Given the similarities in the smoke, there is reason for concern,” Dr. Cohen mentioned.
The examine credited many years of “aggressive campaigns” from state and federal authorities officers for “dramatically reducing the prevalence of adult cigarette smoking and creating safer smoke-free environments.”
“Despite this, regulation of cannabis has tended to be less restrictive than that for tobacco, with many smoke-free laws being amended to make exclusions that allow smoking or vaping of cannabis,” the researchers famous.
A latest flood of hashish promoting makes it tougher for officers to elucidate the totally different dangers of marijuana smoking, vaping and edibles, mentioned Coleman Drake, a University of Pittsburgh public well being professor who research the impression of leisure hashish legal guidelines.
“Tobacco is less varied in this regard,” Mr. Drake advised The Times. “Cannabis use can be helpful for some people in dealing with chronic pain, but smoking it is always going to have negative cardiovascular effects.”
Content Source: www.washingtontimes.com