Is Cannabis More Admired Than Tobacco?

With time passing by, don’t you feel that the use of tobacco is decreasing drastically, while the use of cannabis and the number of applications for medical marijuana card NY is growing in popularity?

But do our assumptions of what we feel or see about cannabis and tobacco reflect in the data?

For all the readers out there, do you remember the anti-drug campaigns D.A.R.E. of the early 1990s? You’ll find that the gaining traction of anti-tobacco campaigns has made the anti-marijuana programs to fade into the background. Or is it the exposure to different ads, playing a role in it?

To find out society’s preference, when it comes to smoking, let’s take a closer look at cannabis and tobacco cigarettes.

Background of Cannabis

Cannabis has a vast history for both recreational and medicinal use across the world. However, thanks to Prohibition, smokable marijuana during the 1920s gained mass popularity in the U.S. According to Historians, when alcohol was outlawed, people started searching for an alternative substance for lifting their moods. Then the green little plant made its place in history among American adults as their party favorite.

However, though the recreational use of the herb held steady, it’s reputation soon changed as a purely social substance. With the rapidly emerging research that suggested the therapeutic properties, the role of cannabis took a new dimension. The sentiments of the public shifted when the headlines touted the medicinal potential of cannabis in managing a variety of conditions, ranging from anxiety to Crohn’s disease to PTSD.

And with that, the opinions of the political circles began to change as well. California, in 1996 became the first legalized state of medical marijuana. Today, there are 33 legalized medical marijuana states and there are 11 legalized recreational marijuana states. Washington D.C. has both legalized forms.

The Role of Education

Cigarette smoking in the U.S. adults dropped from 42.4% to 14% in 2017, according to the Center for Disease Control And Prevention.

But what led to this change?

Though the answer is a little complex, the contributing factors are many, which includes the ad campaigns as said earlier. One thing made an important influence, which was institutionalized learning.

In 1960, according to the Census Bureau of the U.S., only 7.7% of the adults completed their college degree. However, this number shooted up to 35% in the year 2018. During the same period, there was a decrease in cigarette smoking. As per the reports of the CDC, cigarette smoking in 2017 was the highest in people that had a general education development certificate and lowest in people that had a graduate degree. This clearly shows that with the increase in education, there is a decrease in cigarette smoking.

Cannabis vs. Cigarettes

Now let’s get back to the original question: “Is cannabis more admired than tobacco?”

Although cannabis has battled for decades with the government, according to the data, cannabis use is more widely admired now by people than cigarette smoking. The evaluation of experts tells that 54.5 million adults in the U.S are using cannabis as compared to the 34 million cigarette smoking people. These figures clearly indicate that cannabis is 60% more admired than tobacco cigarettes.