Fifty-one percent (51%) of American adults say alcohol is more dangerous than marijuana, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Just 19% disagree and say pot is worse.
But 25% say both are equally dangerous. Just two percent (2%) say neither is dangerous.
Younger adults are more likely than their elders to view alcohol as the more dangerous of the two.
Nationally, 41% of likely voters think the United States should legalize and tax marijuana, but 49% are opposed.
President Obama’s new drug czar Gil Kerlikowske has signaled a shift away from the decades-old war on drugs toward more emphasis on health treatment for drug users. However, 54% of voters say illegal drug use is primarily a criminal justice issue rather than a matter of public health.
Rasmussen Reports – August 28, 2009:
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Your poll isn’t working.
Alcohol affects each person differently. Some get violent, some get more ignorant, some get addicted to it, both physically AND mentally.
Marijuana affects all the same way. Non violence is the answer, without any true addiction.
Choose Marijuana. Every time.
So fatally vague as to be useless: define dangerous?
I know that alcohol is more injurious to your health than is advertised, and I know that MJ is not as injurious to your health with moderate usage than is advertised.
I’d think that both are as dangerous if you drive a vehicle while intoxicated, but drunks tend to ignore that status while pot heads over relate to it so perhaps on the same level of intoxication, fewer pot heads would actually drive?
And so forth. Nice ambiguous question for folks to project onto.
Ditto on the poll not working.
Oh, Darn==speaking of dangerous, MJ is illegal making it very dangerous.
I am part of the 25th percentile.
I see all drugs used for recreation and not for health are dangerous and expensive to each and every citizen. Recreational drug use adds to the health cost we all have to pay.
Look I am not your dad, but please stay home and do that shit so one, I don’t have you on the streets causing people to have to go to the ER. Two, so you don’t fall on me. Three, so no one has to deal with your effed up emotions and mental instabilities.
Cursor_
This is a poor poll to do because one is illegal and one is not. Obviously their are more alcoholics because of this. Do I think they both impair judgment? Yes. If both were legal might this poll be valid? Yes. One thing is for certain both affect our society in a negative way when abused.
Sobriety is for people too uptight to release their inhibitions.
Like EVERYTHING ELSE, moderation in all things is the best rule.
Intoxication, like Sobriety, shows a mental rigidness that really should not be recommended.
Live, experience all that life has to offer. Good and Bad. Then make choices.
Once the lawyers are done with tobacco, they are going to come after alcohol. The big firms are probably preparing their studies and press releases now. It will take a few decades to get the public as mad at alcohol executives as they are at tobacco executives, but there’s too much money there for them to leave it alone.
I don’t care which you use just stay off the roads while doing so.
You’ve got a choice. The rest of us would like the same courtesy without being slaughtered on the highways.
The previous commercial was brought to you by concerned travelers that might be affected by the stupidity of the chemically impaired.
I can’t make up my mind.
Drunks are often loud, mean, cruel, vicious, unreasoning, obnoxious, destructive and violent.
Dope smokers are generally quiet, introspective, sensitive, mind their own business and are disturbed by even the thought of violence.
It’s a tough decision.
I wish they’d calculated the number of alcoholics and the number of marijuanaholics, so I could make a fair comparison.
The conservative sheeple most likely see MJ as more dangerous because, well, that’s what mommy said.
Dad had not comment because he was drunk in the back yard.
A wise person will do neither Marijuana nor alcohol. Neither should be illegal, but you should be held accountable for your behavior when on them. In no case should you take more than one at the same time. In no case shall the American people bail you out if you screw up your life taking these drugs.
Your ‘which is more dangerous…’ poll is SPAM rick roll.
“The change you wanted was rejected.
Maybe you tried to change something you didn’t have access to.”
Story of my life…
Is this a joke?
Alcohol is an addictive drug that kills tens of thousands every day.
Marijuana is a non-addictive drug (believe me, I should know) that kills nobody.
Marijuana was outlawed because white guys in Congress wanted to target the liberal and “black” drug of choice. The debilitating right-wing drug (alcohol) gets a free pass.
The vote button returns message “application rejected”.
The view results button sends users to “Ringtone Gal”
seems like hijack scam to me.
“Marijuana was outlawed because white guys in Congress wanted to target the liberal and “black” drug of choice. The debilitating right-wing drug (alcohol) gets a free pass.”
lol, sure…
#16-Wretched Gnu
I was wondering how long it would take before someone brought race into it.
Just another case of TWS – typing while stupid.
#18, #19 Google “marijuana ban and racism” before scoffing:
http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/stories/2003/12/22/whyIsMarijuanaIllegal.html
In the eastern states, the “problem” was attributed to a combination of Latin Americans and black jazz musicians. Marijuana and jazz traveled from New Orleans to Chicago, and then to Harlem, where marijuana became an indispensable part of the music scene, even entering the language of the black hits of the time (Louis Armstrong’s “Muggles”, Cab Calloway’s “That Funny Reefer Man”, Fats Waller’s “Viper’s Drag”).
Again, racism was part of the charge against marijuana, as newspapers in 1934 editorialized: “Marihuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men’s shadows and look at a white woman twice.”
An article on minorities getting busted for pot in disproportionate numbers:
http://villagevoice.com/2008-04-29/news/weeding-out-blacks-and-latinos/1
(sigh)
Stupid. Just check the police blotter. IF both were legal, are most driving accidents caused by alcohol or pot? 98 to 1, alcohol. Are most domestic violence disputes fueled by alcohol or pot? Alcohol. How many serious bar fights (injuries involved) are fueled by stoned people? Are there more emergency room patients there from alcohol poisoning or pot “overdoes”?
As a general rule, every cop in the nation would rather show up at call with the parties stoned rather than drunk. MUST easier to deal with and less violent.
Or “overdose”
No alcohol advertising on TV or sponsorships of sports. Plus additional taxes of $10 a bottle, plus no serving in restaurants.
Actually, it was Hearst and his unfathomed fear of Mexicans that sent people over the edge.
They made up stories to convince the ‘normal white folk’ to live in Fear of the ‘Reefer Smoking Mexicans’. LOOK IT UP. Educate YOURSELF before spewing your ignorance on others.
History is the Greatest teacher. Yet, we seem to fail to learn from it.
#18 Sea Lawyer
For clarification purposes, are you saying marijuana wasn’t outlawed or marijuana wasn’t outlawed by white guys or marijuana wasn’t outlawed by white guys in Congress or are you saying marijuana isn’t the intoxicant of choice of liberals and blacks or are you saying alcohol isn’t debilitating or alcohol isn’t the drug of choice of the right wing or that alcohol doesn’t get a free pass i.e. it’s legal?
As someone who leans conservative in issues. I frankly do not care if someone takes any of these drugs. If someone wants to destroy their life, as long as they do it in their own home, and am not hurting anyone else that’s their business.
In short, I don’t care if someone shoots up, while smoking dope, and at the same time drinking a 12 pack, just stay off the roads and keep it in your own home. If you start to do all that while driving the penalties should be very, very severe.
“Marijuana was outlawed because white guys in Congress wanted to target the liberal and “black” drug of choice. The debilitating right-wing drug (alcohol) gets a free pass.”
I am glad you set that straight, I too have never seen a liberal drink.
#21….your data is flawed because the number of people consuming alcohol dwarfs the number smoking pot. If Pot Bars are ever opened, you’ll see those numbers equalize.
The problem with pot is that shit stinks on people that have recently smoked.
It’s not a drug, it’s a weed.
While it’s illegal, the criminals keep getting richer.
Supposed health benefits of both are tentative to marginal, to say the least. The physical risks of long term use, of both, even in modest amounts when taken regularly, are accepted medical knowledge. I believe the main argument in favor of cannabis legalization is the same one that was used to lift alcohol prohibition – economic advantage. The debate should be, one of alcohol’s burden on the health and well being of society.
Ever hear of someone die from marijuana poisoning? Exactly!
How about a loud obnoxious drunk who insists they’re ok to drive versus and laid back stoner who can be pretty much talked out of anything including driving home stoned? Exactly!
I’ll take weed every time over alcohol as as preferred “relaxant”