New research from New Frontier Data, the #1 cannabis data and analytics firm, has revealed that almost half of cannabis consumers in the United States prefer it to alcohol.
The findings were released in their latest report entitled, Cannabis & Wellness: A New Consumer Paradigm, which was done together with Jointly and SoRSE, to analyze various aspects of wellness among cannabis consumers today. They took a look at various wellness patterns in cannabis consumers ranging from mental health to physical fitness, alcohol replacement, and medical.
They found that 23% of marijuana users today support overall wellness, and 79% say that the herb has had a positive impact on their life. There are a growing number of wellness-focused cannabis activities around the country today from social lounges to cannabis yoga and much more, revealing the increasing acceptance of cannabis among the mainstream.
“The US consumer base is diversifying, and reasons for use are extending well beyond recreational use into broader medical and wellness applications,” explains New Frontier Data’s Founder and Executive Chair, Giadha A. DeCarcer. “Our continued focus on data and reporting on the full spectrum of cannabis consumer behavior, now expanding into more nuanced aspects of medical use across North America and Europe, will provide industry stakeholders with a 360-degree view of the cannabis consumer opportunity.”
There are also other important findings in the study, such as stress relief and relaxation being the top reasons people use cannabis. In addition, 52% of users turn to cannabis to help their mental health during the pandemic.
More people today are seeing the benefits of combining cannabis with exercise, which challenges the previous stereotypes of unhealthy and lazy cannabis users. With that, 13% of consumers say that they regularly use cannabis prior to exercise, which they say improves their training.
With regards to alcohol, they found that more people are replacing booze for cannabis especially as the market for infused beverages increases throughout the country. Forty-seven percent of cannabis users have replaced at least some of their alcohol consumption with cannabis, which makes it a great time for manufacturers to produce more infused beverages, as more people are seeing infused cannabis drinks as a good alternative to alcohol.
Cannabis a Safer Alternative To Alcohol
Marijuana prohibitionists and the federal government have, for far too long, wanted people to believe that cannabis was so harmful that it warranting being kept illegal no matter what. The risks were severely exaggerated: saying that it’s a gateway drug, stating that it would cause societal ills, and even went as far as spending millions of dollars on campaigns that were targeted at keeping cannabis illegal.
These couldn’t be further from the truth, especially when you consider the statistics:
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Alcohol abuse causes death, while there has never been one single fatal cannabis overdose recorded. A study conducted by the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs analyzed 20 various drugs from a scale of 1 to 100, including substances such as alcohol as well as methamphetamine, cocaine, and heroine. Alcohol was determined to be the #1 in terms of overall harm, with the highest score of 72.
It makes sense, considering that alcohol is so accessible, so it’s far too easy for people to develop an addiction or disorder no matter how old you are. Just about any social situation involves alcohol; it’s readily available and large consumption is already widely expected in most countries around the world, developed or not.
Meanwhile, the American Scientist states that consuming alcohol 10 times already impacts the human body so severely that it could lead to death.
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Consuming alcohol brings about serious health-related problems that none of cannabis does. There are significant long ang short-term effects associated with alcohol, and all of these have been well-documented through the decades. Drinking alcohol already increases the risk of car-related accidents and injuries, increases one’s risk for engaging in risky sexual behavior, falls, alcohol poisoning, and more – and that’s just in the short term.
In the long term, alcohol addictions can cause liver damage, heart disease, increased risk for cancer, mental health problems, memory problems, and so much more. All of these decrease life expectancy, so it’s not surprising that some 3 million people die each year just because of alcohol.
Meanwhile, cannabis is a panacea for dozens of life-threatening conditions. It can even help treat alcohol dependency in a safe and natural way.
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Alcohol is addictive, marijuana is not. Alcohol has a potential for addiction that is so strong, and scientists have been able to nail it down using research and standard indicators. “Millions of Americans have tried marijuana but most are not regular users and few marijuana users become dependent on it. Although some marijuana users develop dependence, they appear to be less likely to do so than users of other drugs (including alcohol and nicotine), and marijuana dependence appears to be less severe than dependence on other drugs,” reads a federal study.
These are just some of the many side effects that are associated with alcohol, which is a silent killer and causes fatal disease to millions of people each year.
For these reasons and more, it’s always the smarter choice to go with cannabis instead of booze.
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