Why Cannabis is More Appealing to Consumers Than Alcohol

Why Cannabis is More Appealing to Consumers Than Alcohol

Why Cannabis is More Appealing Than Alcohol to New Consumers from CannabisNet on Vimeo.

For nearly a century, alcohol has remained the legal drug of choice by the vast majority of adults around the world. In the U.S, slightly more than half of all adults report that they have had an alcoholic beverage over the past month with roughly 26% of the folks reporting they have engaged in some form of “binge drinking” over the past month.

While alcohol remained comfortable in its position of being the ‘go to drug’ for many adults around the globe, over the past few decades their ‘king-of-the-hill’ status is showing signs of declining. The reason, cannabis!

With cannabis legalization occurring all over the world and the vast majority of Americans now on board with full scale legalization, the ‘most consumed illegal drug’ is quickly gaining grounds within the legal sphere of recreational drug consumption.

Sure, cannabis is still illegal at a Federal level, however now 1 in 4 adults (in the U.S) lives in a state where there is some form of cannabis policy on the books. What this means is that more people have legal access to the plant than since 1937 when it became federally restricted.

As a result, more people are putting down their glasses of wine or beers at night and rather sparking up to unwind or to ‘get their mind off things’.

There are a number of reasons why this occurs.

Cannabis is a healthier recreational substance than alcohol

When we start looking at the trends of consumption, we’re seeing that the fastest growing demographic are those in their forties and older. Interestingly enough, youth consumption has seen a decline in many legalized states or have remained mostly unchanged compared to when a more restrictive model has been in place.

Adults are finding fewer negative side effects when it comes to consuming cannabis than when it comes to consuming alcohol.

For starters, cannabis is the zero-calorie, gluten-free substance that still allows you to experience euphoria while not eating away at your brain or destroying your liver. Sure, alcohol in small doses won’t do significant damage to your body, however, alcohol is also an enabler.

If you start feeling the effects of alcohol, it’s significantly easier to succumb to the idea of “just one more”.

Cannabis on the other hand is much harder to abuse. Trust me, if you smoked yourself to your limit you’re not thinking “Just one more toke,” you’re thinking, “I would love to lay down and sleep”.

Even if you ‘over-consumed’ cannabis, you wouldn’t be subjected to the same after-effects of alcohol; meaning, you won’t suffer from a hangover. This in turn allows individuals to become more productive while still being able to ‘unwind’ without the fear of over-doing it.

Furthermore, seeing that cannabis doesn’t contain calories, and those in their forties and up know the battle of keeping off those extra pounds; it becomes a more suitable substance of choice.

Cannabis a More Socially Responsible Choice

Adults aren’t just choosing cannabis because it’s a healthier choice. The social implications of having cannabis as the “drug of choice” when it comes to recreational activities are far less hazardous than alcohol.

Alcohol is responsible for up to 40% of all violent crimes in the US according to the Department of Justice. Roughly 50% of all homicides and assaults are conducted while the assailant is intoxicated with alcohol. 118,000 incidents of family violence per year also was done under the influence of alcohol.

Looking at the same factors when it comes to cannabis, the statistics are almost non-existent. This is because while cannabis might alter one’s state of mind, it doesn’t lead to violent actions.

We’re not even taking into consideration driving under the influence, where cannabis impairs the driver much less than alcohol. It’s a known fact that alcohol leads to roughly 88,000 deaths per year directly because of the substance, whereas cannabis is still holds an astonishing zero deaths per year.

The Cannabis Culture Matures

All in all, data suggests that as cannabis becomes more legal all over the sphere, people are experimenting with it that otherwise would have never touched the substance. With their experimentation, they are finding that not only is cannabis a healthier choice, it’s also a safer choice for the community as a whole.

For decades, we have been warned about the ‘ill effects of cannabis’ however, more adults are realizing that they have been duped. We’ve reached a tipping point in the campaign to legalize marijuana, and as more adults jump on board, the inevitability of legalization become solidified through mass acceptance.

With the international community meeting up this June to talk about the international scheduling of marijuana, we can now start seeing the decades long struggle coming to a swift end.

Why Cannabis is More Appealing Than Alcohol to New Consumers from CannabisNet on Vimeo.