marijuana consumed regularly more than alcohol is

[dead0man]

https://twitter.com/CharlesFLehman/status/1793303961002258824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etf...
so that's weird

[7,052,770]

Probably not great. Probably (hopefully?) not that big of a deal either.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Eh, flawed measure. It says more Americans use it daily than use alcohol daily. Almost no one except alcoholics drinks daily. Granted almost no one except die-hard stoners use that daily either, but it's a comparison of the extremes. People who use alcohol at all is no doubt higher than marijuana.

Actually I suspect that expanded medical use of marijuana is the main driver here rather than recreational legalization, because medical patients are far more likely to use it daily.

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

I'm a little surprised the number of daily alcohol users has risen so dramatically in the last 20 years. I would have thought that was more or less stable.

[Ancestral Republican]

I'm a little surprised the number of daily alcohol users has risen so dramatically in the last 20 years. I would have thought that was more or less stable.

Problem drinking has trended massively upward in recent years, specifically amongst women.

[GAinDC]

Can confirm from experience

No extra calories, no sloppy behavior, no hangover, and cheaper!

[Horus]

Would be better news if alcohol usage were going down, it has barely budged, but obviously weed is far less harmful in virtually every measurable way.

[Benjamin Frank 2.0]

I'm a little surprised the number of daily alcohol users has risen so dramatically in the last 20 years. I would have thought that was more or less stable.

Daily alcohol use had risen more as a percentage, but keep in mind the U.S population has risen by about 50 million in the last 20 years and the population of adults has risen even more as a percentage.

adults in U.S 2000: 209,128,094
adults in U.S 2020: 258,343,281

https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/08/united-states-adult-population-grew-faster-than-nations-total-population-from-2010-to-2020.html

So, this is a 23% increase in the U.S adult population over that 20 year period. Of course, not all the daily alcohol users are adults, but I think it's still the most appropriate data to consider when comparing to increase in alcohol use.

Considering that the graph also shows a spike then a decline in daily alcohol use and then fairly flat from 1995 to 2000, I suspect a regression analysis would show that daily alcohol use in the U.S is relatively stable as a percentage of population. Of course, there likely are changes in the mix of that cohort.

[Benjamin Frank 2.0]

Would be better news if alcohol usage were going down, it has barely budged, but obviously weed is far less harmful in virtually every measurable way.

Jack Webb would arrest you for saying this. Just the facts.

[quesaisje]

You have to be careful with substance use averages because they tend to be skewed by extraordinarily high use among a small percentage of users. The most widely cited numbers on alcohol use are like this, and I would expect the same to be true of weed and its derivatives.

The numbers cited by Washington Monthly in the linked article strike me as implausible in multiple ways. One unfortunate consequence of decades of prohibition is that there isn't nearly as much high quality research as there should be behind any widely used substance. Self-reported survey figures such as those discussed here are especially worthy of skepticism.

[Benjamin Frank 2.0]

You have to be careful with substance use averages because they tend to be skewed by extraordinarily high use among a small percentage of users. The most widely cited numbers on alcohol use are like this, and I would expect the same to be true of weed and its derivatives.

The numbers cited by Washington Monthly in the linked article strike me as implausible in multiple ways. One unfortunate consequence of decades of prohibition is that there isn't nearly as much high quality research as there should be behind any widely used substance. Self-reported survey figures such as those discussed here are especially worthy of skepticism.

Apparently there isn't near enough high quality weed either. This is an editorial from David Brinkley that for some reason only aired on the television network SCTV.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Can confirm from experience

No extra calories, no sloppy behavior, no hangover, and cheaper!

Yessir. It's great. The older I get, the less I drink booze during the week and the more I have an edible

[Not Me, Us]

Good, it's way better.

[TechbroMBA]

Yet so many would be angry if you were destroying your lungs with tobacco rather than marijuana.

[Agonized-Statism]

That's good, it's certainly better for your liver and probably completely harmless if you're doing edibles rather than smoking it. I still need to switch over from alcohol but weed can be pretty intimidating to someone who grew up in a conservative household in states where it was very illegal.

[Bernie Derangement Syndrome Haver]

Disgusting. Marijuana should be illegal because it smells bad.

[Lief 🗽]

Disgusting. Marijuana should be illegal because it smells bad.

Disagree, every American has the right to make his or her home smell as bad as they want.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Yet so many would be angry if you were destroying your lungs with tobacco rather than marijuana.

Disgusting. Marijuana should be illegal because it smells bad.

You do realize that edibles and tinctures exist right? It's very possible to use marijuana without smoking or the smell.

[TheTide]

Substances in themselves aren't any more to blame for crime or bad behaviour than weapons. Let's have a semblance of personal responsibility here, for God's sake.

[Pres Mike]

The smell of weed is disgusting

[vitoNova]

Why do people think weed smells bad?  lol.  I don't mind it at all.  To me, smells....pleasantly earthy?  Smells like roses compared to tobacco cigarette smoke, which permeates your clothing, your hair, your skin, your sweat, and your very soul.  You can't get it off you.  
 
I was in Chinatown-Gallery Place (DC) earlier this week, and goddamn. Weed is all you smell for blocks until you reach La Colombe Coffee House.

[Clarence Boddicker]

This is good. Marijuana is far less destructive than alcohol.

[Alcibiades]

This is good. Marijuana is far less destructive than alcohol.

I don't get how anyone can assert this so confidently. The damage caused by alcohol abuse is well-known because drinking has been such an engrained part of the culture for so long; research on the effects of cannabis is by comparison in its infancy. What we do know for sure is that cannabis can trigger psychosis in a minority of cases; and beyond that admittedly rather extreme scenario, it seems at least highly plausible that extensive cannabis usage, particularly when young, can cause lasting damage to cognitive ability.

[Benjamin Frank 2.0]

Carly Simon - Long Term Physical Effects

From the Movie 'Taking Off' from 1971

[vitoNova]

edit:  pure tobacco is very different from cigarettes.   I feel the need to distinguish between the 2.

The Dutch Marcehessue folks I’ve known all actually rolled their cigarettes from pure Indonesian wacky tabaccy from like a pouch, and when they hung out in my barracks room, smoking away, there was no foul smell.