86 percent Americans consider cannabis safer than alcohol, tobacco or sugar, Wall Street Journal poll suggests

86+percent+Americans+consider+cannabis+safer+than+alcohol%2C+tobacco+or+sugar%2C+Wall+Street+Journal+poll+suggests

According to a new Wall Street Journal poll released Friday, Americans feel that cannabis safer than alcohol, tobacco or sugar.

Forty-one percent of Americans chose tobacco the most harmful to health, while 24 percent called alcohol more dangerous and 21 percent felt sugar was the most harmful. Only 9 percent deemed cannabis the most harmful of the four substances.

Approximately 88,000 people die from alcohol-related deaths in the US annually; cigarette smoking causes approximately 480,000 deaths every year, and diabetes was responsible for 79,535 deaths in the US in 2015. Americans deeming cannabis safer than alcohol, sugar and tobacco isn’t too far off from reality. With tobacco, alcohol and sugar claiming hundreds of thousands of lives each year, cannabis took zero.

The same Wall Street Journal poll asked Americans their view on legalizing cannabis in their respective state. Sixty percent voted in support, which is five percent higher than 2014’s results, with only 55 percent in favor of legalization.

Twenty-four percent of the Americans who voted in the poll considered themselves strong Democrats while another 20 percent considered themselves not strong Democrats,\ but leaned towards the Democrat party. The other 20 percent considered themselves strong Republicans, while 17 percent considered them to be not strong Republicans but leaned towards the Republican party. The results show a close split between Republicans and Democrats both in favor of cannabis legislation: 44 percent Democrats and 37 percent Republican. This shows Americans as a whole favor cannabis legalization, regardless of their political party affiliation.

Earlier this month, US General Attorney Jeff Sessions faced a lot of backlash for his decision to repeal the Cole Memo. States worried about interference from the federal government in their cannabis-friendly state protected by their own cannabis laws. Three separate national polls found that majority of Americans were against federal interference in cannabis laws and cannabis-friendly states.

The federal government and its laws may or may not be effected by the strong support of cannabis legalization among Americans, but the wide support found by recent polls surely make a bold statement to the world that a significant majority of Americans are ready to LEGALIZE.