Many Americans believe sugar is worse for them than pot,
according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released this week.
A survey of 1,000 American adults last week revealed interesting perceptions about what constitutes a "harmful" substance. Poll participants were asked to rank alcohol, marijuana, sugar, and tobacco in order of most harmful to the human body to the least harmful.
A whopping 49 percent of respondents ranked tobacco as the most harmful, while alcohol came in second with 24 percent.
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What was most interesting, however, was that the poll participants felt that sugar was worse for them than pot. Sugar was voted the third most harmful substance with 15 percent, while marijuana came in last with only 8 percent.
NBC political director Chuck Todd noted that respondents also said they were more interested in following pot legalization stories in the news over other international stories.
"Among the more shocking numbers [in the poll] to me was the legalization story," he said in a video clip covering the survey results. "This idea that more and more states are moving to legalize medical marijuana or recreational use is a story that, according to our poll, is being followed more closely than what's going on in Ukraine, than the healthcare rollout, than the battles over same-sex marriage. Over 90 percent of the public say they are following this marijuana story closely."
Todd also said the poll results are indicative of the country's changing attitudes toward marijuana.
"Look at it from a demographic point of view," he said. "America's older demographic — seniors — about half of them are baby boomers. You now have most of the country at some point living during a time when recreational experimentation with marijuana [has] frankly been accepted in society. It just tells you the cultural shift that’s taking place in this country about the perception of marijuana and that, essentially, we've erased the stigma that went with users."
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