Americans Think That Alcohol and Opioids Cause More Secondhand Harm Than Marijuana

A national study suggests that secondhand harm from marijuana use is significantly less prevalent than that from alcohol. In the study, respondents reported secondhand harm from drinking nearly six times more often than from cannabis.  Perceived harms from opioids and other drugs also exceeded those related to marijuana. Analyzing responses from 7,799 people, researchers found that more than a third reported experiencing secondhand harms from alcohol use at some point in their lives.  In contrast, only 5% reported ever experiencing secondhand harms from cannabis.  For other substances, 7.6% had been harmed by others' use of opioids, while 8.3% reported harm from unspecified "other" drugs. When asked about the past 12 months specifically, alcohol again caused the most secondhand harm, with 6.2% of respondents affected.  This was followed by other drugs (2.2%), opioids (2.0%), and cannabis (1.8%).  The study concluded that "secondhand harms from others’ alcohol use were substantially more prevalent than those from others’ use of any other drug." Supporting this, past data from a Gallup survey found that Americans consider marijuana to be less harmful than alcohol, cigarettes, vapes, and other tobacco products.