To crush the misconceptions of our nowadays society, I made a list of non-drugs that are unhealthy and less healthy (for you physical and mental health) than marijuana is. Reason for this is, to hopefully open some people's mind and getting a step closer to a fully rational view of things.

Unhealthy non-drugs

Candy versus Marijuana

1. Sitting

Bad news for office workers. Even if you regularly exercise, long periods of inactivity are unhealthy. A study published in 2012 in the journal BMJ Open estimated that individuals who reduced excessive sitting to less than three hours a day could add two years to their life expectancy.

2. Sleeping too much

Sleeping too little is of course bad for your health (and makes you gain weight), but sleeping too much can be equally harmful. A review of sleep studies showed that people who slept more than nine hours a night were at a 41% higher risk for heart disease than those who slept seven to eight hours a night.

3. Staring at a screen

Unhealthy screen watching

Research published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology suggests that spending more than four hours a day in front of a screen, like watching TV or surfing the Internet, can increase risk of heart attack and stroke by as much as 113%. Another study published in BMJ Open estimated that reducing screen time to less than two hours a day, individuals could add almost 1.4 years to their life expectancy.

4. Taking medication for non life-threatening illnesses

Taking medication for things like insomnia or anxiety could lower some people's life expectancy. In a 12-year study, published in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, scientists found that individuals not taking such medications had about a 5% lower mortality rate than those taking medication.

5. Lacking a sense of humor

Laughter has a long list of health benefits according to the Mayo Clinic — it helps boost the immune system, reduces stress, and provides an emotional release. Laughing also burns calories.

6. Traffic Jam

New York traffic jam

Not only does commuting take up lots of time on a daily basis, it may also be taking time away from your total life span. Unpublished work presented at the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers suggested that people with commutes longer than 30 minutes die earlier than others. Long commutes mean less time for exercise and sleep — both of which contribute to a longer and healthier life.

7. Stressing out

We've all heard that stress can be harmful to our health and immune system, but research published in the Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences suggests it can actually damage our very DNA. Compared to non-stressed people, study participants with chronic stress had shorter telomeres — the regions responsible for protecting and connecting the ends of DNA strands, so our genes don't degrade over time.

8. Not having sex

Having sex not only relieves stress, it burns calories and may even increase your life span. A Duke University study found that women with enjoyable sex lives lived almost eight years longer. Another study, in the journal BMJ, suggests that men who reported a higher frequency of orgasms had a 50% reduction in mortality.

9. Eating Poorly

Things like processed foods, too much red meat, and not enough fresh fruit and vegetables all can contribute to serious health problems. Excessive red meat consumption contributed to higher cardiovascular disease and cancer mortality, according to a study in the journal Internal Medicine.

10. Being anti-social is unhealthy

Isolation and loneliness can take a toll on your body in the same way excessive stress does. The MacArthur Study of Successful Aging demonstrated that people who rated themselves highly valuable in their friends' and family's lives were more likely to live longer than those who rated themselves lower.

Source: BusinessInsider

Obviously, there are a lot of things, that are more dangerous and unhealthy than marijuana is. Those are even things, in our every day life: like sitting.

In the next paragraph, I will try to give this an explanation. This will be a little off-topic, but feel free to read on. So, why really are we differentiating wrongly between 'good' or 'bad'? Or between 'healthy' and 'unhealthy'?

Socially accepted things are chosen arbitrarily

For me, it seems like that society doesn't look at the pro's and con's of something, instead they look at the overall impression of it.

Throughout my life I made the experience that socially accepted things are chosen completely arbitrarily. One of many examples for this is:

• The tobacco company executive, that shows a higher profit, will get a much bigger reward. He will try to maximize the company's profit. In fact he is a respected member of a board of several other cooperation.
  • Result: more people die due to possible side-effects of cigarettes (diseases like cancer).
  • It is a socially accepted job, people would glance up to. Furthermore it is even better if the executive makes more profit.
  • Worldwide, tobacco use causes nearly 6 million deaths per year.

Source: ZEITGEIST: MOVING FORWARD, CDC.gov

Looking at all this, I am asking myself: Why is marijuana more dangerous than sitting? Or why do people think it is? It seems like the label drug puts a negative impression on substances. But healthy food is a substance too. My personal answer is: socially accepted things are chosen arbitrarily.

Related: Kids and why they should use CBD microdoses

Also check out The Ultimate Guide to Stress Management.

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