Brussels - Nearly half of the European Union's young people believe that cannabis is no more dangerous to health than smoking cigarettes, an EU survey has found. The Eurobarometer survey polled 12,000 EU citizens between the ages of 15 and 24 and was published on Thursday's International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.
Of those who expressed an opinion in the survey, 43 per cent said cannabis poses only a "medium risk" to health, similar to tobacco smoking.
A further 41 per cent said they thought it posed a high health risk.
By contrast, between 81 and 96 per cent of respondents thought that using heroin, cocaine or ecstasy was very dangerous, while 75 per cent believe alcohol poses a "medium to low" risk.
Those most tolerant towards illegal drugs were found to be the Czechs, with only 37 per cent of respondents from that country saying ecstasy is dangerous.
A mere 17 per cent of them thought cannabis posed a serious health hazard.
While virtually all respondents said it was right to ban heroine, cocaine and ecstasy, about a third of them thought cannabis should be legalized.
The survey also found that most young people prefer to obtain information about illegal drugs from the Internet rather than from official channels, such as the police or a telephone helpline.
Asked how the problem of illegal drugs should be tackled, most young people said they wanted to see the police get tough on dealers but soft on consumers.
