Marijuana vs Alcohol: Which Is Really Worse for Your Health?

However, it would not legalize marijuana outright for recreational use. “Cannabis and alcohol have very different effects on the brain and there will be social implications,” says Grinspoon. “For example, cannabis can make you peaceful, increase your connection with other people and give you personal insights, while alcohol can make people loud and bellicose,” he says. There is one caveat, and that’s if a person uses both alcohol and edibles together, which is the least healthy option. Still, experts do have some thoughts on the matter, especially when addiction is concerned. “I would say that alcohol is more addictive, and that the addiction is far more life-destroying than cannabis use disorder,” says Grinspoon.

Short-term effects

Preliminary evidence underscores that cognitive control and sensation-seeking behaviors could be an important target in prevention and treatment of substance use in adolescents, given the moderating roles on neurofunctional effects. Further research is required to determine the relative effects of alcohol and cannabis consumption on functional neurodevelopment and whether neural recovery occurs following reductions in use. Studies focused on alcohol effects are summarized first, followed by cannabis, what is a substance abuse counselor then co-use studies. At baseline, 53% of youth reported lifetime alcohol use, 30% had smoked tobacco, and 12% had tried another substance, including 7% who had tried cannabis. Two studies examined the impact of alcohol use on impulse control across adolescence; however, no studies have examined the impact of cannabis use or co-use of these substances. Therefore, the transition into frequent drinking in early to middle adolescence may disrupt normative developments in impulse control.

THE EFFECT OF CANNABIS COMPARED WITH ALCOHOL ON DRIVING

Edibles are cannabis-infused foods like gummies, brownies and muffins. They get their buzz-promoting properties from a substance in the cannabis plant called tetrahydrocannabinol (aka THC), explains the National Institute on Drug Abuse. “But if overconsumed, edibles alcohol poisoning may cause anxiety, panic, paranoia, dizziness, rapid heart rate and altered perception,” she says. Like alcohol, cannabis can also impair your ability to drive, doubling the risk of having a car accident, according to the UCLA Center for Cannabis and Cannabinoids.

Weed Vs. Alcohol Feeling

Alcohol and marijuana are both intoxicants, but one study from Columbia University researchers estimated that alcohol multiplies the chance of a fatal traffic accident by nearly 14 times, while marijuana nearly doubles the risk. Nutt acknowledges these problems, but argues that his analysis provides value to policymakers. „Anyone interested in alcohol and other drugs, from law enforcement to education and from health improvement to international policy, needs some measure that allows them to understand and communicate relative harms and risks,“ Nutt wrote in his 2011 response to critics.

Long-Term Effects

There currently isn’t a Blood Marijuana Level federally recognized but as more states adjust to legal cannabis use we can have clearer and more stringent measures to monitor driving while intoxicated on cannabis. While the death toll may not be the same, the effect on drivers has been sufficiently observed. While, due to alcohol being legal for decades and drunk driving being illegal for a significant amount of time the law has preset blood alcohol levels to dictate how much alcohol is too much in your system while driving. Again, there isn’t significant data to point to specific deaths caused solely by weed.

THC also increases the release of dopamine (which makes eating more enjoyable) and the hormone ghrelin, which stimulates hunger. After cannabis is ingested, an observable increase in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) occurs in anterior brain regions — which are critical for semantic memory, according to a 2001 study in Neuropsychopharmacology. Seventy-five percent 2c-b guide of Americans believe alcohol consumption negatively affects society. But on the flip side, 49 percent of Americans believe that cannabis use affects society positively, per a recent Gallup poll. The drug policy experts I talked to about Nutt’s study generally agreed that his style of analysis and ranking misses some of the nuance behind the harm of certain drugs.

  1. The validity of case-control studies rests entirely on careful matching of cases with controls, which is hard to do.
  2. Unlike alcohol, Baler said, the effects of chronic marijuana use are not as well established.
  3. The only change observed was a decrease in the production of new neurons.
  4. For example, certain populations appear more likely to become addicted to weed than others, potentially teenagers, and those with another substance use disorder, or a mood or mental disorder, such as schizophrenia.
  5. Cannabis, however, may provide relief for people living with chronic pain, multiple-sclerosis-related spasticity or nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy, according to emerging evidence from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

This article has been reviewed by Dr. Anand Dugar, an anesthesiologist, pain medicine physician and the founder of Green Health Docs. Graduating from medical school in 2004 and residency in 2008, Dr. Dugar has been a licensed physician for almost 20 years and has been leading the push for medical cannabis nationwide. Alcohol can contribute to social and behavioral issues, including aggression, mood swings, outbursts, relationship issues, and legal troubles.

They cited strong evidence that drinking alcohol – as little as a glass of wine or beer a day – increases the risk of developing both pre- and postmenopausal breast cancer. THC increases dopamine release, and when dopamine is released, the resulting feelings of pleasure can reinforce the potentially addictive effects of the cannabinoid. Long-term heavy cannabis use, however, can blunt the body’s dopamine system. If your dopamine levels stay elevated for too long—due to constant cannabis use, for example—the dopamine system becomes dysfunctional. When it comes to drinking alcohol and smoking cannabis, the road to health is complex and individual experiences may vary.

This post will elaborate on the impacts of alcohol vs. weed on your health, body, driving skills, fatality numbers, and the toll they can take on your life. That’s helped fuel fast growth in the marijuana industry, with an estimated worth of nearly $30 billion. Easing federal regulations could reduce the tax burden that can be 70% or more for businesses, according to industry groups. It could also make it easier to research marijuana, since it’s very difficult to conduct authorized clinical studies on Schedule I substances. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will move to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, a historic shift to generations of American drug policy that could have wide ripple effects across the country.

During the early stages of drinking, the brain releases more of the “feel good” chemical dopamine. This chemical surge provides temporary relief from negative emotions and can produce increased confidence, sociableness, relaxation or elation. Caulkins and Peter Reuter, a drug policy expert at the University of Maryland, suggested a model in which all the major risks of drugs are drawn out and each drug is ranked within those categories. So heroin would be at or near the top for mortality, alcohol would be at or near the top for cause of violent crime, and tobacco would be at the top for long-term health risks.

While some consumers are chasing sobriety in its entirety, others are becoming “Cali-sober,” meaning they cut out alcohol but continue to consume other substances such as cannabis. If health and wellness are the ultimate goals, does smoking weed have similar effects as drinking liquor? Here’s what we know about how the alcohol and weed impact the body and mind. There are so many reasons why someone may choose to use alcohol or edibles, and both options aren’t without risk. But if you’re looking to make an informed choice between one or the other, Newell Bissex says that edibles are a safer option.

To put that in perspective, the addiction rate for cocaine was 17%, while heroin was 23% and nicotine was 32%. In 2014, 30,722 people died from alcohol-induced causes in the US – and that does not count drinking-related accidents or homicides. If those deaths were included, the number would be closer to 90,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some have speculated that alcohol may be more addictive than cannabis because, quite simply, it’s more widely legal and readily available. Recent research suggests that increasing cannabis legalization has been linked to rising rates of dependence. One argument I often hear is that many more people end up in the emergency room after drinking alcohol than smoking pot—and that’s true.

While there’s no clear cut answer, there are several contributing factors worth exploring. However, alcohol has another neurochemical avenue through which it can create addiction—endorphins. Beyond this, other factors such as lifestyle, home and work environment, and socio-economic status may all additionally impact whether a person finds weed addictive or not. Tishler believes that dependence on cannabis is far more common than addiction, which is formally diagnosed as cannabis use disorder. “Cannabis can lead to a dependence rate of about 7%—less than half the alcohol rate—and an addiction rate that is very low but undefined,” explained Tishler. There’s a common perception that cannabis is safer and less addictive than alcohol.

Alcohol, tobacco, and prescription painkillers are likely deadlier than other drugs because they are legal, so comparing their aggregate effects to illegal drugs is difficult. Some drugs are very harmful to individuals, but they’re so rarely used that they may not be a major public health threat. A few drugs are enormously dangerous in the short-term but not the long-term (heroin), or vice versa (tobacco). And looking at deaths or other harms caused by certain drugs doesn’t always account for substances, such as prescription medications, that are often mixed with others, making them more deadly or harmful than they would be alone. Moderate alcohol consumption may have cardiovascular benefits but excessive drinking can put you at an increased risk of high blood pressure, cardiomyopathy, and arrhythmias. As with the short-term effects of alcohol and weed, the long-term effects differ from person to person.

This knowledge will benefit practitioners working with adolescents and inform future initiatives on substance use prevention and mental health. Overall, there is no strong, consistent evidence to indicate that low to heavy alcohol use during adolescence or young adulthood disrupts executive functioning maturation across time. Longitudinal data on cannabis use and executive functioning performance suggest that frequent consumption and greater cumulative use across adolescence may disrupt inhibitory control, working memory (particularly in females), planning, and decision making.

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