There are countless cannabis products on the market and a number of consumption options, from vaping to edibles. Weed may appear to be safer than alcohol simply because we aren’t yet aware of certain risks. Then there’s the United States’ international treaty obligations, chief among them the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which requires the criminalization of cannabis. In 2016, during the Obama administration, the DEA cited the U.S.’ international obligations and the findings of a federal court of appeals in Washington in denying a similar request to reschedule marijuana.
- Visual processing involves the brain’s analysis and interpretation of visual signals.
- The studies remain inconclusive about how much marijuana use causes impairments of learning and memory.
- A 2015 study, for example, found that CBD may be beneficial in treating opioid, cocaine, tobacco, and even cannabis addiction.
Effects on Neuropsychological Function
However, despite one drug being more socially stigmatized than the other, both substances have their benefits and pitfalls when it comes to consumption. Similarly, the THC in cannabis causes an increase in levels of dopamine in the brain and this motivates people to keep using it. Both CUD and alcoholism are predicated on the idea that users have developed an attachment or addiction to the way their substance of choice makes them feel and have transitioned from recreational to disordered use.
Weed Drinks Are a Buzzy Alcohol Substitute. But Are They Safe?
Together, the effects on impairment are additive and may even be synergistic. Chronic marijuana smokers are less impaired by both alcohol and marijuana than would be expected, however. One weakness of driving studies is that subjects are aware of being observed and assessed, so such studies are generally a better measure of what drivers are capable of doing rather than what they actually do.
Marijuana isn’t perfectly safe
Again, a cannabis overdose can cause increased nausea and vomiting but is not fatal. Even heavy marijuana abuse can at worst cause schizophrenia in people with a history of mental illness. The short-term effects of weed the twelve steps alcoholics anonymous and alcohol differ from person to person. The way you consume weed can have a big impact on its short- and long-term effects. For example, smoking is rough on your lungs, but this risk doesn’t apply to edibles.
But there are a lot of variables to consider, including which one you use first and how you consume them. Studies have found that these effects can persist for several weeks after stopping marijuana use. There may also be a link between daily weed use and poorer verbal memory in adults who start smoking at a young age.
More than 700 articles were captured by the search; and 43 longitudinal studies met inclusion criteria, including 18 studies focused on alcohol use, 13 on cannabis use, and 12 on alcohol and cannabis co-use. Information on levels and typologies of alcohol and cannabis use (see Figure 1), age, and race/ethnicity details are described where available. To enable comparison across studies, the terms used in each study to describe the level of substance use (i.e., heavy drinking) have been standardized to align with the figure. A wealth of longitudinal studies have assessed the effect of adolescent alcohol and cannabis use on neuropsychological development. In contrast, low to heavy alcohol use during adolescence and young adulthood does not appear to disrupt executive functioning maturation across time. In 2002, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) estimated that 22 million Americans—9.4% of the population—have a substance use or dependence problem.
Dussault and Breault’s study also only measured carboxy-THC, so the calculated OR was really for the risk of accidents given marijuana use at all rather than for marijuana use while driving. The control group in Mura’s study was comprised of non-trauma patients at the hospital, rather than drivers who had not crashed, making the odds ratio an incorrect calculation. In addition, non-trauma hospital patients are not representative of the population and arguably may have had a lower rate of marijuana smoking, again distorting the OR.
According to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, alcohol is a factor in 40% of all violent crimes, and a study of college students found that the rates of mental and physical abuse were higher on days when couples drank. The US Department of Health lists alcohol as a known human carcinogen. Research highlighted by the National Cancer Institute suggests that the more alcohol you drink – particularly the more you drink regularly – the higher your risk of developing cancer. “Alcohol use is a leading risk factor for global disease burden and causes substantial health loss,” the researchers wrote in their paper, “and the level of consumption that minimizes health loss is zero.” Similar to cannabis, dependence on alcohol is more common than addiction, according to Tishler.
Close to half of all adults have tried marijuana at least once, making it one of the most widely used illegal drugs – yet research suggests that a relatively small percentage of people become addicted. Several other studies have compared cannabis and alcohol, providing us with useful insights into how they stack up against each other in terms of safety and other measures. Instead, there’s evidence that this non-intoxicating cannabinoid may be able to treat addiction. A 2015 study, for example, found that CBD may be beneficial in treating opioid, cocaine, tobacco, and even cannabis addiction.
When it comes to what substance will put someone at risk for getting hurt or hurting others, alcohol is considered to cause the most harm. With new studies coming out and more laws legalizing the recreational and medicinal use of marijuana, the conversation seems to come up again and again. Although for palliative care, he said, “that would be a different realm of medicine,” in which the goal is to drug a person so they do not feel pain. “You’re cumulatively impairing your cognitive function. What’s going to be the ultimate result, nobody can say.” “As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life,” Obama said during the interview. THC, the psychoactive chemical in cannabis, is almost instantly absorbed and quickly reaches high blood concentration after inhalation through the lungs.
Federal drug policy has lagged behind many states in recent years, with 38 having already legalized medical marijuana and 24 legalizing its recreational use. In the United States, moderate drinking for healthy adults is different for men and women. It means on days when a person does drink, women do not have more than one drink and men do not have more than two drinks.
Epidemiological studies attempt to assess the actual risk that a driver may cause an accident under the influence of a drug, relative to that of a sober person driving under similar conditions. The relative risk is expressed in the form of an “odds ratio” (OR), which is the multiplier for the increased accident risk from driving under the influence of marijuana. The first is culpability studies, which classify drivers who have crashed alcohol consumption and risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease according to their degree of responsibility for the crash, then compare drug use in each category. If there is greater use of the drug in those culpable for crashes, then the drug is judged to be responsible for a greater crash risk. Given ethical barriers surrounding adolescent substance use, this field of research is reliant on observational human studies, which creates challenges for establishing causality and directionality.
Critics point out that as a Schedule III drug, marijuana would remain regulated by the DEA. That means the roughly 15,000 cannabis dispensaries in the U.S. would have to register with the DEA like regular pharmacies and fulfill strict reporting requirements, something that they are loath to do and that the DEA is ill equipped to handle. Jack Riley, a former deputy administrator of the DEA, said he had concerns about the proposed change because he thinks marijuana remains a possible “gateway drug,” one that may lead to the use of other drugs. It comes after President Joe Biden called for a review of federal marijuana law in October 2022 and moved to pardon thousands of Americans convicted federally of simple possession of the drug. He has also called on governors and local leaders to take similar steps to erase marijuana convictions.
We are not here to tell you that it is entirely without harms — what product is? We simply hope you will come to understand that it is far, far less harmful than what your government has told you. But if you’ve been drinking a lot, 9 common myths about substance addiction all you need to know it might be hard to tell the difference between a green out and alcohol poisoning, which can be life-threatening if not treated. But if you do decide to mix the two, start slow and keep track of how much you’re consuming of each.
Some users also find themselves unable to stop using cannabis despite the negative impact on their life or health, resulting in cannabis use disorder (CUD). A lot of research has also linked adolescent marijuana use with a range of negative consequences, including cognitive deficiencies and worse educational outcomes. While it’s not clear whether marijuana’s role with these outcomes is cause-and-effect, experts generally agree that people younger than their mid-20s should avoid pot.