But alcohol’s crime risk is due to its tendency to make people more aggressive (and more prone to committing crime), while heroin’s crime risk is based on the massive criminal trafficking network behind it. Even if two drugs score similarly in Nutt’s analysis, the underlying variables behind the scores can be completely different. For instance, heroin and crack cocaine are fairly close in the rankings.
Alcohol ‘more damaging to brain health than marijuana’
Another problem is determining whether the drug actually causes the brain changes that are observed. Similar to drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana results in intoxication and users report feelings of happiness, confusion, relaxation, impulsiveness and hunger. 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.
Study leader Rachel Thayer, of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Colorado Boulder, and colleagues recently reported their results in the journal Addiction. Chronic drinkers display reductions in memory, attention, and planning, as well as impaired emotional processes and social cognition — and these can persist even after years of abstinence. It’s a tough call, but based on the peer-reviewed science, there appears to be a clear answer. Alcohol abuse represented 0.6 years of accelerated aging and came in fifth on the list after bipolar disorder (1.6 years of accelerated aging) and ADD/ADHD (1.4 years of accelerated aging). There are many consequences of consuming alcoholic beverages, whether it’s beer, wine, champagne, cocktails, hard seltzer, or other types of alcohol. Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world.
- When it comes to addiction profiles, risk of death or overdose, and links to cancer, car crashes, violence, and obesity, the research suggests that marijuana may be less of a health risk than alcohol.
- As with the short-term effects of alcohol and weed, the long-term effects differ from person to person.
- If you want to seek out medical marijuana for a specific condition consider finding a doctor with Green Health Docs.
- While cannabis is widely viewed as a non-habit-forming drug, it seems that some people can build a tolerance to THC.
- Binge drinking, defined as consuming four or more drinks in two hours for women (five or more for men) was on the rise during the pandemic.
They both have a history of impairing judgment and can directly increase your chances of having an accident. 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.
Which is worse, booze or pot? A doctor weighs in
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. Cannabis affects reaction time, judgment, and other critical brain functions, and high doses of cannabis products cause greater impairment.
Short-term effects
With marijuana, the studies on its effects on brain health are limited and, also, the findings are across the board. Hutchison said that this variety of outcomes with previous studies led him and his team to investigate marijuana’s impacts on brain health and function. Although drug policy experts generally don’t dispute the assertion that alcohol is more dangerous than pot, the study, led by British researcher David Nutt, is quite controversial.
Using weed before drinking alcohol may minimize the effects of alcohol. This means you might be tipsier than you feel, increasing your risk for becoming overly intoxicated. While there’s some research around the effects of drinking alcohol before using weed, there isn’t much about the opposite approach. However, there’s scant evidence that people who drink excessively can use marijuana to overcome a disorder. Research actually shows that it can worsen depression in some people with an alcohol use disorder. Except for going out in public, people were much more inclined to carry on normally if they’d ingested marijuana compared to drinking alcohol.
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. Green Health Docs’ mission is to combat the nation’s opioid epidemic. As a team of pain medicine physicians, anesthesiologists, and surgeons, we knew that there had to be a better way to help patients. Our goal was to give patients easy access to medical cannabis as an alternative to traditional pain medications, antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications, and other addictive and harmful drugs.
When it comes to addiction profiles, risk of death or overdose, and links to cancer, car crashes, violence, and obesity, the research suggests that marijuana may be less of a health risk than alcohol. But despite eating over 600 extra calories when smoking, marijuana users generally don’t have higher body-mass indexes. In fact, studies suggest that regular smokers have a slightly reduced risk of obesity. On the other hand, self-harm and suicide are much more common among people who binge drink or drink frequently. But scientists have had a hard time deciphering whether excessive alcohol use causes depression and anxiety or whether people with depression and anxiety drink in an attempt to relieve those symptoms.
Edibles need to be digested and it can take anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours to understand how you feel. As mentioned, alcohol can cause many different negative effects on your body, most notably the liver. Chronic alcohol use can lead to liver diseases such as fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis, and cirrhosis, gastritis and pancreatitis. While both are intoxicants they can affect the body differently and can also impact your health differently. It can damage brain cells and lead to deficiencies in neurotransmitters. It affects gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) which can cause relaxation but long term use of alcohol can affect your levels of GABA or glutamate in the nervous system.
Hangovers and an increasing sense of anxiety on the mornings after affected her work performance and her ability to exercise, an enjoyable part of her life. In sheer numbers, of course, many more people still drink alcohol on occasion than use marijuana, which is now legal for recreational use in 24 states and Washington, DC, and for medical use in 38 states and DC. Carroll wrote a provocative piece for the New York Times exploring what’s known about the risks of Is It Bad to Mix Weed and Alcohol these two popular but easily abused substances. And while doesn’t advocate underage users trying either one, he says it’s clear that overall, alcohol causes a lot more harm.