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. Alcohol is everywhere yet we are well aware of the risks and dangers of alcohol use and abuse. The cannabis industry is making marijuana as readily available thanks to recreational legalization; it could be as common as alcohol. While there are some issues to the abuse of cannabis they are nowhere near as hazardous as alcoholism and the toll of alcohol on the body. One of the main negative issues of weed vs. alcohol is all of the issues with smoking marijuana.
- Stephanie received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of South Carolina and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
- 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.
- If you need help with marijuana addiction, learn more about treatment at marijuana rehabs.
- It can also protect against neurological issues like Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and multiple sclerosis.
- If you think you need help, you can contact a rehab or share your thoughts with a specialist.
Less than 50% of Americans have even tried marijuana, and a much smaller percentage are using it on a regular basis. So the sheer numbers of people showing up in the ER after smoking pot are going to be a lot less than for alcohol. However, having worked in ERs since pot was legalized, I can tell you that people who smoke weed are showing up a lot more now than in the past, and those numbers are climbing. 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.
Studies in humans, on the other hand, have returned varied results, and many have been too small-scale to draw firm conclusions. Unlike alcohol, which slows your heart rate, marijuana speeds it up, which could negatively affect the heart in the short term. Still, the largest-ever report on cannabis from the National Academies of Sciences, released in January, found insufficient evidence to support or refute the idea that cannabis may increase the overall risk of a heart attack. The pot smokers’ brains did not show a reduction or change in either gray or white matter in Hutchison’s study.
Weed can also trigger temporary feelings of paranoia and hostility, but it’s not yet clear whether those symptoms are linked with an increased risk of long-term psychosis. The finding aligns with some previous research on alcohol’s connections with violence. There is no disagreement among experts, and most likely the population at large, about the need for more studies on the effects of marijuana use on our bodies and brains as more states vote to legalize it.
Marijuana appears to be significantly less addictive than alcohol.
Before getting into comparing alcohol and weed, it’s important to understand some of the factors that make the comparison tricky. The Well is Northwell Health’s commitment to the future of health care. In this time of information overabundance, much of which is inaccurate, unhelpful, or even difficult to understand, Northwell Health is on a mission to make a difference as an honest, trusted, and caring partner.
Providing multiple levels of individualized addiction and mental health treatment, with evidence-based, holistic, cultural, and adventure weed and mdma therapies. Alcohol and marijuana use are both socially acceptable, and they can both be dangerous. That’s a complicated question—partly because “safety” means something different for everyone.
When should I seek help for alcohol or marijuana abuse?
Despite there being issues, most issues caused by cannabis can be reversible if you stop using 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. Additionally, cannabis is not always the only drug or substance that someone might be using. This also skews any data because someone engaged in an accident or having a health issue may have more than cannabis in their system. We believe everyone deserves access to accurate, unbiased information about mental health and addiction.
Marijuana vs. Alcohol: Which Is Really Worse for Your Health?
Edibles cut down on one of the major issues with cannabis because they don’t require smoking and eliminate many of these risks. Alcohol is not only more addictive it also can cause more lasting damage to your health than cannabis. While excessive marijuana use can take a negative toll on your health many of these side effects can be reversible.
And the illegality of marijuana has also limited research in this field. But while early studies showed some evidence linking marijuana to lung cancer, subsequent studies have debunked that association. This means that for people taking drugs or medications while how to store pee drinking, the alcohol can increase or decrease levels of the active drug in the body. Still, because of marijuana’s largely illegal status, long-term studies on all its health effects have been limited — meaning more research is needed.
Alcohol Deaths Vs Weed Deaths
It’s important to find a program that can support your personal goals for recovery. If you need help with marijuana addiction, learn more about treatment at marijuana rehabs. But it doesn’t seem like anyone is taking on this kind of approach — and Nutt’s style of analysis remains popular around the world. Although Nutt couldn’t get funding to do an analysis in the US or Canada, he said a similar study is being published later this year assessing drug use in several countries in Europe. The analysis may be flawed, but its simplicity and accessibility have won over many policy circles.
Cannabis has been found to potentially increase your chances of developing anxiety, paranoia, and psychotic symptoms.There is ongoing research on the relationship between marijuana use and mental health disorders. Both alcohol and marijuana can be dangerous substances, and addiction is a potential risk regardless of perceived safety. It’s important to exercise caution and make informed decisions about substance use to minimize potential risks and harms. 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. The idea is lawmakers could look at this model to help decide on an individual basis which policies are better for each drug.
Generally speaking, weed tends to come with fewer risks than alcohol, but there are a lot of factors to consider. Plus, they’re unique substances mesclun psychedelic that produce different effects, which makes side-by-side comparisons difficult. The researchers looked at brain scans from about 850 substance-using adults ages 18 to 55 and about substance-using 440 teens ages 14 to 19, all of whom reported varying levels of alcohol and cannabis use.