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Research actually shows that it can worsen depression in some people with an alcohol use disorder. He added that in some people with fatty liver disease, drinking two to three cups of black coffee per day has helped reverse scarring in the liver, although it’s not known which ingredient in coffee is providing the benefit. “Our findings revealed that cannabis users were less likely to develop alcoholic liver disease, and cannabis-dependent individuals were the least likely individuals to develop alcoholic liver disease,” said Bukong. Previous research had already found that cannabinoid receptors in the liver are potential targets for new ways to treat liver disease. Carroll wrote a provocative piece for the New York Times exploring what’s known about the risks of 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.

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But cigarette smoking plays a complicated role in studying the impact of marijuana smoke, Baler said. Marijuana smokers tend to smoke much less than cigarette smokers, as some may smoke one joint a few times a week. Alcohol is more likely than marijuana to interact with other drugs. “You can die binge-drinking five minutes after you’ve been exposed to alcohol. That isn’t going to happen with marijuana,” said Ruben Baler, a health scientist at the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

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In terms of cannabis, I tell my patients that we still aren’t sure if there’s a safe level of use, but that in general, scientists consider frequent and higher-THC use to be riskier. 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. “Researchers are working around the clock to try to identify the ingredients in marijuana that have potential,” to benefit human health, Baler said.

Marijuana appears to be significantly less addictive than alcohol.

There are also more ways to consume marijuana, such as ingesting and inhaling, while alcohol is typically consumed by ingestion via a beverage. Proponents of cannabis like to say that it’s “natural,” so it can’t be bad for us. We should remember that tobacco is also a “natural” leafy green plant. Yet in the 20th century, the tobacco industry designed highly addictive products and incited a worldwide epidemic in tobacco addiction and subsequent cancer, cardiovascular and lung disease.

Similarly, for certain medical conditions such as glaucoma or for those undergoing chemotherapy, marijuana can possess therapeutic properties. These positive effects, however, aren’t necessarily generalizable to everyone who use either substance, nor is it recommended to start using either to reap potential benefits without medical guidance or advice. Keep in mind that there are dozens of factors to account for when comparing the health effects of alcohol and marijuana, including how the substances affect your heart, brain, and behavior, and how likely you are to get hooked. In this longitudinal cohort study, adolescents were more likely to have consumed alcohol or tried marijuana by age 15 if they had later bedtimes and shorter sleep duration during childhood and adolescence. Protecting sleep health throughout childhood may reduce the likelihood of substance use during early adolescence. Research shows that nearly 90% of Americans have used alcohol at some point or another.

Alongside these four states, another 15 are considering legalizing recreational cannabis use. Stephanie Pappas is a contributing writer for Live Science, covering topics ranging from geoscience to archaeology to the human brain and behavior. She was previously a senior writer for Live Science but is now a freelancer based in Denver, Colorado, and regularly contributes to Scientific American and The Monitor, the monthly magazine of the American Psychological Association. 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. The study was published in the December issue of the journal Addiction.

There’s a delay in when you feel edibles because it can take time for the THC to be absorbed into your bloodstream. Edibles need to be digested and it can take anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours to understand how you feel. There are some potential cardiovascular benefits with light-to-moderate use like 1-2 glasses of wine per day. Alcohol is legal and can be purchased almost anywhere and everywhere.

In short, used moderately (in the case of alcohol) or under the direction of a health care provider (in places where medical marijuana is legal), these substances may have positive health effects. However, they may vary based on who is using either substance, how much they are using, and in what ways they’re using it. But as is often the case, it’s clear that heavy use of either drug may lead to serious health risks. It’s a commonly held belief that smoking weed has fewer negative health effects than drinking alcohol, especially now that marijuana is legal in New York and many other states across the country.

Aside from direct impacts on health effects and dependency, it’s also key to point out that getting behind the wheel while intoxicated by either substance poses significant risks to the user and others. In general, being intoxicated compromises sound judgment and may lead to unhealthy or risky decisions that a person might not make when sober. The other factor that makes it hard to answer this question is the relative lack of studies on the negative health effects of weed.

But Lehman’s dubious analysis of the situation in New York is just a pretext for his argument that capitalism and cannabis are a dangerous combination. New York’s pot predicament “seem[s] worse” because “marijuana is addictive,” Lehman argues. Alcohol use disorder is a pattern of alcohol use that involves problems controlling your drinking, being preoccupied with alcohol or continuing to use alcohol even when it causes problems. This disorder also involves having to drink more to get the same effect or having withdrawal symptoms when you rapidly decrease or stop drinking. Alcohol use disorder includes a level of drinking that’s sometimes called alcoholism. But the question of whether a person should continue drinking isn’t simply a matter of tolerance.

Her inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) had been in remission for two months, and she felt like her life had gone back to normal. At a work event, after just a couple drinks, she began to feel queasy and then started https://sober-home.org/ vomiting so violently that a friend took her to the emergency room. When the 23-year-old New Yorker asked her doctor about the experience, he suggested she cut back on drinking if it was making her symptoms worse.

1. Meanwhile, no deaths from marijuana overdoses have been reported, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
2. In this longitudinal cohort study, adolescents were more likely to have consumed alcohol or tried marijuana by age 15 if they had later bedtimes and shorter sleep duration during childhood and adolescence.
3. Weed appeared to slow down the rise of blood alcohol levels after consuming a high dose of alcohol.
4. In the 2022 survey, 30 percent of past-year marijuana users qualified for the CUD label, which is the number that Lehman highlights.
5. 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.

The consequences of heavy alcohol use are serious and include an increased risk of cancer, dementia, falls and dangerous interactions with medications. A 2018 study looked at about 320,000 people with a history of both misusing alcohol and using cannabis to discover what effect, if any, using both drugs had on liver health. Remember, consuming weed after drinking alcohol might make you feel less intoxicated, which can lead you to drink more than you usually would. A study from 2011 evaluated performance on cognitive tasks among 21 heavy weed users who had consumed alcohol. Still, there’s some evidence to suggest that regularly combining alcohol and weed may have some concerning effects over time. The research shouldn’t be taken as the be-all and end-all in the great debate over whether cannabis is bad for the brain.

Because denial is common, you may feel like you don’t have a problem with drinking. You might not recognize how much you drink or how many problems in your life are related to alcohol use. Listen to relatives, friends or co-workers when they ask you to examine your drinking habits or to seek help.

If you’re experiencing an emergency, please call 911 or visit our Resource Hub to view a list of 24-hour support services and hotlines. Salomeh Keyhani is a professor of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco. Alcohol can cause driving accidents and contributes to assaults and suicide. In large doses, it can even cause respiratory depression and death. Alcohol can cause cognitive impairment which can lead to poor judgment, decreased coordination, and memory loss and in some cases blackouts. With proper tolerance breaks, you can lower your tolerance of THC and become less reliant on large amounts of cannabis to feel the same way and regulate your cannabis use.

Aswani-Omprakash says she’s never had a doctor talk to her about alcohol’s potential impact on IBD. Some doctors, however, feel that it’s very important to have the discussion. “There are many substances in cannabis and it could be that one is really bad for the liver while another is beneficial. The take-home point is that more research is needed because we need data on both sides, good and bad,” he said.

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. 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. The review looked at published data from nearly 600 studies that comprised data on 195 countries and territories between 1990 and 2016. The results showed that among people of all ages, alcohol was the seventh leading risk factor for deaths in 2016. Green Health Docs’ mission is to combat the nation’s opioid epidemic.

Additionally, any deficits or issues caused by heavy cannabis use can be reversible. Weed can impact your memory and in some severe cases cause or https://sober-home.org/here-s-how-long-common-drugs-stay-in-your-body/ exacerbate schizophrenia or psychosis. Despite there being issues, most issues caused by cannabis can be reversible if you stop using cannabis.