Alcohol can contribute to social and behavioral issues, including aggression, mood swings, outbursts, relationship issues, and legal troubles. Cannabis on the other hand can make you feel relaxed as well decrease your depression or anxiety. However, excessive use can actually cause paranoia or nervousness. It’s important to note that when cannabis gets legalized many people may use cannabis semi-legally by consuming illegally purchased cannabis which can lead to them consuming more than standard dosages. This almost points to the importance of regulation so people can use standardized dosages to track their usage of cannabis. In certain cases, a patient can experience withdrawal symptoms after abruptly stopping use.
Does Alcohol Increase Dopamine?
While Cymbalta and marijuana can be used for similar purposes, you should use caution if you take them together. Some of their side effects are also similar, meaning they could be magnified if the two substances are combined. But if you’ve been drinking a lot, it might be hard to tell the difference between a green out and alcohol poisoning, which can be life-threatening if not treated.
Potential for misuse
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). 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. In addition, he has produced 16 national public television shows about the brain and his online videos on brain and mental health have been viewed over 300 million times. Dr. Amen is a 12-time New York Times bestselling author, including Change Your Brain, Change Your Life; The End of Mental Illness; Healing ADD; and many more. Hist latest book, Raising Mentally Strong Kids, was published March 2024.
- While there are negative benefits, cannabis does have many medicinal benefits including treatment of pain, nausea, issues with eating or keeping down food, and can help treat anxiety and depression.
- “You’re cumulatively impairing your cognitive function. What’s going to be the ultimate result, nobody can say.”
- Weed may appear to be safer than alcohol simply because we aren’t yet aware of certain risks.
- If those deaths were included, the number would be closer to 90,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- The finding aligns with some previous research on alcohol’s connections with violence.
Perspectives on People
Kent Hutchison, a professor of behavioral neuroscience at the University of Colorado Boulder and co-director of the CU Change Lab, co-authored a study that serves as a conversation starter for which substance is worse. In the study, published in the journal Addiction, researchers looked at brain scans of 853 adults between the ages of 18 and 55 and 439 teenagers between the ages of 14 and 18. Each of the participants reported their alcohol and marijuana use.
Still, there’s some evidence to suggest that regularly combining alcohol and weed may have some concerning effects over time. “We know that moderate alcohol consumption has health risks, and risk increases as alcohol consumption increases,” Boyd said in an email. As evidence grows that cannabis and cannabis-derived products can treat or prevent a broad range of health issues, it’s important to remember that marijuana is still illegal in many parts of the world. A 2017 study looked at a clinical population of people with depression and alcohol use disorder (AUD) to find that marijuana had no beneficial effect, and could have worsened their depression. Previous research had already found that cannabinoid receptors in the liver are potential targets for new ways to treat liver disease. 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.
There is no known medical use for consumed alcohol, but there are health benefits observed in moderate drinkers, including lower rates of cardiovascular disease and possibly fewer colds, Murray said. “How much you’re impaired depends on the person, and how much you smoke,” Baler said. Because some people are stoned a lot of the time, while others may use marijuana only on weekends, the health effects become difficult to generalize. Additionally, researchers looking to study long-term marijuana use have had difficulty in finding people who regularly smoke marijuana but don’t also smoke tobacco cigarettes.
A study from 2011 evaluated performance on cognitive tasks among 21 heavy weed users who had consumed alcohol. B lives in Georgia, a state where only medical marijuana is allowed. Therefore, B began using hemp-based gummies laced with delta-9, the most abundant form of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the part of the cannabis plant that creates a high. The synthetic form used in edibles is called delta-9 THC-O acetate. In fact, marijuana smoke may even be more harmful than tobacco because users hold What Is Post-Acute Withdrawal Syndrome PAWS the hot smoke in their lungs longer to maximize their high.
But heroin scores much higher for mortality risk, while crack poses a much bigger risk for mental impairment. On the surface, weed appears to be safer, but there’s simply not enough evidence to declare a winner. It’s also important to remember that there aren’t many high-quality, long-term studies on weed and its effects. Both can also leave you feeling a bit worse for wear the next day, though this is more likely to happen with alcohol. The immediate effects of weed can vary quite a bit from person to person.
On the other hand, no such relationship appears to exist for cannabis. Having a blood-alcohol level of at least 0.05%, on the other hand, increased that risk by 575%. 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.
