What’s Worse for Your Brain Alcohol or Marijuana?
Marijuana affects the cardiovascular system, increasing heart rate and blood pressure, but a person can’t fatally overdose on pot like they can with alcohol, Baler said. This may seem like a petty academic squabble, but it’s quite important as researchers and lawmakers try to advance more scientific approaches to drug policy. Finding the best method to evaluate the risks of drugs is much more complicated than assigning numeric rankings. Perhaps the biggest supporting evidence for this point is a 2010 study published in The Lancet that ranked alcohol as the most dangerous drug in the United Kingdom, surpassing heroin, crack cocaine, and marijuana. That study has drawn widespread media attention, appearing in outlets like the Washington Post, the Guardian, the New Republic, and here at Vox. However, dosing with edibles can be imperfect and take time to ascertain so when using edibles it’s best to pace yourself and examine how you feel.
Does Alcohol Increase Dopamine?
The use of weed to replace alcohol is a growing trend in the United States. In fact, a recent study found — for the first time ever — the daily use of cannabis of any kind among Americans surpassed the daily use of alcohol. Why is alcohol more socially accepted, despite all the evidence stacking up against it? Carroll thinks that’s an accident of history — because it’s been around and legal for a longer period of time. “It’s hard to argue from data or from actual science that that’s the way it should be,” he said.
- Weed can impact your memory and in some severe cases cause or exacerbate schizophrenia or psychosis.
- 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.
- Drinking reduces your inhibitions and can certainly make you feel more relaxed in social situations.
- People attribute it to be a social lubricant that allows people to stave off social anxiety and be more outgoing and talkative.
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. After cannabis is ingested, an observable increase in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) occurs in anterior brain regions — which are critical for semantic memory, according to a 2001 study in Neuropsychopharmacology. After being absorbed through the lining of the stomach into the bloodstream, it spreads into tissues throughout the body and reaches the brain in about five minutes, according to Northwestern Medicine.
Marijuana isn’t perfectly safe
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.
The pot smokers’ brains did not show a reduction or change in either gray or white matter in Hutchison’s study. When gray and white brain matter is reduced, cognitive impairment and memory loss can occur. Chronic or excessive alcohol consumption is known to affect balance and disrupts normal walking patterns. This is because alcohol can damage parts of the brain responsible for coordination, including the cerebellum.
After all, you can only purchase cannabis products at dispensaries where in some states you can purchase alcohol in supermarkets. Additionally, alcohol is more socially acceptable in public use or work situations while using cannabis at a work function could be looked down upon. While both are intoxicants they can affect the body differently and can also impact your health differently.
Health Effects Of Weed Vs. Alcohol
“After going through all the data and looking at which is more dangerous in almost any metric you would pick, pot really looks like it’s safer than alcohol,” he said. Marijuana use, however, appeared to have no impact on the structure of gray or white matter in either teenagers or adults. The team notes that any reduction in the size of white or gray matter or a loss in their integrity can lead to impairments in brain functioning. It is estimated that around 22.2 million people in the United States have used marijuana in the past month, making it “the most commonly used illicit drug” in the country.
What happens if you drink alcohol before using weed?
The scans revealed that the drinkers’ brains had reduced gray matter and compromised white matter. Gray matter contains the majority of neuron cell bodies and axons and is responsible for helping the brain process information. It contains nerve fibers that help neuron cells communicate across different brain regions. There’s plenty of research about alcohol’s long-term effect on your brain and overall health. The amount of research regarding marijuana’s long-term effect on brain health, however, is not so ample. Many cannabis users report the “munchies,” a phenomenon where pot users have increased appetites and cravings while high.
We strive to create content that is clear, concise, and easy to understand. Through careful design and application of the self-report measures, we have tried to mitigate those issues. Stephanie Pappas is a contributing writer for Live Science, covering topics ranging from geoscience to archaeology to the human brain and behavior. 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.
There are no similar studies that look at women’s sexual satisfaction under the influence of pot. Yet some studies on whether alcohol or marijuana really cause weight gain have been contradictory. “On the other hand, the number of crimes that are committed that have some sort of alcohol component related to them are massive — hundreds of thousands a year, if not more,” he said. Admissions navigators are available 24/7 for a free and confidential conversation. Plus, they can verify your insurance benefits, or you can Genetics of Alcohol Use Disorder National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism NIAAA do so yourself online.
