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There was a time when ganja, aka marijuana or cannabis, was illegal throughout the United States. But times have changed. Today, marijuana is legal for medicinal use in 39 states; for recreational use in 24 states and the District of Columbia, and it’s decriminalized in a further seven states.
In recent years, marijuana has become the third-highest abused substance in the US — after tobacco and alcohol. This increased use of marijuana can partially be attributed to its medical role in pain relief for conditions like arthritis, cancer, and anxiety. On the federal level, marijuana is still illegal.
Booze, on the other hand, only has age restrictions to prevent alcohol from being sold to minors.
Until recently, daily use of alcohol was more common than daily use of marijuana. But that too has changed. A2022 survey has found that more people in the U.S. now use marijuana nearly every day (17.7 million) than people who use alcohol daily or most days of the week (14.7 million).
Many more people drink booze, but not so many drink it daily or near daily.
Several factors make it hard to compare the effects of booze and marijuana and decide which is worse for your health.
Firstly, alcohol and marijuana are two completely different substances with different effects on the body. Secondly, how our bodies react to weed and alcohol differs from person to person – some people tolerate booze better than marijuana, and vice versa.
Thirdly, there is much more research on the impact of alcohol than on weed. So, it may appear weed is safer than alcohol.
Theimmediate effect of alcohol and marijuana is not the same for all people. It’s because getting drunk and getting high is not the same.
Alcohol intoxication may be different for each person and may feel different for the same person on different occasions. Here are some effects of alcohol, a person may not experience all of these:
Restlessness
Relaxation
Feeling giddy
Loss of hand-eye coordination
Slurred speech or too loud
Struggling to think and focus
Impaired judgment
Imbalance
Nausea and vomiting
Headaches and diarrhea due to a hangover
Smoking weed makes you high. The sensation differs from person to person and depends on the amount of THC in the weed – which is the chemical that makes you high.
Weed can result in the following effects:
A changed perception of time
Problems with coordination and reflexes
Dry mouth and eyes
Impaired cognitive skills and judgment
Feeling very relaxed with no care in the world or feeling too anxious and afraid
Giddiness
Drowsiness
Nausea
Pain relief
Feeling hungry
Keep in mind that these effects don’t account for different ways of taking weed such as smoking, vaping, or eating cannabis.
Where overconsumption of alcohol can leave you with a hangover the following day, weed can leave you with a headache, brain fog, and feeling drowsy the next day.
Conclusion – both alcohol and weed have an intoxicating effect and both can leave you worse for wear the next day. They have similar effects on mental abilities, such as decision-making, planning, problem-solving, judgment, and impulse control.
Keep in mind that any effects mentioned don't apply universally to every person who uses alcohol or weed. Also, you don't have to be a heavy drinker to experience negative results - even moderate use can affect your health to some degree.
Long-term alcohol use has severe detrimental effects on health — often exacerbated by drinking bouts or drinking over long periods.These include:
Steatotic liver disease also known as fatty liver disease, is a health condition that happens when there is too much alcohol for the liver to metabolize and detoxify.
The shocking thing is that steatotic liver disease can happen even in people who drinkonly one shot of alcohol per day.
Excessive drinking over the years can also lead tocirrhosis which is irreversible liver damage.
Pancreatitis is the inflammation of the pancreas, which can be caused by alcohol misuse. This inflammation can thicken the pancreatic fluids, clogging the ducts and further deteriorating health.
Heart damage can be caused by heavy drinking as alcohol can result in:
Increased heart rate.
Spikes in blood pressure.
Irregular heartbeats (arrhythmia).
A weakening in your heart (cardiomyopathy).
According to the World Heart Federation: "The evidence is clear: any level of alcohol consumption can lead to loss of healthy life."
Impaired metabolism. Because alcohol is toxic, your liver prioritizes metabolizing alcohol – putting the digestion of foods and other tasks on the back burner. As the body is no longer digesting food properly, this may result in calories piling up in the form of fat.
Poor gut healthas drinking alcohol kills off the good gut bacteria, leading to digestion problems.
Increased risk of cancerbecausewhen the body metabolizes alcohol, it breaks it down into acetaldehyde – a chemical that can damage your DNA and result in cancerous growths (tumors).
Increased risk of depression and anxiety. Long-term misuse can also lead to issues like paranoia and hallucinations.
Though more research is needed, long-term weed use can have severalhealth effects including:
Harm to Lung Health. Like tobacco, weed smoke exposes the lungs to several toxins, irritants, and carcinogens – damaging lung tissue. Long-term smoking of weed can cause large airway inflammation, lung hyperinflation, and chronic bronchitis. So, the American Lung Associationcautions people against smoking weed.
Mental Health Effects.There seems to be a link between using weed and developing schizophrenia. Some scientists suggest that weed can only trigger schizophrenia in people with certain genetic dispositions or a family history of mental health concerns.
Research also suggests that teenagers who use cannabis are more likely to suffer from depression, and also develop suicidal thoughts.
Cardiovascular Effects.Since marijuana can increase heart rate and blood pressure; it also increases the risk of stroke, heart attack, and arrhythmia. More research is needed to establish how cannabis use increases the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Gastrointestinal Problems.Long-term use of weed can lead to nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain (hyperemesis syndrome).
Increased Cancer Riskas weed users often develophead and neck cancers.
However, all these results are not from robust long-term scientific studies. And so, more investigation is needed before we will know for certain what the long-term effects of cannabis use are likely to be.
Comparing the two, the health consequences of both booze and marijuana worsen with long-term heavy use. As things stand now, we know more about the effects of long-term alcohol abuse – which we know can destroy a person's life for many years and even lead to death. We have too much evidence to doubt it.
It's natural to wonder which of the two is more addictive but it's not so easy to find a clear answer.
Around10-15% of alcohol users develop alcohol use disorder. Various factors contribute to this:
Starting to drink at an early age
Binge drinking (drinking a lot in a short time)
Frequent heavy use of alcohol
Genetics – family history of alcohol abuse
Mental health conditions or a history of trauma
Alcohol dependence is present if a person has no control over drinking alcohol.
Not everyone who uses marijuana will become addicted to it, just as not everyone who drinks alcohol will become dependent on it. Research shows that people who use marijuana may have around a10% chance of developing marijuana dependence.
High doses of marijuana or frequent use can cause a person to develop a marijuana addiction.
Addiction is characterized by an inability to control marijuana use despite negative consequences.
Those working with addiction find that weed dependence leads tomilder withdrawal symptoms than alcohol withdrawal symptoms. However, withdrawal symptoms vary between people – what's unbearable for one person may be bearable for the next.
Marijuana mainly leads to a psychological addiction but alcohol leads to both psychological and physical dependence – making alcohol more addictive of the two.
Research reveals that alcohol affects the brain’sreward system by altering neurotransmitters like dopamine and GABA, leading to psychological effects like strong cravings and dependence. Long-term use can also cause physical withdrawal symptoms like seizures and delirium tremors, making it hard to quit.
On the other hand, marijuana users mainly experience psychological dependence – users craving the high marijuana provides but may not need to deal with extreme withdrawal symptoms.
The fact that going off alcohol may require medical supervision while cannabis withdrawal can usually be undertaken without medical intervention also points to the difference in the severity of alcohol and weed addiction.
Attitudes about marijuana are changing in America. Some states have legalized its use. Surveys also point out that most Americans think it should be legalized. One result of these changes is an increase in research on cannabis.
One study regarding thelong-term social and financial implications of marijuana abuse found that regular users dropped in social status and had more financial issues compared to those who were not frequent users. They also exhibited more antisocial behaviors at work and experienced more relationship problems.
The picture for alcohol abusers is pretty much the same, if not worse.
Arecent survey has found that alcohol use is declining among college-aged adults, and marijuana use is increasing. It seems cannabis has lost its bad reputation and is becoming more acceptable and used by more people.
Marijuana used to be illegal in the United States but that is changing and so are people's attitudes toward it. Booze and marijuana are both detrimental to health, with alcohol appearing to be more addictive. The excessive use of both can also have severe negative consequences for individuals and society at large.
It's clear that more research is necessary before we can conclude which of the two is worse for health. It's probably prudent to stay away from both as far as possible.