For a 1994 survey, epidemiologists at the National Institute on Drug Abuse asked more than 8,000 people from ages 15 to 64 about their drug use. Of those who had tried marijuana at least once, roughly 9% eventually fit a diagnosis of addiction. To put that in perspective, the addiction rate for cocaine was 17%, while heroin was 23% and nicotine was 32%. “Alcohol use is a leading risk factor for global disease burden and causes substantial health loss,” the researchers wrote in their paper, “and the level of consumption that minimizes health loss is zero.” Drinking can lead to alcoholic liver disease, which can progress to fibrosis of the liver, which in turn can potentially lead to liver cancer, Murray said.
- Alcohol is highly addictive and some people can have a genetic predisposition to alcoholism.
- 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.
- Alcohol and marijuana use are both socially acceptable, and they can both be dangerous.
- Prolonged alcohol use can lead to physical dependence, where the body becomes reliant on alcohol to function normally.This can cause the shakes and can affect your ability to lead a normal life.
For example, you might feel like you’re good to drive, but your blood alcohol level may be well over the legal limit. For example, a 1992 study had 15 participants smoke a placebo, a high dose of THC, or a low dose of THC on three occasions. On each occasion, they’d rank a different dose of alcohol, including a placebo, as a low dose or a high dose. However, this study was pretty small, making it hard to draw any firm conclusions. Plus, a similar (but equally small) 2010 study found that alcohol consumption didn’t have much of an effect on THC concentrations. Tishler points out that tolerance is often touted as a badge of honor in cannabis circles.
Cannabis addiction is surprisingly common, however, according to 2015 study. Weed seems to have fewer long-term risks than alcohol, but again, there’s a huge discrepancy in the amount of research on weed compared with alcohol. There probably isn’t a perfect way to evaluate addiction relapse and present all drug harms. Researchers will always need to balance making information simple and accessible for policymakers and the public with the inherent complexity of drugs and their effects. This makes the task of building scientific drug policies very challenging.
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. Pregnant women who use cannabis regularly are more likely to have preterm births and dangerously small babies.
Long-term health risks
Dickerson-Neal said she “lacked the physical ability or mental capacity to fend Combs off” as he sexually assaulted her. This condition can occur with any psychologically altering substances, but the risk from cannabis is it safe to drink coffee with adderall is higher even than from cocaine, Solmi says. Some 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational cannabis in recent years, and others, including Florida, will vote to do so in November.
As with the short-term effects of alcohol and weed, the long-term effects differ from person to person. The short-term effects of weed and alcohol differ from person to person. The way you consume weed can have a big impact on its short- and long-term effects. For example, smoking is rough on your lungs, but this risk doesn’t apply to edibles. 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.
How scientists rank drugs from most to least dangerous — and why the rankings are flawed
Alcohol is more likely than marijuana to interact with other drugs. The question of whether alcohol or marijuana is worse for health is being debated once again, this time, sparked by comments that President Barack Obama made in a recent interview with The New Yorker magazine. We believe everyone deserves access to accurate, unbiased information about mental health and addiction. That’s why we have a comprehensive set of treatment providers and don’t charge for inclusion. We do not and have never accepted fees for referring someone to a particular center.
How addictive is alcohol?
For marijuana, some research initially suggested a link between smoking and lung cancer, but that has been debunked. The January report found that cannabis was not connected to any increased risk of the lung cancers or head and neck cancers tied to smoking cigarettes. While both are intoxicants used recreationally, their legality, patterns of use and long-term effects on the body make the two drugs difficult to compare.
Unlike alcohol, Baler said, the effects of chronic marijuana use are not as well established. Animal studies have indicated some possible impact on reproduction. Additionally, there is evidence marijuana can worsen psychiatric issues for people who are predisposed to them, or bring them on at a younger age. Finally, Baler said, because the drug is typically smoked, it can bring on bronchitis, coughing and chronic inflammation of the air passages. Both alcohol and marijuana can be dangerous substances, and addiction is a potential risk regardless of perceived safety.