Many people are interested in the question "Which is more harmful to health: marijuana or alcohol?". However, how relevant is the comparison of these substances? Both alcohol and marijuana are toxic substances that people use for recreational purposes. The difficulty in comparing them lies in their degree of legality, patterns of use and long-term effects on the body.
Both drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana can cause short-term and long-term harm to the body. However, studies on the health effects of marijuana are tiny compared to the large, lengthy, and numerous studies on the effects of alcohol.
Marijuana and alcohol: short-term health effects
Drinking too much alcohol can quickly kill a person. Failure to digest alcohol as quickly as it is absorbed can lead to the failure of parts of the brain that are responsible for heartbeat and breathing.
“While drinking alcohol, it is possible to die within five minutes of exposure to it. Marijuana cannot kill a person so quickly, its effect is softer”,– says Ruben Baler – scientist at the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
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Of course, such a milder effect cannot be equated with no harm. Marijuana negatively affects the cardiovascular system, increases heart rate and blood pressure, but a person cannot die from an overdose of marijuana, as from an overdose of alcohol.
Alcohol interacts with drugs more than marijuana. The scheme of digestion, splitting of alcohol in the body is similar to the scheme of splitting many drugs. This means that people who mix alcohol with drugs are exposing their bodies to lower or higher levels of the drug's active ingredient.
Long-term effects of drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana
The long-term effects of drinking large amounts of alcohol are well known. Drinking too much alcohol can lead to serious consequences, and chronic alcohol consumption in large doses leads to serious diseases.
Alcohol can cause alcoholic liver disease, which can progress to liver fibrosis, which in turn can lead to liver cancer. In fact, scientists do not know what leads to such progression. It is also not clear why some people are more likely to develop alcoholic liver disease due to alcohol consumption – no medical or biochemical reasons for this are known.
Unlike alcohol, the effects of chronic marijuana use are not yet so clearly established. Animal studies indicate the possible negative effects of marijuana on the reproductive system. In addition, there is speculation that marijuana may exacerbate psychiatric illness in people who are predisposed to it. In addition, due to the way marijuana is used – smoking – it can lead to bronchitis, coughing and chronic inflammation of the airways.
However, while earlier research suggests a link between marijuana and lung cancer, relatively recent research disproves the link. Bailer says it's not yet clear whether marijuana smoke affects the lungs in the same way as tobacco smoke. However, the presence of beneficial substances in marijuana neutralizes the harmful effects, or other habits of marijuana smokers determine less harm from such smoking. It is worth noting that marijuana smokers smoke less than cigarette smokers (for example, some may smoke as little as one joint a week).
In addition, it is very difficult for researchers who want to study the long-term effects of marijuana on the human body to find people who regularly smoke marijuana, but do not smoke regular cigarettes. Also, the illegality of marijuana significantly limits the possibility of conducting research in this area.
It is also a big problem that smoking marijuana interferes with brain development in adolescents. As a result of smoking marijuana, the connections in the brain that are necessary for the accumulation of memories are disrupted, i.e. remembering new information that will serve as a foundation for future learning.
Generalizing the effects of marijuana on the human body is also difficult because some people are “high” often, and some smoke marijuana only on weekends. In general, scientists conclude that marijuana users constantly disrupt their cognitive functions, but no one can say for sure how disastrous the final result will be.
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Human Health Benefits of Marijuana and Alcohol
Alcohol is not used for medical purposes, however there are certain benefits of alcohol (when consumed in moderation), namely:
- reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease;
- reducing the risk of colds.
Doctors constantly warn people about the dangers of excessive drinking, but drinking in moderation is not particularly dangerous.
With regard to marijuana, the legalization of which for medical use is a topic of heated debate in society, there is ample evidence confirming the benefits of some of the substances that this plant contains.
Researchers are constantly working to identify marijuana ingredients that have potential health benefits. If such chemicals are taken in their pure form and their effects on the human body are understood, they can be used in clinical trials to treat cancer, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, glaucoma and other diseases.
There are segments of the population who are willing to do away with research and claim that smoking marijuana is good for health and therefore can be used for medical purposes.
In the context of palliative care, marijuana is a different field of medicine that aims to relieve patients of pain.
New Research
A study by an international team of scientists, published in Scientific Reports at the end of January 2015, found that alcohol was about 114 times more deadly than marijuana.
Furthermore, on an individual level, alcohol has been found to be the most lethal drug in terms of the likelihood of death due to a lethal dose (i.e., overdose). Cocaine and heroin were the second most lethal substances, followed by tobacco, ecstasy and methamphetamine. Marijuana in this list is in last place.
The results suggest that the risks of marijuana have been overestimated in the past (at least in terms of exposure limits) and the risks of alcohol have been underestimated.
The calculated lethal dose of THC (the main active ingredient in marijuana) for humans is 15 – 70 grams – that's way more than the most avid marijuana user can consume in a day.
Estet-portal encourages you to use any substances in moderation – this will help reduce the negative impact of toxic elements on the body.
Source estet-portal.com
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