“Sometimes we just focus on what’s getting worse, but I think we need to look at what has gotten better,” she says, because that can provide important insights into solutions that are working. And this is especially heartening when combined with the first-ever decline in the youth suicide rate in years, as illustrated by the most recent suicide data, she group activities for substance abuse notes. Similarly, the portion of Black students who said they had attempted suicide in the past year went down over that two-year period — from 14% to 10%. And the share of Black students who said they had made a suicide plan in the past year went down from 18% to 16%, and for Hispanic students that percentage went from 19% in 2021 to 16% in 2023.
Legalization of recreational marijuana
Due to the production of edibles and how they’re presented, it can be difficult to understand dosage. Similar to alcohol, it’s possible to consume too much too quickly. Some people who use edibles experience a delayed reaction to the products. This can lead to consuming more edibles to make up for the delay, resulting in getting higher than they bargained for.
Restoration of voting rights for former felons
21st St., across the street from Kroger, averages about 100 medical marijuana customers per day, but he expected at least double the business on Tuesday. Low said he lives with frequent back pain and believes recreational marijuana will be a boon for other Ohioans who also suffer. Leslie Seymour, of Newark, was Curaleaf’s first customer on Tuesday.
Marijuana may be harder on your heart, while moderate drinking could be beneficial.
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. For this latest study, Thayer and colleagues sought to learn more about how marijuana use affects the brain. “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.”
The truth is, both alcohol and weed may cause negative health effects, including addiction. If you find that smoking weed starts to affect your life in unhealthy ways and leads to unwanted consequences, those are signs you might be developing an addiction and should seek medical care. It’s a commonly held belief that smoking weed has fewer negative health effects than drinking alcohol, especially now that marijuana is legal in New York and many other states across the country. In short, used moderately (in the case of alcohol) or under the direction of a health care provider (in places where medical marijuana is legal), these substances may have positive health effects. However, they may vary based on who is using either substance, how much they are using, and in what ways they’re using it.
Which Is Worse for Your Health: Marijuana or Alcohol?
Still, there’s some evidence to suggest that regularly combining alcohol and weed may have some concerning effects over time. Carroll wrote a provocative piece for the New York Times exploring what’s known about the risks of these two popular but easily abused substances. And while doesn’t advocate underage users trying either one, he says it’s clear that overall, alcohol causes mesclun psychedelic a lot more harm. It’s impossible to say whether drinking alcohol or using marijuana causes violence, but several studies suggest a link between alcohol and violent behavior. There’s also this perception that it’s extremely rare to get addicted to marijuana, but that’s a myth. There’s research to show that 30% of people who use marijuana are going to develop an addiction problem.
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- It’s a commonly held belief that smoking weed has fewer negative health effects than drinking alcohol, especially now that marijuana is legal in New York and many other states across the country.
- Scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder conducted a review of existing imaging data that looked at the effects of alcohol and marijuana, or cannabis, on the brain.
- Alcohol is not only more addictive it also can cause more lasting damage to your health than cannabis.
A few states have legalized both recreational and medicinal marijuana, while others have only legalized medicinal strains. Although research thus far looks promising regarding the effects of legalizing marijuana (decrease in youth usage and increase in revenue from purchases), more research needs to be done before consistent regulation is enacted. There are also more ways to consume marijuana, such as liberty cap effects ingesting and inhaling, while alcohol is typically consumed by ingestion via a beverage. On the other hand, self-harm and suicide are much more common among people who binge drink or drink frequently. But scientists have had a hard time deciphering whether excessive alcohol use causes depression and anxiety or whether people with depression and anxiety drink in an attempt to relieve those symptoms.
Study co-author Kent Hutchison, also of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, notes that to date, studies that have investigated this association have produced mixed results. Study leader Rachel Thayer, of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Colorado Boulder, and colleagues recently reported their results in the journal Addiction. Stephanie Pappas is a contributing writer for Live Science, covering topics ranging from geoscience to archaeology to the human brain and behavior. She was previously a senior writer for Live Science but is now a freelancer based in Denver, Colorado, and regularly contributes to Scientific American and The Monitor, the monthly magazine of the American Psychological Association. 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.
Both weed and alcohol temporarily impair memory, and alcohol can cause blackouts by rendering the brain incapable of forming memories. The most severe long-term effects are seen in heavy, chronic, or binge users who begin using in their teens. On the other hand, low to moderate drinking — about one drink a day — has been linked with a lower risk of heart attack and stroke compared with abstention. James Nicholls, a director at Alcohol Research UK, told The Guardian that those findings should be taken with a grain of salt since “any protective effects tend to be canceled out by even occasional bouts of heavier drinking.” “How much you’re impaired depends on the person, and how much you smoke,” Baler said.
Unhealthy alcohol use includes any alcohol use that puts your health or safety at risk or causes other alcohol-related problems. It also includes binge drinking — a pattern of drinking where a male has five or more drinks within two hours or a female has at least four drinks within two hours. The consequences of heavy alcohol use are serious and include an increased risk of cancer, dementia, falls and dangerous interactions with medications.