Marijuana vs. Alcohol: Which Is Really Worse for Your Health?
by Joe Brownstein | January 21, 2014 03:04pm ET
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Research into the health effects of marijuana is still in its infancy.
Credit: Marijuana photo via Shutterstock
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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.
"As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a
bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I
smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life," Obama
said during the interview. "I don't think it is more dangerous than alcohol."
But how apt is the comparison between these substances? 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.
Both
alcohol consumption
and pot smoking can take a toll on the body, showing both short- and
long-term health effects, though alcohol has been linked to some 88,000
deaths per year, according to the CDC, while for a number of reasons
those associated with marijuana use are harder to come by. And research
into
marijuana's health effects is still in its infancy, compared with the rigorous studies looking at alcohol and human health.
Short-term health consequences
Drinking too much alcohol can quickly kill a person. The inability to
metabolize alcohol as quickly as it is consumed can lead to a buildup of
alcohol in the brain that shuts down areas necessary for survival, such
as those involved with heartbeat and respiration. [
7 Ways Alcohol Affects Your Health]
"You can die
binge-drinking
five minutes after you've been exposed to alcohol. That isn't going to
happen with marijuana," said Ruben Baler, a health scientist at the
National Institute on Drug Abuse. "The impact of marijuana use is much
subtler."
(Of course, subtle effects don't equate with no danger, as is the case
with smoking cigarettes, which is linked with 440,000 deaths per year in
the U.S.)
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.
Alcohol is more likely than marijuana to interact with other drugs. The
way that alcohol is metabolized, or broken down, in the body, is common
to many drugs that are taken for a variety of conditions, said Gary
Murray, acting director of the Division of Metabolism and Health Effects
at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
This means that for people taking drugs or medications while drinking,
the alcohol can increase or decrease levels of the active drug in the
body.
"Those things can make it very hit and miss, whether you're getting an active dose of a medication," Murray said.
Still, both drugs can affect health in indirect ways, too.
Because
marijuana can impair
coordination and balance, there is the risk of hurting oneself,
particularly if someone drives or chooses to have unprotected sex while
their inhibitions are lowered, Baler said. These are two areas where
people using marijuana could hurt themselves for the short and long
term.
Pot Quiz: Test Your Marijuana Knowledge, Dude!
You might not think marijuana and
quizzes go together, but on the assumption that you arrived at this quiz
sober, we pose some serious questions that will require your utmost
attention and critical thinking skills. Good luck.
0 of 10 questions complete
Long-term health consequences
The long-term effects of drinking heavily are well known. "Excess alcohol is going to lead to very severe consequences, and
chronic excess alcohol is the most likely to lead to a lot of threatening issues," Murray said.
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.
"I emphasize 'can' – it's not even clear to the best scientists what
are the triggers that allow that progression to happen," he said, noting
that why some people have a higher risk than others of developing liver
disease from drinking is not understood medically or biochemically.
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.
But while early studies showed some evidence linking marijuana to lung
cancer, subsequent studies have debunked that association. Baler said
it's unclear why marijuana smoke does not have the same result as
tobacco smoke on the lungs, but perhaps some
beneficial compounds in the marijuana
smoke cancel out the ill effects, or perhaps the other health habits of
marijuana smokers are different from those of cigarette smokers.
But cigarette smoking plays a complicated role in studying the impact
of marijuana smoke, Baler said. Marijuana smokers tend to smoke much
less than cigarette smokers, as some may smoke one joint a few times a
week.
"It's a very tough epidemiological nut to break," Baler said.
Additionally, researchers looking to study long-term marijuana use have
had difficulty in finding people who regularly smoke marijuana but
don’t also smoke tobacco cigarettes. And the illegality of marijuana has
also limited research in this field.
For marijuana, much of the concern is with young people who use the
drug, because the drug interferes with the development of the brain
while it is still maturing, Baler said. [
10 Facts Every Parent Should Know About Their Teen's Brain]
Smoking marijuana interferes with connections being made in the brain
"at a time when the brain should be at a clear state of mind, and
accumulating, memory and data and good experiences that should be laying
out the foundation for the future," Baler said.
"How much you're impaired depends on the person, and how much you
smoke," Baler said. Because some people are stoned a lot of the time,
while others may use marijuana only on weekends, the health effects
become difficult to generalize.
"You're cumulatively impairing your cognitive function. What's going to be the ultimate result, nobody can say."
Benefits
There is no known medical use for consumed alcohol, but there are health benefits observed in moderate drinkers, including
lower rates of cardiovascular disease and possibly fewer colds, Murray said.
"We always counsel people to avoid drinking to excess, but moderate drinking is not something that's very dangerous," he said.
As for marijuana, whose legalization for medical uses has been a matter
of strong public policy debate for years, there is ample evidence that
beneficial compounds can be found in the plant.
"Researchers are working around the clock to try to identify the
ingredients in marijuana that have potential," to benefit human health,
Baler said.
Once such chemicals are in a pure form, and researchers understand
their effects on the body, then they could be put in clinical trials for
use in cancer, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, glaucoma and other
diseases, he said.
"There are segments of the population that want to bypass the entire
process, grabbing this nugget of truth … and claiming smoking marijuana
can be good for your health and have medical uses," Baler said.
Although for palliative care, he said, "that would be a different realm
of medicine," in which the goal is to drug a person so they do not feel
pain.
The year 2014 has brought with it the first legal sales of marijuana to
people who aren't using the drug for medical reasons in the United
States since the 1930s, as voters in Colorado and Washington state
brought about this policy change.
Public health researchers have said studying rates of injuries,
accidents, mental illness and teen use in the wake of the new laws will
lead to a better understanding of marijuana's public health effects.
