5 ms·

Cannabis is in no way healthier than alcohol. It's hard to quantify the damages done by one vs. the other; but there are very serious social and psychological d

Cannabis is in no way healthier than alcohol. It's hard to quantify the damages done by one vs. the other; but there are very serious social and psychological downsides to regular cannabis use.

jasondigitized 5y ago
Pretty sure alcohol is way harder on your body than edibles or vaping cannabis. Alcoholism has a huge blast radius.
- kenneth 5y ago
  I feel like it's likely a larger proportion of weed-users have it affect their productivity and motivation to grow in life than the proportion of drinkers who become dangerous alcoholics or end up with cirrhosis. I don't have data to back this up though. I've seen more lives around me hampered by marijuana than by alcohol, despite having a very large amount of heavy drinkers in my circles.
  - mythrwy 5y ago
    I agree and I've seen the same. However as far as actual physical health (rather then mental or social) I believe cannabis to be far less detrimental. It might demotivate a person but it doesn't flat out kill them.
  - bigfudge 5y ago
    Is it also possible that alcohol is the lubricant for a society with dysfunctional social and environmental principles? Perhaps what we sometimes describe as motivation or personal growth isn’t actually that valuable when directed at goals that destroy the planet and isolate us from other humans.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- sharken 5y ago
  Don't have any facts to back the assumption up, but I'd agree that alcohol is harder on the body. Apart from the effects on the brain, there is also the weight issue when drinking both beer and wine. It's amazing to me how much difference just 6-7 kg less weight makes.
gcanyon 5y ago
UK expert disagrees —- marijuana does less damage to the user, and much less to friends and family, than alcohol does: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-11660210 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-11660210
- amscanne 5y ago
  That article is about the harm to society as a whole. Pulling a single line from the article to summarize: > Prof Nutt told the BBC: "Overall, alcohol is the most harmful drug because it's so widely used.
  - 8192kjshad09- 5y ago
    There are lots of ways to measure the harm of drugs. But pretty much all of them result in cannabis being among the least harmful. Another way to measure is the therapuetic index. It's the ratio of the lethal dose divided by the effective dose. It's about 10 for ethanol and 30,000 for cannabis. Larger is safer. This means drinking ~10 times as much as your usual amount of alcohol has a 50% chance of killing you. For cannabis you would need to consume ~30,000 times as much (which is probably not even physically possible).
    - kortilla 5y ago
      > Another way to measure is the therapuetic index. It's the ratio of the lethal dose divided by the effective dose. It's about 10 for ethanol and 30,000 for cannabis. Larger is safer. That’s a pretty pointless indicator. By that measure marijuana is better for you than water.
      - daniellarusso 5y ago
        That is technically correct if you were to consume abnormal amounts of either substance. I have read of people dying from consuming too much water. I have not read that of cannabis. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna16614865 https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna16614865
  - 5y ago
stryan 5y ago
Cannabis is absolutely healthier then alcohol by the sheer fact that it can not kill you.
- bigfudge 5y ago
  I don’t know why you’ve been downvoted. Yes there might be other metrics to use but this is a valid one
- astrange 5y ago
  It can kill you though. It raises blood pressure and in some people this causes heart attacks.
  - stryan 5y ago
    Interesting, I didn't know that. Though I'd argue that's not quite the same as alcohol and/or alcohol withdrawal are active causes of death while this seems more like a side-effect/contributor. At least from what I'm getting from the article[1] I read. Still, good point I'll keep that in mind. [1]https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/what-you-should-know-about-marijuana-and-high-blood-pressure/ar-BB1cGHqy https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/what-you-should-kno...
TRcontrarian 5y ago
I've had the misfortune of several alcoholic roommates, and it's disturbing. They'll yell at you, threaten you, get emotional, violent, cry, the whole works, and then deny it all the next morning. In contrast, every regular marijuana user I've known long enough to form a judgement about their habit is very inoffensive to the people around them. It doesn't seem to bleed out into their work and emotional lives as much. The evidence doesn't support marijuana being more dangerous than alcohol. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_harmfulness#/media/File:Drug_danger_and_dependence.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_harmfulness#/media/File:D... Alcohol is moderately more habit forming, and several orders of magnitude more dangerous.
- hutzlibu 5y ago
  Heavy marijuhana smokers can show some or all of that traits, too. But in general if I would have to chooss between a heavy pot smoker and a heavy drinker as roommate, I probably would "prefer" the average marijuanna user
  - netizen-936824 5y ago
    Citation please?
bigfudge 5y ago
Expert opinion and evidence doesn’t agree with you. See David Nutts papers which quantify harms in various domains for different recreational drugs. Both harms to users and others are way higher for alcohol than cannabis.
bigfudge 5y ago
This is the Lancet paper. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)61462-6/fulltext https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6...
unethical_ban 5y ago
You didn't even list any examples. I'll say this for cannabis: it can slow my mind down a bit when I otherwise am thinking about the 500 things that are worrying me in my life, and it allows me to sit down and watch a movie when I sometimes find it very hard to get the focus to do so. Self-medicating? Sure. Will I overdose on it or suddenly act with appalling bravado, risk-taking and sometimes anger? No. It makes me want to eat junk food. Alcohol, I believe, is much more dangerous (when used to get to the point of drunken-ness on a regular basis) for your body and behavior. I don't like the appeal of "stoner" culture either, and I think that like any vice or substance, it can have a negative effect on abusers. Our experiences must be different.

Cannabis is in no way healthier than alcohol. It's hard to quantify the damages done by one vs. the other; but there are very serious social and psychological downsides to regular cannabis use.

jasondigitized 5y ago

Pretty sure alcohol is way harder on your body than edibles or vaping cannabis. Alcoholism has a huge blast radius.

kenneth 5y ago
I feel like it's likely a larger proportion of weed-users have it affect their productivity and motivation to grow in life than the proportion of drinkers who become dangerous alcoholics or end up with cirrhosis. I don't have data to back this up though. I've seen more lives around me hampered by marijuana than by alcohol, despite having a very large amount of heavy drinkers in my circles.
- mythrwy 5y ago
  I agree and I've seen the same. However as far as actual physical health (rather then mental or social) I believe cannabis to be far less detrimental. It might demotivate a person but it doesn't flat out kill them.
- bigfudge 5y ago
  Is it also possible that alcohol is the lubricant for a society with dysfunctional social and environmental principles? Perhaps what we sometimes describe as motivation or personal growth isn’t actually that valuable when directed at goals that destroy the planet and isolate us from other humans.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
sharken 5y ago
Don't have any facts to back the assumption up, but I'd agree that alcohol is harder on the body. Apart from the effects on the brain, there is also the weight issue when drinking both beer and wine. It's amazing to me how much difference just 6-7 kg less weight makes.

gcanyon 5y ago

UK expert disagrees —- marijuana does less damage to the user, and much less to friends and family, than alcohol does: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-11660210 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-11660210

amscanne 5y ago
That article is about the harm to society as a whole. Pulling a single line from the article to summarize: > Prof Nutt told the BBC: "Overall, alcohol is the most harmful drug because it's so widely used.
- 8192kjshad09- 5y ago
  There are lots of ways to measure the harm of drugs. But pretty much all of them result in cannabis being among the least harmful. Another way to measure is the therapuetic index. It's the ratio of the lethal dose divided by the effective dose. It's about 10 for ethanol and 30,000 for cannabis. Larger is safer. This means drinking ~10 times as much as your usual amount of alcohol has a 50% chance of killing you. For cannabis you would need to consume ~30,000 times as much (which is probably not even physically possible).
  - kortilla 5y ago
    > Another way to measure is the therapuetic index. It's the ratio of the lethal dose divided by the effective dose. It's about 10 for ethanol and 30,000 for cannabis. Larger is safer. That’s a pretty pointless indicator. By that measure marijuana is better for you than water.
    - daniellarusso 5y ago
      That is technically correct if you were to consume abnormal amounts of either substance. I have read of people dying from consuming too much water. I have not read that of cannabis. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna16614865 https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna16614865
- 5y ago

stryan 5y ago

Cannabis is absolutely healthier then alcohol by the sheer fact that it can not kill you.

bigfudge 5y ago
I don’t know why you’ve been downvoted. Yes there might be other metrics to use but this is a valid one
astrange 5y ago
It can kill you though. It raises blood pressure and in some people this causes heart attacks.
- stryan 5y ago
  Interesting, I didn't know that. Though I'd argue that's not quite the same as alcohol and/or alcohol withdrawal are active causes of death while this seems more like a side-effect/contributor. At least from what I'm getting from the article[1] I read. Still, good point I'll keep that in mind. [1]https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/what-you-should-know-about-marijuana-and-high-blood-pressure/ar-BB1cGHqy https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/what-you-should-kno...

TRcontrarian 5y ago

I've had the misfortune of several alcoholic roommates, and it's disturbing. They'll yell at you, threaten you, get emotional, violent, cry, the whole works, and then deny it all the next morning. In contrast, every regular marijuana user I've known long enough to form a judgement about their habit is very inoffensive to the people around them. It doesn't seem to bleed out into their work and emotional lives as much. The evidence doesn't support marijuana being more dangerous than alcohol. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_harmfulness#/media/File:Drug_danger_and_dependence.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_harmfulness#/media/File:D... Alcohol is moderately more habit forming, and several orders of magnitude more dangerous.

hutzlibu 5y ago
Heavy marijuhana smokers can show some or all of that traits, too. But in general if I would have to chooss between a heavy pot smoker and a heavy drinker as roommate, I probably would "prefer" the average marijuanna user
- netizen-936824 5y ago
  Citation please?

bigfudge 5y ago

Expert opinion and evidence doesn’t agree with you. See David Nutts papers which quantify harms in various domains for different recreational drugs. Both harms to users and others are way higher for alcohol than cannabis.

bigfudge 5y ago

This is the Lancet paper. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)61462-6/fulltext https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6...

unethical_ban 5y ago

You didn't even list any examples. I'll say this for cannabis: it can slow my mind down a bit when I otherwise am thinking about the 500 things that are worrying me in my life, and it allows me to sit down and watch a movie when I sometimes find it very hard to get the focus to do so. Self-medicating? Sure. Will I overdose on it or suddenly act with appalling bravado, risk-taking and sometimes anger? No. It makes me want to eat junk food. Alcohol, I believe, is much more dangerous (when used to get to the point of drunken-ness on a regular basis) for your body and behavior. I don't like the appeal of "stoner" culture either, and I think that like any vice or substance, it can have a negative effect on abusers. Our experiences must be different.