Alcohol and Pot Together Doubles Odds of Engaging In Negative Social Behavior
Read Time:1 Minute, 24 Second
Do marijuana and alcohol go together? Probably not. A study published in May and picked up by Scientific American has answered that question for what scientists say is the first time.
From Newser:
Researchers write in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research that no study has previously “directly compared those who use cannabis and alcohol simultaneously versus concurrently (i.e., separately) in the adult general population.”
What they found: People who both smoke marijuana and drink alcohol are twice as likely to indulge in both at the same time, with a press release stating they “had the heaviest drinking patterns in terms of quantity and frequency.” That simultaneous use roughly doubles their odds of driving drunk over those who were just drinking, according to data from National Alcohol Surveys of more than 8,600 people in 2005 and 2010.
Partaking in both alcohol and pot simultaneously also doubles their odds of engaging in behavior that leads to negative social consequences (think arrests, work problems, fights, etc.).
What study author Meenakshi S. Subbaraman would like to see come out of her research: that “as the cannabis industry continues to grow, manufacturers will consider some sort of warning label related to increased risks when mixing alcohol and cannabis.”
Scientific American also points to a second study, published in the spring in Molecular Psychiatry, that exposed another downside to marijuana use. It found, at least among chronic pot smokers, users are more likely to remember things incorrectly, even if they’ve abstained from using for a month, compared to people who don’t smoke at all.
Happy
0 %
Sad
0 %
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %
0
0
Moderation in all things sounds like a good idea, but it does seem we’re trained to see users of Cannabis to be obsessive, stoned-all-the-time users which isn’t the case. I stoped drinking many years ago except for a very occasional beer or glass of wine with dinner. These days I don’t smoke either but it was finding something much better that helped me dump booze. I hope this study isn’t ammunition for the “if it feels good ban it” crowd.
I still drink, and wish I didn’t. I did manage to quit smoking 8 years ago, and that’s one of the better things I did.
I am proof positive you can do both in moderation. I do it when we go out have a drink or two and smoke a bowl or 5.