Marijuana vs. Alcohol: Which Is
Really Worse for Your Health? 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 weed 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. "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.
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