Both drugs affect the
brain. This is not a good idea. At the same time, both have specific therapeutic
benefits for specific conditions and are well applied. After all that the rationalization for
recreational use does not exist. However
they are both mild and safe relaxants in the proper dosage and can be fully
justified. For alcohol a pint or a shot
or a glass with your meal is completely sane.
Likely something similar exists for Cannabis.
After saying that we
enter the world of self-abuse and yes, alcohol is far more dangerous. You just need to remember just what you are
doing and try to avoid that behavior. A friend
of mine quit his excessive beer habit recently upon discovering his blood
pressure had hit 230/180 and his heart was swollen. Do not think that is a sane threshold. It is his good fortune that he also did not
have a clot also to finish him off.
Otherwise, I have never
known anyone who died of cannabis abuse, but that is certainly not true for
alcohol and extremely so for tobacco.
The 10 Reasons Cannabis
Is Far Safer Than Alcohol For The Consumer and Community
August
26, 2013
Marco
Torres,
Both
cannabis (marijuana) and alcohol have very different and complex actions on the
brain. The long term effects of both are often quite different from their short
term effects. We have been led to believe that cannabis is a dangerous and
addictive drug that has destroyed the lives of countless teens and adults. We
have also been encouraged to accept through poorly designed scientific studies,
that cannabis causes lung cancer and is a “gateway” to harder drugs. The
government has even tried to convince the public that people who use cannabis
are more at risk to themselves and the public than those who use alcohol. What
we have been led and encouraged to believe through mainstream education about
cannabis and its reality, are two entirely different things.
The
health impact of any drug depends on how it’s used, who’s using it, how much is
used, and under what circumstances. Cannabis and alcohol are no exception, so
comparing them directly is difficult — each possesses the potential for unique
risks or benefits.
Both
alcohol and cannabis can be considered a narcotic or hallucinogen, that affects
the central nervous system, causing changes in behavior and often addiction.
But there are major differences in how each reacts with the human body.
Alcohol,
regardless of its type (i.e. beer, wine, liquor, etc) is a class A1 carcinogen which are confirmed human
carcinogens. Alcohol consumption has been causally related with breast cancer
for some time. Increasing evidence indicates a stronger association with neoplasms, though the risk is
elevated for other types of breast cancers too. Regardless of how much alcohol
is consumed, it will always be a class A1 carcinogen. That doesn’t mean you
will get cancer from drinking a beer or a glass wine, but the classification
for the substance is clear.
Cannabis
on the other hand is a plant and it is one of the most powerful healing plants
in the world which can make cancer essentially disappear. Cannabis compounds are
responsible for halting the growth factors that are responsible for metastatic
growth. Cannabinoids can alsoreduce heart attacks by 66% and insulin dependent diabetes by
58%.
However,
the therapeutic effects of cannabis come from juicing the leaves or extracting
its medicinal compounds, NOT smoking it. “If you heat the plant, you will
decarboxylate THC-acid and you will get high, you’ll get your 10 mg. If you
don’t heat it, you can go up to five or six hundred milligrams & use it as
a Dietary Cannabis. . . and push it up to the Anti-oxidant and Neuro-protective
levels which come into play at hundreds of milligrams,” stated Cannabis
clinician Dr. William Courtney.
So
there is clearly a major difference in therapeutic value based on how the
majority of cannabis users experience the plant, rather than the methods to
maximize cannabinoid delivery into the blood stream.
Cannabis
– whether Sativa, Indica, Ruderalis, male, female, hermaphrodite, wild, bred for
fiber, seeds or medicinal resin – is a vegetable with every dietary essential
we can’t synthesize: Essential Amino Acids, Essential Fatty Acids, Essential
Cannabinoid acids and hundreds of anti-Cancer compounds.
As
social element, there is nothing wrong with smoking cannabis either, but it
will not provide the same therapeutic value is all. Smoking it is not “bad” or
“wrong” or “immoral.” It is simply something that millions of responsible
adults choose to do with their own time, just like drinking a glass of wine.
Despite alcohol being more toxic, more addictive, more harmful to the body,
more likely to result in injuries, and more likely to lead to interpersonal
violence than cannabis, the latter is demonized.
Below
are just a few facts that highlight the very different impacts of these two
popular substances on those who consume them and on the broader community. A
vast amount of additional information can be found in the book, Marijuana
is Safer: So why are we driving people to drink? (Chelsea Green,
2009), which was foreword by the former Chief of the Seattle Police Department.
1. Many
people die from alcohol use. Nobody dies from cannabis use. The U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that
more than 37,000 annual U.S. deaths, including more than 1,400 in Colorado, are
attributed to alcohol use alone (i.e. this figure does not include accidental
deaths). On the other hand, the CDC does not even have a category for deaths
caused by the use of cannabis.
2. People
die from alcohol overdoses. There has never been a fatal cannabis
overdose. The official publication of the Scientific Research
Society, American Scientist, reported that alcohol is one of the most toxic drugs
and using just 10 times what one would use to get the desired effect could lead
to death. Cannabis is one of — if not the – least toxic drugs,
requiring thousands of times the dose one would use to get the desired effect
to lead to death. This “thousands of times” is actually theoretical, since there
has never been a case of an individual dying from a cannabis overdose.
Meanwhile, according
to the CDC, hundreds of alcohol overdose deaths occur in the United States
each year.
3. The
health-related costs associated with alcohol use far exceed those for cannabis
use. Health-related costs for alcohol consumers are eight times greater
than those for cannabis consumers, according to an
assessment recently published in the British Columbia Mental
Health and Addictions Journal. More specifically, the annual cost of alcohol
consumption is $165 per user, compared to just $20 per user for cannabis. This
should not come as a surprise given the vast amount of research that shows
alcohol poses far more — and more significant — health problems than cannabis.
4. Alcohol
use damages the brain. Cannabis use does not. Despite the myths we’ve
heard throughout our lives about cannabis killing brain cells, it turns out
that a growing number of studies seem to indicate that cannabis actually has
neuroprotective properties. This means that it works to protect brain
cells from harm. Research published in the journalsBehavioural Brain Research and Experimental
Brain Researchdemonstrated that even extremely low doses of THC (cannabis’s
psychoactive component) — around 1,000 to 10,000 times less than that in a
conventional cannabis cigarette — can jumpstart biochemical processes which
protect brain cells and preserve cognitive function say researchers from Tel Aviv University (TAU). Another example
is one
recent study which found that teens who used cannabis as well as
alcohol suffered significantly less damage to the white matter in their brains.
Of course, what is beyond question is that alcohol damages brain cells. Scripps
scientists discovered that eleven months of alcohol consumption that produced a
blood alcohol level sufficient to be considered intoxicated decreased
neurogenesis by more than fifty percent! Furthermore, the decrease in
neurogenesis lasted for many weeks of abstinence. In contrast to the effects of
alcohol, a series of publications during the past few years suggest that
stimulating the brain’s cannabis neurotransmitter system appears to have the
exact opposite effects upon neurogenesis in the hippocampus of both young and
old laboratory animals and humans, i.e. neurogenesis is increased by
stimulation of our brain’s cannabis receptors. When we are elderly, our brain
displays a dramatic decline in neurogenesis within the hippocampus. This
decline may underlie age-associated memory impairments as well as depression.
Research has demonstrated that stimulating the brain’s cannabis receptors
restores neurogenesis. Thus, later in life, cannabis might actually help your
brain, rather than harm it.
5. Alcohol
use is linked to cancer. Cannabis use is not. Alcohol use is associated
with a wide variety of cancers, including cancers of the
esophagus, stomach, colon, lungs, pancreas, liver and prostate. Cannabis use
has not been conclusively associated with any form of cancer. In fact, one
study recently contradicted the long-time government claim that
cannabis use is associated with head and neck cancers. It found that cannabis
use actually reduced the likelihood of head and neck cancers. If you
are concerned about cannabis being associated with lung cancer, you may be
interested in the results of the largest case-controlled study ever conducted to
investigate the respiratory effects of cannabis smoking and cigarette smoking.
Released in 2006, the study, conducted by Dr. Donald Tashkin at the University
of California at Los Angeles, found that cannabis smoking was notassociated
with an increased risk of developing lung cancer. Surprisingly, the researchers
found that people who smoked cannabis actually hadlower incidences of
cancer compared to non-users of the drug. THC that targets cannabinoid
receptors CB1 and CB2 is similar in function to endocannabinoids, which are
cannabinoids that are naturally produced in the body and activate these
receptors. Researchers suggest that THC or other designer agents that activate
these receptors might be used in a targeted fashion to actually treat lung
cancer.
6. Alcohol
is more addictive than cannabis. Addiction researchers have
consistently reported that cannabis is far less addictive than
alcohol based on a number of factors. In particular, alcohol use can result in
significant and potentially fatal physical withdrawal, whereas cannabis has not
been found to produce any symptoms of physical withdrawal. Those who use
alcohol are also much more likely to develop dependence and build tolerance.
Also when cannabis is more available, studies show that the use of hard drugs
like heroin and cocaine actually decreases.
7. Alcohol
use increases the risk of injury to the consumer. Cannabis use does not. Many
people who have consumed alcohol or know others who have consumed alcohol would
not be surprised to hear that it greatly increases the risk of serious injury.
Research published this year in the journal Alcoholism:
Clinical & Experimental Research, found that 36 percent of hospitalized
assaults and 21 percent of all injuries are attributable to alcohol use by the
injured person. Meanwhile, the American Journal of Emergency Medicine reported
that lifetime use of cannabis is rarely associated with emergency room visits.
According to the British Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, this is
because: “Cannabis differs from alcohol … in one major respect. It does not
seem to increase risk-taking behavior. This means that cannabis rarely
contributes to violence either to others or to oneself, whereas alcohol use is
a major factor in deliberate self-harm, domestic accidents and violence.”
Interestingly enough, some
research has even shown that cannabis use has been associated with
a decreased risk of injury.
8. Alcohol
use contributes to aggressive and violent behavior. Cannabis use does not. Studies
have repeatedly shown that alcohol, unlike cannabis, contributes to the
likelihood of aggressive and violent behavior.An article published
in the Journal of Addictive Behaviors reported that “alcohol is
clearly the drug with the most evidence to support a direct
intoxication-violence relationship,” whereas “cannabis reduces the likelihood
of violence during intoxication.”
9. Alcohol
use is a major factor in violent crimes. Cannabis use is not. The National
Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism estimates that 25-30% of violent crimes in the United
States are linked to the use of alcohol. According to a report from the U.S. Dept. of Justice, that
translates to about 5,000,000 alcohol-related violent crimes per year. By
contrast, the government does not even track violent acts specifically related
to cannabis use, as the use of cannabis has not been associated with violence.
(Of course, we should note that cannabis prohibition, by creating a
widespread criminal market, is associated with acts of violence.)
10 Alcohol
use contributes to the likelihood of domestic abuse and sexual assault.
Cannabis use does not. Alcohol is a major contributing factor in the
prevalence of domestic violence and sexual assault. This is not to say that
alcohol causes these problems; rather, its use makes it more likely that
an individual prone to such behavior will act on it. For example,
a study conducted
by the Research Institute on Addictions found that among individuals who were
chronic partner abusers, the use of alcohol was associated with significant
increases in the daily likelihood of male-to-female physical aggression, but
the use of cannabis was not. Specifically, the odds of abuse were eight times
higher on days when men were drinking; the odds of severe abuse were 11 times
higher. According to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN)website
highlights alcohol as the “most commonly used chemical in crimes of sexual
assault” and provides information on an array of other drugs that have been
linked to sexual violence. Given the fact that cannabis is so accessible and
widely used, it is quite telling that the word “cannabis” does not appear
anywhere on the page.
Considered
together, the results of all of the above gives us perspective on the function
of each substance and its potential role in consumerism and communities,
especially as cannabis is slowly decriminalized worldwide. Binge alcohol
consumption during the more vulnerable periods of our lives is clearly able to
interfere with critical neural processes and produce significant long-term
negative consequences and disease that cannabis use can actually protect us
from.
If
I were to choose one of the two for own my children–for their health, safety
and wellness, cannabis would win hands down, especially considering its
therapeutic potential when used responsibly and appropriately. But that’s not
the message the mainstream wheels of deception want out there is it?
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