Weed or alcohol: which is worse for your health according to science…

Americans are more likely to consume marijuana than alcohol, intriguing new data shows.

About 17.7 million people in the U.S. use the drug daily, compared to 14.7 million daily drinkers, according to findings from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

This marks the first time since records began in 1979 that marijuana has overtaken alcohol — a trend experts say is a direct result of widespread legalization.

Weed advocates argue that this shift will benefit the health of the land. The reduced health risks of marijuana, compared to booze, have long been a fundamental argument of the legalization lobby.

Earlier this month, the Biden administration announced it would reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, putting it under the same heading safety category such as some types of Tylenol and steroids.

However, a slew of recent studies have raised growing concerns about the myriad health harms associated with regular marijuana use, especially since today’s marijuana plants are at least four times more potent than they were 30 years ago.

Some products sold in dispensaries, such as resins and oils, contain 90 percent THC – the active ingredient in cannabis that produces the high – compared to four percent in 1995.

But what if you’re not a daily user and only drink semi-regularly, in a similar way to what most people do with alcohol? Is it really less harmful?

The answer is not necessarily. But the associated conditions vary and depend on the amount and frequency of use.

As marijuana legalization has spread across the US and reached 24 states, numerous studies are beginning to shed light on its alarming health consequences.

Research published Monday found that the number of hospital visits for cannabis poisoning among older adults tripled after the drug was legalized in Canada in 2018.

Meanwhile, in California, where the drug has been legal since 2016, hospital admissions for cannabis-related complications have soared, from 1,400 in 2005 to 16,000 in 2019.

And the latest CDC data shows that approximately 130,000 people under the age of 25 are hospitalized for cannabis-related reasons each year in the US.

Experts say the reason for these pot-related withdrawals ranges from mental health crises, including psychotic attacks and suicide attempts, to heart and lung problems – and even a little-known emetic disorder, cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, which is thought to lead to well a third of regular users.

There is also ample evidence showing that the number of DUI cases related to marijuana increases sharply in regions where the drug is legal.

In Canada, for example, marijuana-related traffic accidents requiring emergency room treatment increased 475 percent between 2010 and 2021, while DUI crashes increased only 9.4 percent.

But the number of hospital visits linked to marijuana still pales in comparison to the number of admissions linked to alcohol. According to CDC data, it is said to be nearly 2 million per year. And it’s worth noting that hospital admissions for cannabis-related accidents are in the hundreds, but alcohol-related ones are in the thousands.

There is little doubt that when it comes to acute physical illness, chronic and heavy alcohol intake is more dangerous.

Studies have shown that regular alcohol consumption can increase the risk of a number of conditions, including heart problems, liver disease, stroke, diabetes and several forms of cancer.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), half of all alcohol-related cancers occur in people who drink less than three and a half pints of beer per week.

Furthermore, a recent edict from the Canadian Center on Substance Use and Addiction states that just two drinks per week are enough to increase the risk of a host of conditions, including heart disease.

The WHO recently changed its alcohol guidelines to state that no amount of drink is safe.

Harvard studies show that binge drinking increases the risk of heart disease by at least 45 percent and heart attacks by 72 percent.

Experts think alcohol causes health problems by damaging DNA. In the body, liquor is converted into acetaldehyde, a chemical that both damages DNA and prevents the body from repairing it.

Once DNA is damaged, cells can grow out of control and create a cancerous tumor, while also damaging the cells that line the blood vessels, causing problems with the cardiovascular system.

Each year in the U.S., about 178,000 deaths are attributed to alcohol, compared to about 300 from marijuana.

But cannabis is not safe for heart health. Those who use cannabis daily – and especially smoke it – are 25 percent more likely than non-users to have a heart attack, and 42 percent more likely to have a stroke.

However, the effects of marijuana on mental health are demonstrably greater than those of alcohol. And life-destroying psychosis can occur after just one joint or edible meal.

A 2019 study from researchers at Kings College London found that daily use of high-potency cannabis can increase the risk of psychosis fivefold.

While alcohol-related deaths can be much greater in terms of numbers, cannabis-related deaths tend to be more violent and extreme.

Perhaps one of the most chilling cases of this was seen in the recent story of Californian audiologist Bryn Spejcher, who stabbed her date 108 times and killed him while suffering from cannabis-induced psychosis.

Spejcher, now 34, had only gotten high “a handful” of times in her life.

A DailyMail.com investigation published last year found that at least 290 American children have suffered brutal, preventable deaths from marijuana in the past decade.

Examples include the Texas man who killed his nine-month-old baby with a pocket knife while suffering from cannabis-induced psychosis, and the Illinois mother who choked her four-year-old daughter to death while screaming, “I’m sending Emily to see Jesus.”

Other studies have found that regular marijuana use makes you three times more likely to die by suicide, and recent US experiments have found that teenagers who regularly get high stunt the development of parts of the brain. concerned with reasoning and learning.

Scientists believe that the THC in cannabis disrupts signals in the brain that control mood, attention and memory, as well as feelings of reward and pleasure.

By comparison, a 2022 review of 23 studies by experts at Canada’s McMaster University found no significant risk of depression or anxiety among adolescents who drink heavily.

Then there is the risk of addiction.

It has long been said that cannabis addiction is incredibly rare. However, experts now say this is a damaging myth.

Research from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) shows that approximately four million Americans meet the criteria for a “marijuana use disorder,” or addiction.

Additionally, a study in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry found that nearly one in five people who smoked cannabis met the criteria for dependence.

A Danish study of 6.6 million people born between 1985 and 2021 found that 41 percent of cannabis addicts were diagnosed with major depression.

They also found that chronic marijuana use quadrupled a person’s risk of being diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Moreover, experts say there are still huge gaps in our knowledge about the long-term effects of high-potency marijuana, while there is plenty of data on alcohol’s risks.

“We have spent decades researching the health effects of drinking,” internist Dr. Salomeh Keyhani told the newspaper WashingtonPost.

‘But cannabis research is still evolving and it will take years to understand the public health implications of its commercialized use – in new products and doses. ‘

Ultimately, Dr. Keyhani says that infrequent marijuana use is unlikely to cause much harm if you use a low-strength product and don’t smoke it.

She says: ‘I suggest they try CBD edibles with a THC content of less than five percent – ​​with the caveat that edibles can enter the system more slowly and unpredictably, so patients should start low and go slow.”