What is more harmful to health: cannabis or alcohol?
Don't you have a feeling that the word “weed” has never been so fashionable now? Reasons for this abound, especially after the controversial legalization of the drug in Uruguay. Former President Barack Obama said in a statement published in Live Science that he smoked marijuana when he was very young and sees the act as a bad habit that can cause as much addiction as cigarettes.
In the same interview, Obama said he thinks marijuana is no worse than alcohol. Is he right? Do you know which of the two drugs is most harmful to health? The fact is that both substances are toxic when used sporadically; but issues involving legality and long-term use are quite different from drug to drug, which makes comparison difficult.
Facts and data
What is known, for example, is that in the Americas alone, alcohol accounts for 88, 000 deaths each year. Deaths from marijuana are already harder to account for, even because studies of alcohol health damage began much longer than research on marijuana.
Let's compare: Imagine that a person drinks a lot of alcohol. At some point this person's body will have a kind of breakdown, because it can not metabolize large amounts of alcohol in a short time, causing the alcohol to go to the brain and reach fundamental regions responsible for breathing or heartbeat, for example. .
National Drug Abuse Researcher Ruben Baler explained that it is possible to see a person die of drunkenness five minutes after having drunk a lot. With cannabis, this is impossible. According to him, overuse of marijuana is more subtle.
Comparation
Baler explained that this is not why we can say that marijuana has no harm. Cigarettes, for example, do not kill overnight like drinks, but are responsible for the deaths of 440, 000 people a year in the US alone.
What cannabis does in the body of the user is to increase heart pressure and blood flow, and this substance is not able to interfere with the action of any type of medicine that the user is taking, unlike alcohol, which is metabolized from Like medicines, it can increase or cut the effect of medicines.
Marijuana can cognitively impair by altering a person's rational ability and physical balance. This can lead to accidents, injuries, falls and wrong decision making, which is valid for both short and long periods of use.
Consequences on long periods of use
You already know that alcoholism is a serious disease whose implications range from stomach problems to serious liver diseases such as cancer and cirrhosis, just to name a few of these problems. It is logical that not all people who drink will develop these diseases, but the chances increase greatly, especially in those who drink excessively and frequently.
On the other hand, the effects of continued use of cannabis are not yet known. Some animal studies indicate that use may make reproduction difficult. In addition, cannabis can cause psychiatric problems in those who are pre-disposed or even anticipate the onset of psychiatric conditions in young people.
Because traditional cannabis use is done by burning the weed and inhaling smoke, the respiratory system can be compromised, causing inflammation and even chronic breathing problems. Still, recent studies indicate that marijuana is less harmful to the lung than cigarettes, and marijuana use is not even linked to lung cancer. In addition, the use of cannabis compared to tobacco use by a smoker is much lower.
Baler's biggest concern is about underage consumption of the herb, after all, it interferes with brain development, which is not yet complete in adolescence.
And the benefits? Are they really there?
There is no medical recommendation for alcohol use, but medicinal use of cannabis not only exists but is released in some countries. With regard to drinking, Baler says that he always advises people to drink little and that in such cases alcohol does not pose major dangers.
As for cannabis, it is a fact that the plant has proven benefits in treating diseases such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, diabetes and glaucoma. Baler states that even if the use of this drug is proven to be 100% therapeutic, its use in medicine would be quite different from the recreational form. One of the major goals of the medical community is to find a way to use marijuana as an ally in ending pain in critically ill patients.
Marijuana legalization in Uruguay, and more recently in some US states, will enable doctors and researchers to monitor drug effects more closely and for all types of users. For now, we can only wait for more answers. And you, what do you think about it?
* Posted on 01/30/2014
