Marijuanas Health Effects Are About to Get a Whole Lot Clearer
In most cases, greening out after consuming weed by itself is unpleasant but not necessarily dangerous, and no deaths have ever been recorded. However, individuals who green out after consuming alcohol and weed may want to seek medical attention, especially if they have respiratory or cardiovascular conditions. It’s also important to note that different methods of taking THC affect the body differently. When weed is inhaled, THC is released into the bloodstream very quickly, but if it’s ingested in food or drink, it can take longer to feel its effects.
Weed before alcohol: Assume you’ve had an extra drink or two
These kinds of drinks carry a connotation of health, said Emily Moquin, a food and beverage analyst at Morning Consult. They tout themselves as “hangover-free” and without the high calories of alcohol; they claim to help you feel “focused,” balanced, relaxed. One cannabis beverage company even suggests pairing their drinks with a spa day.
Know what you’re taking
The combination can also lead people to engage in unusual or risky behaviors. Both drugs have similar effects on the body and mind, including drowsiness, slowed reflexes, and changes in judgment and time perception. Weed appeared to slow down the rise of blood alcohol levels after consuming a high dose of alcohol.
Mixing Weed and Alcohol: Effects and Risks
Long-term alcohol consumption can produce physiological changes in the brain such as tolerance and physical dependence. As individuals continue to have alcoholic beverages over time, their brains may change structurally and transition from occasional drinking to chronic ecstasy mdma or molly consumption, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. While some consumers are chasing sobriety in its entirety, others are becoming “Cali-sober,” meaning they cut out alcohol but continue to consume other substances such as cannabis.
Drinking alcohol before smoking marijuana increases the absorption of THC and can intensify the drug’s effects. It should be noted that some studies suggest neither substitution nor complementary effects. There is no specific limit to how much rehab for women can be consumed together, as it varies depending on factors such as individual tolerance and the concentration of each substance.
- There is little research on what happens if you drink alcohol first and then use cannabis, and vice versa.
- This can increase the risk of adverse outcomes, such as impaired judgment, slowed reaction times, and decreased motor control.
- However, alcohol has another neurochemical avenue through which it can create addiction—endorphins.
- The potency of either substance can also impact the level of alcohol and weed concentration in your blood.8 For instance, a beer has lower alcohol per volume and you tend to drink it more slowly than a shot.
- These include monitoring the number of drinks consumed, pacing consumption over time, and using tools like breathalyzers or blood tests to measure alcohol levels.
- More extreme cases may need to remain under medical care while they undergo a full detoxification process.
Human trials won’t start the second that the DEA makes marijuana’s new status official. Researchers will have to wait for guidance from federal agencies like the FDA and the NIH, says R. Lorraine Collins, the director of the University at Buffalo’s Center for Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research. And given the limitations around Schedule III drugs, scientists still won’t be able to simply purchase the same cannabis that millions of Americans are consuming from their local dispensary.
Both alcohol and marijuana slow reaction time, impair coordination and concentration, and reduce decision-making abilities — and the drugs cause greater impairment when used together. A 2001 study in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence showed that when people drank the equivalent of two shots of alcohol and smoked marijuana, their THC levels were almost double that of individuals who hadn’t had any alcohol. Using alcohol and weed simultaneously also increases the chances of having unprotected sex with a partner, as well as other negative outcomes relating to legal issues, academia, and relationships. Research indicates that people who mix alcohol and cannabis are more likely than those who only drink alcohol to engage in sensation seeking behavior.
In addition, there seems to be a sample-dependent distinction between the impact of cannabis use on alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems. For instance, review of the neurobiological mechanisms suggests that cross-tolerance exists between alcohol and certain cannabinoids. This cross-tolerance may result in increased use among those seeking to experience increased effects from co-use (i.e., “cross-fading”).
Sadly, due to a total lack of knowledge, combining marijuana and alcohol is still a pharmacological roulette. Various factors could determine the severity of the effects you experience from mixing marijuana and alcohol. When users experience an overdose of their recovery national institute on drug abuse nida drug of choice, it’s advised that they seek some form of treatment. For an alcoholic overdose, drinkers should be taken to a hospital where they can have their stomach pumped and remain under observation until the drug has processed out of their system.
When using any psychoactive substance, overdose is always a possible outcome. An alcoholic overdose can be fatal or leave lasting damage, while a marijuana overdose might be very unpleasant but has almost never been found to be fatal on its own. The information in this article and any included images or charts are for educational purposes only.
Other research suggests that, if weed slows your body’s rate of alcohol absorption, then it may delay the feeling of being drunk. This may cause you to make unsafe decisions, especially if you’re unaware of your impairment level. Chronic or excessive alcohol consumption is known to affect balance and disrupts normal walking patterns. This is because alcohol can damage parts of the brain responsible for coordination, including the cerebellum.
However, when you mix alcohol and marijuana, they can lead to unpleasant or even dangerous side effects. Obviously, there is still too little specific information available in the scientific literature to predict what will happen when both of these drugs are present in the brain. My prediction is that marijuana will tend to reduce the effects of alcohol.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse, a major federal research funder, has a directive to study the harms of cannabis use rather than any potential benefits, says Amanda Reiman, the chief knowledge officer of New Frontier Data. (New Frontier is an analytics firm focused on the legal cannabis industry.) In 2018, research on the potential harms of cannabis use received more than double the funding that research on its medicinal or therapeutic use did in the U.S., U.K., and Canada. In 2020, a spokesperson for NIDA told Science that although the agency’s traditional focus was on marijuana addiction, it has started exploring the therapeutic potential of compounds in cannabis to treat addiction to other substances. In serious cases, some people misuse both weed and alcohol because they struggle with a substance use disorder or an addiction. Some alcohol enthusiasts tout the advantages of drinking by citing the potential health boosts such as the reduced risk of heart disease for infrequent drinkers and the benefits of polyphenols in red wine, which have antioxidant properties. Cannabis also has health and medical benefits which include reducing pain, improving sexual libido, treating inflammation, and acting as neuroprotectants.
Therefore, it is important to research and understand the laws and regulations in your area before consuming alcohol and weed together. Cross-fading is a term used to describe the simultaneous use of alcohol and cannabis. Specifically, when a person is both drunk and high at the same time, they’re “cross-faded.» This is because the combination of weed and alcohol produces a unique experience more pronounced than consuming either on its own. A recent study has also shown that those who consumed alcohol had much higher levels of THC in their bloodstream compared to a placebo group.
Particularly among those who don’t use marijuana on a regular basis, drinking and then smoking weed can cause intense symptoms such as nausea, sweating and dizziness. In some cases, the individual may experience even more disruptive symptoms such as panic attacks, anxiety or paranoia. It is not advised to combine alcohol and cannabis if you have a history of substance abuse or are currently taking medication that can interact with either substance. Additionally, combining the two can increase the risk of potentially harmful or distressing side effects, such as dizziness, nausea, and impaired judgment. So long as both substances are legal to possess and consume in your jurisdiction, then yes, they are legal to combine.