Cannabis vs Alcohol - Your thoughts

Hm. Well, in the UK weed is still illegal. I'm aware it's for sale on every street corner, but I'd have no idea where. :D

Alcohol isn't bad. Some people react poorly with it, but it's the individual, not the booze. When I drank I wouldn't hang out with problematic drinkers, so it was easy to avoid.

There are age-old arguments around this - why is weed illegal when alcohol isn't? Weed isn't a gateway drug. Weed is okay because it's "natural". Etc. These were mainly put forth by people who just wanted to use weed without trouble from the law. I mean, being "natural" doesn't truly mean anything, and nothing goes into good beer that isn't natural. Also, weed can be a gateway drug, and I don't know how there's any debate about it.

One thing I will say, weed stinks. That's a big downside. I have a friend whose neighbor smokes weed, and honestly it can be rather rank in their garden at times.

Either way, I think we all need something to help us out every now and then. Pressures of work, family, and so on. Something to take you somewhere else for a bit.

As a life-long non-smoker, I wouldn't smoke weed if I were to try it. I'd eat gummies though to give it a try. Sadly, it's illegal in the UK, and the Dark Web just isn't that much fun.....

There is a story on medical Cannibis use at the BBC today, it's laughable:

"A high-profile government climbdown that legalised a type of cannabis medicine on the NHS five years ago misled patients, campaigners say.
It was thought the law change would mean the unlicensed drug, which treats a range of conditions, could be freely prescribed by specialist doctors.
But fewer than five NHS patients have been given the medicine, leaving others to either pay privately or miss out."

Parents feel misled by ministers over medical cannabis pledge
 
Nathan said:
Either Cannabis or alcohol used moderately can be therapeutic.
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Marijuana is complex chemically and not yet fully understood, but it is not a narcotic. Like alcohol, marijuana acts as both stimulant and depressant, but it lingers in body organs longer than alcohol. Smoking marijuana can injure mucosal tissue and may have more carcinogenic potential than tobacco. Research has indicated that marijuana intoxication definitely hinders attention, long-term memory storage, and psycho-motor skills involved in driving a car.

Alcohol, let me see. High blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, liver disease, and digestive problems. Cancer of the breast, mouth, throat, esophagus, voice box, liver, colon, and rectum. Weakening of the immune system, increasing the chances of getting sick. Learning and memory problems, including dementia and poor school performance.

Set 'em up, Joe!
 
I did both when young so speak from experience. Personally I wouldn't want anyone using either on a daily basis, both cause impairment and there are consequences both mentally and physically from daily use. Yet there are also plenty of people who can use either ocassionally and it doesn't negatively affect their life.

Here's the but.....in my opinion alcohol use has more negative consequences then pot use. I have gone as far as saying if they discovered alcohol today and spent ten years studying it it would never be legalized.
 
The drinking age was 18 back in the day. Which meant that many began at16. Alcohol was huge in my world. Drinks before diner, after dinner. at meetings and business lunches. It's amazing that so many survived.
 
The average adult, regardless of how much they are familiar with alcohol, have a rather reasonable understanding of how it affects people's body and mind, why people A to Z in life use it, why some abuse it, and all the problems it creates for individuals that cannot control themselves, especially damaging health affects, and their negative impacts to society.

The same cannot be said for weed for several reasons with the first being that it has much more variable effects. Effects that are not only difficult for average users within a wide range of situations to accurately describe, that the dominant media has so thoroughly been confused misunderstanding what they do relate, that non-users who publicly spout about it sound like idiots to users. Beyond the below links one might read, I am NOT going to respond into any discussion regardless of baiting.

Second when legal medical weed arose in 1996 and legal recreational use was imminent, big businesses moved in, and for economic and legislative reasons did everything they could to bury old narratives. Especially anything that argued against regular daily use. The below is an archived 1971 web page that remains much closer to the truth but which one will likely read little about elsewhere. The second link is from 1995 and that has also since been suppressed.

On Being Stoned

Marijuana and the Brain, Part II: The Tolerance Factor

...In addition to the now-disproved claims of dependence, opponents of marijuana-law reform always refer to the acute effects of the drug as proof of its dangers. Prohibitionists believe that tolerance is evidence that marijuana users have to increase their consumption to maintain the acute effects of the drug. No wonder they think marijuana is dangerous! Marijuana-law reform advocates, more familiar with actual use patterns and effects, always consider the effects of chronic use as their baseline for describing the drug.

[on the other hand] Most marijuana users regulate their use to achieve specific effects. The main technique for regulating the effects of marijuana is manipulating tolerance. Some people who like to get "stoned" on pot, which (unlike the initial side effects of other drugs) can be enjoyable. These people smoke only occasionally.

People who like to get "high" [Including medical users that need to do so for medical reasons.] tend to smoke more often, and maintain modest tolerance to the depressant effects. But this is not an indefinite continuum. Just as joggers encounter limits, regular users of marijuana eventually confront the wall of receptor down-regulation. Smoking more pot doesn't increase the effects of the drug; it diminishes them.
 
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Alcohol destroyed me over a long period of time. I did abuse it though, drinking heavily everyday for 30 years.
Cannabis, depending on my mood was at times mentally stimulating. Bringing out my artistic side so much.
It also had a down side where I would lock myself away at home, not wanting to interact with anyone. Paranoia was present at times.
I would say, used recreationally, which is what I did, both had a detrimental effect for me. Alcohol was physically destructive, cannabis mentally destructive via withdrawing from society.
 
I was a heavy user of both for many years. I quit weed about 40 years ago and I quit alcohol about 20 years ago. Of the two, alcohol was the more harmful and life disrupting.
I did acquire some modern, high potency, home grown weed a few years ago but discovered that I no longer have the craving for it that I once had.
 
Bretrick said:
Alcohol destroyed me over a long period of time. I did abuse it though, drinking heavily everyday for 30 years.
Cannabis, depending on my mood was at times mentally stimulating. Bringing out my artistic side so much.
It also had a down side where I would lock myself away at home, not wanting to interact with anyone. Paranoia was present at times.
I would say, used recreationally, which is what I did, both had a detrimental effect for me. Alcohol was physically destructive, cannabis mentally destructive via withdrawing from society.
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Thank you for sharing that with us.
 
For me alcohol proved to be far more disruptive to my life. I became addicted to it, and it was very hard to break the addiction. I smoked weed every day back in college, and then one day I just quit. I haven't had a drink for 27 years and haven't consumed THC for much longer than that. Yes, there are downsides to pot. But alcohol was crippling. There is no comparison between the two. Pot may be bad for people, but alcohol is much worse. From personal practical experience they aren't even in the same ballpark.
 
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