Q Drug Information

Should a Person Drink Alcohol or Smoke Marijuana?

While consuming alcohol is socially acceptable, society stigmatizes marijuana consumption. Prohibition on alcohol ended in 1933 while marijuana use is a federal offense. However, scientific views differ from written law.

Health Risk

A report by the World Health Organization concluded that most of the risks associated with marijuana in aggregate are unlikely to produce public health problems comparable in scale to those currently produced by alcohol and tobacco. The French medical institute INSERM found that alcohol, heroin and cocaine pose the greatest threat to public health, while marijuana posed the least danger to public health. The Canadian Senate Committee published an exhaustive report on marijuana concluding that scientific evidence overwhelmingly indicates that marijuana is substantially less harmful than alcohol and is more as an issue of public health and not criminal law.
A study funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and conducted by the University of California at Los Angeles, found that there was not a positive association with lifetime marijuana use and cancers of the lung and aero digestive tract. Apparently the federal government was hoping for a different outcome since this, the largest trial of its kind, does not appear on the White House website.

More Risks

The journal "Cancer Epidemiology" published a report indicating that even moderate consumption of alcohol, six drinks or less per week, may lead to an elevated risk of stomach, rectal and bladder cancer. The body breaks down the psychoactive substance in alcohol, ethanol, to the known carcinogen, acetaldehyde. The psychoactive substances in marijuana are cannabinoids and mimic the so-called endocannabinoids, chemicals that the body produces naturally and that which are necessary for maintaining health. Alcohol consumption is toxic to healthy organs and cells. Alcohol use can pose serious problems, depressing the central nervous system, leading to unconsciousness, coma and death. It is not possible to die from an overdose of marijuana because cannabinoids do not act upon the brain stem. Drinking alcohol often results in injury and acts of violence. In addition, unlike alcohol, injury and aggression are not associated with marijuana use.
Sources:
http://www.marijuana.com/drug-war-headline-news/149818-usa-pot-vs-alcohol-what-experts-say.html
http://www.lewrockwell.com/armentano-p/armentano-p42.1.html

The Hormones

Deep sleep triggers the release of growth hormone, which fuels growth in children and boosts muscle mass and the repair of cells and tissues in children and adults. The effect of sleep on the release of sex hormones also encourages puberty and fertility.
Consequently, women who work at night and tend to lack sleep are, therefore, more likely to have trouble conceiving or to miscarry.
During sleep, the body creates more cytokines, which are cellular hormones that help the immune system fight various infections. Lack of sleep can reduce the ability to fight off common infections. Research also reveals that a lack of sleep can reduce the response of the body to the flu vaccine. For example, sleep-deprived volunteers given the flu vaccine produced less than half as many flu antibodies as those who were well rested and given the same vaccine.
Although lack of exercise and other factors are important contributors, the current epidemic of diabetes and obesity appears to be related, at least in part, to chronically getting inadequate sleep. Evidence is growing that sleep is a powerful regulator of appetite, energy use and weight control. During sleep, the body increases the production of the appetite suppressor leptin and the appetite stimulant grehlin decreases. Studies find that the less people sleep, the more likely these people are to be overweight or obese and prefer eating foods that are higher in calories and carbohydrates. People who report an average total sleep time of five hours a night, for example, are much more likely to become obese compared to people who sleep seven to eight hours a night.
A number of hormones released during sleep also control the use of energy by the body. A distinct rise and fall of blood sugar levels during sleep appears to relate to sleep stage. Not getting enough sleep overall or not getting enough of each stage of sleep disrupts this pattern. One study found that, when healthy young men slept only four hours a night for six nights in a row, their insulin and blood sugar levels mimicked those seen in people who were developing diabetes. Another study found that women who slept less than seven hours a night were more likely to develop diabetes over time than those who slept between seven and eight hours a night.