Not to mention the fact that weed makes you stupid and you end up being a parasite sucking on the government tit like all the weed smokers I know.
Posted on 03/20/2015 10:51:48 AM PDT by ConservingFreedom
Worrying about teen drinking and drug use has kept many a parent up at night. With marijuana becoming increasingly available and legal in some parts of the country, the question has taken on new urgency: If teens are going to experiment, which is safer, booze or pot?
"The first answer always has to be neither," Dr. Aaron Carroll, a professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine, told CBS News. But then he acknowledges they're not exactly equivalent -- and he considers alcohol much more dangerous.
Carroll wrote a provocative piece for the New York Times exploring what's known about the risks of these two popular but easily abused substances. And while doesn't advocate underage users trying either one, he says it's clear that overall, alcohol causes a lot more harm.
"After going through all the data and looking at which is more dangerous in almost any metric you would pick, pot really looks like it's safer than alcohol," he said. "So I guess if I had to choose, that would be the answer."
Though many people associate drugs with crime, Carroll notes that most of the criminal activity tied to marijuana has to do with illegal distribution, not violence committed by people who smoke it.
"On the other hand, the number of crimes that are committed that have some sort of alcohol component related to them are massive -- hundreds of thousands a year, if not more," he said. "It's far worse than what's going on with pot."
Violent assaults, in particular, are often fueled by alcohol. In contrast, Carroll says research shows rates of interpersonal or domestic violence are actually "lower in people who smoke marijuana than people that don't."
Also tipping the scales against drinking is the fact that 1,800 college students die each year from alcohol-related accidents and almost 600,000 are injured while under the influence of alcohol, according to the National Institutes of Health.
A study published last year, looking at data from more than 7,400 U.S. high school seniors who said they had used alcohol or marijuana at least once, found drinking alcohol was associated with more unsafe driving, damage to relationships with friends and romantic partners, and regret about actions while under the influence of alcohol, especially among females.
"We always worry about pot as a gateway drug," Carroll said, "but research shows us that about 9 percent of people who experiment with pot will become dependent or abuse it. The percent that later become dependent or abuse alcohol is greater than 20 percent. So more people who use alcohol are actually going to have a problem with it later in life."
Why is alcohol more socially accepted, despite all the evidence stacking up against it? Carroll thinks that's an accident of history -- because it's been around and legal for a longer period of time. "It's hard to argue from data or from actual science that that's the way it should be," he said.
"We have to have a conversation. There are risks and benefits, and in moderation everything is fine."
However, when you compare either to clean living, clean living wins every time.
So right you are.
“Which poison is better?” Ask Socrates.
Pot
Pot is OK?
Boy, didn’t see that one coming.
/sarc
Wrote about why states won't turn down money to set up exchanges mostly because they would be "marginalized." July 15, 2015.
Check out more of this guy's writings to determine just how much credence you want to give the guy or his claim: thehealthcareblog.com
In what context? Daily use? Alcohol To use at a party this weekend? Pot. Addiction? Alcohol Long-term physical health? Alcohol Short-term physical health? Alcohol Mental health? Pot
The answer of which is worse depends on the question. If I had to pick one for my teenager to use (not abuse) it would be alcohol. If I had to pick one for my teenager to abuse, it would probably be pot.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that Marxism / Socialism / Communism is a far greater threat to your health than booze or pot.
They also started with water. Doesn’t prove a thing.
Not to mention the fact that weed makes you stupid and you end up being a parasite sucking on the government tit like all the weed smokers I know.
The Earth is littered with the bodies of those who testify to that truth.
Neither one is good for you, but it’s not the business of government to try to abolish everything that is not good for you.
So pot's "safer" because people drink and then go drive and cause death and mayhem, but the dopers are causing no harm, holed up in their homes.
Hey, dummy! When you legalize pot those idiots are going to be out on the streets causing death and mayhem right along with the drunks because diving impaired is driving impaired!
So now you have expanded the universe of impaired drivers!
I wish Obama had done enough pot, and booze, and maybe a little more blow, to put him on welfare for life. There is obviously a lot of brain damage, but not quite enough. He would have done a whole lot less damage to the country as an unemployed parasite than as an occupant of our White House.
Currently, the information that we have indicates many more problems with alcohol, but alsohol has been used regularly for thousands of years, while pot, although used, has been in the shadows. As it is more common and users are comfortable telling their doctors, counselors, and therapists about its’ use, we may start to find connections between pot use and different problems that were not so obvious when it was in the shadows. The jury is still out.
Regardless, golf, fishing and playing with grandchildren have them both beat- no question.
But that’s not what the article is about. Maybe you should do an article about clean living?
While either one can be abused, he is correct.
Most of them used alcohol (and/or tobacco) even before poit.
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