Using Marijuana Reduces Alcohol Cravings In People Who Drink A Lot, Federally Funded Study Shows
From toxifillers.com with love
New federally funded research into the effects of cannabis on alcohol use finds that people who used marijuana immediately before drinking subsequently consumed fewer alcoholic beverages and reported lower cravings for alcohol.
“We found that across the entire sample, self-administering cannabis before alcohol significantly reduced alcohol consumption compared to when alcohol was offered without cannabis,” authors wrote in a study preprint published late last month on the open-access website PsyArXiv.
“Furthermore,” they continued, “we found that cannabis and alcohol co-administration was associated with significant acute reduction in alcohol craving compared to alcohol administration alone.”
The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, provides further evidence of a substitution effect, in which users report replacing some or all of their alcohol use with cannabis.
An eight-person research team from Colorado State University and the University of Colorado looked at the behavior of 62 adults who used both marijuana and alcohol and who engaged in heavy drinking for at least three months.
Each person participated in two separate sessions in which they could drink up to five alcoholic beverages—an initial priming drink, followed by up to four more optional drinks offered at 15-minute intervals.
In one of the two sessions, participants were first directed to consume marijuana in a manner of their choosing and at their typical dose, which was weighed and recorded.
When subjects used alcohol alone, they drank on average two self-administered beverages. With cannabis added to the mix, the average number of self-administered drinks was 1.5—roughly 25 percent lower.
And while not every participant drank less after using marijuana, those who did “reported reductions in alcohol craving at several timepoints after consuming cannabis and alcohol compared to alcohol alone,” the report says.
Alcohol cravings among those who drank more or the same after consuming cannabis either stayed level or increased, it notes.
The study concludes that “for some individuals who drink heavily, cannabis may serve as a substitute for alcohol, and craving reduction may be the mechanism through which this occurs.”
Nevertheless, authors acknowledged that effects aren’t one-size-fits-all.
“In sum, this study demonstrates that differential effects of cannabis on alcohol craving may underly the propensity to engage in substitution behavior, and that these effects are not dependent on plasma THC concentrations,” they wrote. “However, further research is needed to clarify other variables that may impact this relationship.”
While the findings from what the report calls a “novel human laboratory study” indicate “initial support for the idea that legal-market cannabis can serve as a substitute for alcohol among some heavy-drinking individuals,” it says, factors such as demographic differences, cannabis use motives, social context and subjective drug effects warrant further investigation.
“It is recommended for future work to explore additional individual and contextual factors that may predict whether cannabis can serve as a harm reduction substitute for alcohol,” authors wrote, “which may have important clinical implications for non-abstinent recovery approaches.”
The new study follows a separate survey analysis published in March that found that three in four young adults reported substituting cannabis for alcohol at least once per week—a “fast-emerging” trend that reflects the “rapid expansion” of the hemp product marketplace.
The report from Bloomberg Intelligence (BI) found that, across various demographics, cannabis is increasingly being used as an alternative to alcohol and even non-alcoholic beverages as more companies—including major multi-state marijuana operators (MSOs)—expand their offerings.
The findings were largely consist with a growing body of studies indicating that cannabis—whether federally legal hemp or still-prohibited marijuana—is being utilized as a substitute for many Americans amid the reform movement.
An earlier survey from YouGov, for example, found that a majority of Americans believe regular alcohol consumption is more harmful than regular marijuana use. Even so, more adults said they personally prefer drinking alcohol to consuming cannabis despite the health risks.
A separate poll released in January determined that more than half of marijuana consumers say they drink less alcohol, or none at all, after using cannabis.
Yet another survey—which was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and released in December—found that young adults are nearly three times more likely to use marijuana than alcohol on a daily or near-daily basis.
That poll provided more granular, age-specific findings than a similar report published last year, finding that more Americans overall smoke marijuana on a daily basis than drink alcohol every day—and that alcohol drinkers are more likely to say they would benefit from limiting their use than cannabis consumers are.
A separate study published in the journal Addiction last year similarly found that there are more U.S. adults who use marijuana daily than who drink alcohol every day.
In December, BI also published the results of a survey indicating that substitution of cannabis for alcohol is “soaring” as the state-level legalization movement expands and relative perceptions of harm shift. A significant portion of Americans also said in that poll that they substitute marijuana for cigarettes and painkillers.
Another BI analysis from last September projected that the expansion of the marijuana legalization movement will continue to post a “significant threat” to the alcohol industry, citing survey data that suggests more people are using cannabis as a substitute for alcoholic beverages such a beer and wine.
Yet another study on the impact of marijuana consumption on people’s use of other drugs that was released in December suggested that, for many, cannabis may act as a less-dangerous substitute, allowing people to reduce their intake of substances such as alcohol, methamphetamine and opioids like morphine.
A study out of Canada, where marijuana is federally legal, found that legalization was “associated with a decline in beer sales,” suggesting a substitution effect.
The analyses comport with other recent survey data that more broadly looked at American views on marijuana versus alcohol. For example, a Gallup survey found that respondents view cannabis as less harmful than alcohol, tobacco and nicotine vapes—and more adults now smoke cannabis than smoke cigarettes.
A separate survey released by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and Morning Consult last June also found that Americans consider marijuana to be significantly less dangerous than cigarettes, alcohol and opioids—and they say cannabis is less addictive than each of those substances, as well as technology.
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