Well, you specifically mention binge drinking - so I assume you’re not looking to compare the long-term negative effects of constant moderate consumption.
I’ve rarely seen anyone getting into a fist-fight with a lamppost after smoking a joint, ditto for beating up family members, unadvisable sexual choices etc.
I recently read an article which suggested that in the UK something like 50% of violent crimes were committed under the influence of alcohol, not to mention road casualties. So even if smoking is illegal where you live, you’re more likely to end up in court as a result of drinking related recklessness.
Whether anyone is likely to find that pot is a satisfying substitute for getting drunk is, of course, a whole nother problem.
I personally don’t think pot is a substitute for drinking anymore than it would be for cocaine. People who are alcoholics want alcohol, not pot. I enjoy both but for very different reasons. On the other hand I do believe that we would see less overall alcohol use if pot were legal if for not other reason than there would be a new alternative. Doing both at the same time does not mix too well for most people.
This has been my experience as well. I also know a couple of heroin addicts who say smoking pot has helped them kick. But I don’t trust heroin addicts.
IMHO, it is potentially helpful in that it gives the drinker something to do to fill the time that drunken stupors formerly occupied. But for others, it’ll just make them want to drink more because there won’t be the endocrine-tickling physical addiction aspect. YMMV.
In Morocco, alcohol is “haram” (strongly discouraged, but not forbidden) by Islam. Few Moroccans therefore drink. Pot however, is not “haram”. Pot or Hashish is a staple agricultural product in some regions (the Rif mountains) and as almost*) as much a part of everyday life as alcohol is in the west.
Old men in the marketsquare will drink hot mint-tea with sugar; they often smoke pot when they feel like it.
So Lobsang, in Morocco pot is a viable alternative. You might want to check out the social and cultural effects of this “social experiment”.
*) From what I’ve hear and experienced, the production of hashish and the usage within the country are discouraged by the government, but rather halfheartedly. The export of hashish, however is fiercely persecuted, as many Europeans in Moroccan jails can testify.
I’ve been told that in Ethiopia, the chewing of Quat-leaves takes the place that we fill with drinking, smoking, smoking pot AND drinking coffee. A quat session takes hours, and many men have one every day !
Since I’m not an addict of anything except caffiene (no, I’m not kidding :() I can’t say for certain that it would help a recovering alcoholic, but if there is a person who is in need of chronic (heh) psychological relief, using pot could possibly keep them from becoming addicted to alcohol in the first place.
It might even help someone who is in the process of developing dependence on alcohol but not full blown addiction. But that would be more difficult than someone who has not started drinking regularly because, as the others have said, it would lower their inhibitions to the point that they may have a drink anyway.
In wartime most of us used substances to help us survive. In 1960’s VietNam it was a choice between pot (some of the best pot I ever had, bar none!) and booze.
Potheads and boozers worked together Ok during the day, but after duty we broke up into separate groups.
As we potheads got stoned we got more mellow, more giggly, laughing and having fun, but we could get straight as string in a moment’s notice, like when we started getting incoming we responded appropriately. And we never made trouble, which is why the cadre never made much about our open use of pot it wasn’t a problem!
Juiceheads, however, were a problem when they drank too much. If they were just occasional users it wasn’t too much problem, but when those guys got smashed, they would lock and load on each other and we’d have to take their guns away. In a firefight, they were useless.
We always tried to convert guys, and we foumnd that if we could get a heavy juicer to try pot, he’d like the high better than booze (and no hangover!), and h;'d eventually convert. Sure we’d all maybe have a beer on occasion, but we chose pot for intoxication. And it’s not addicting.
So why is pot illegal and booze is legal? Besides the heavy lobby from the liquor industry and the backlash from prohibition… Pot makes you think for yourself, booze makes you follow the crowd. And we just can’t have free-thinkers in the USofA…
Yes. As a recovering addict who has tried replacing one drug for another, and who knows seemingly countless other recovering addicts who have tried the same thing and not gotton the expected results, my opinion and experience is both anectdotal and biased.
I’ve seen plenty of stoned people, and of the activities they do, “think” isn’t one I’d put high on the list. Independent or not, it mostly makes people goofy- not freethinking and enlightened.
I think pot is safer alternative. My friend is a former alcoholic. Now he is a pothead. Yes, he substituted one substance for another, but things are better. When he was drunk, he got mean and violent and abusive to his friends and wife. Now he is mellow and chilled and no longer violent and much more pleasant to be around. His life is definetly better for it.
Personally, I find pot a lot safer too. I can get shitfaced and not have a hangover in the morning. I won’t get sick and vomit on pot. I can get up for work the next day. However, it’s too bad I don’t really like smoking pot! I think it tastes gross and it makes me fall asleep. I think I’ll go have a beer now!
I really don’t see pot being used as an alternative to drinking. More like an enhancer. I’ve known too many addicts.
I remember seeing an interview with Robert Blake on the “Late Late Show with Tom Snyder.” Yeah, THAT Robert Blake.
Blake was chain smoking so the topic of his nicotine addiction came up. He smoked something like 4+ packs a day. Nicotine gum? Patches? Sure, but not to help cut down or quit. He used these as a means to squeeze the maximum amount of nicotine into his body.
I would expect to see pot used with booze in the same way. Drinking to excess will lead to nausea and vomiting. This might ruin a night’s revelries, but it might save you from drinking yourself to death.
Add some pot, which will prevent the nausea. The pattern will become excessive drinking—nausea—some pot to settle the stomach—overdose—death.
Not that this is necessarily a bad thing. It all depends on how you answer the following question:
During spring break a drunken college student passes out in the street in front of your home. You should call:
A) the police
B) Animal Control
C) an ambulance
D) Terminex
E) no one—it’s street sweeping night.
One thought about marijuana is that in one sense it is prbably healtier for you than a cigerette without all the mysterious substances added to it by the Tobacco Companies.
If weed is made legal, I am buying stock in Frito Lay.
As a recovering alcoholic, I can say that pot helped me stay off the hooch. BUT, I had made the choice to quit drinking already, and had a couple of weeks under my belt before I had any dope. I basically used it when I wanted to get “altered”. I’m a couple of months shy of 10 years off alcohol, and still smoke pot occasionally. My life is immeasurably better.
Can you substitute one for another? I’m sure you can find someone to tell you that you can, and others who will tell you that you can’t. It will usually relate to their own personal experiences, experiences of others, or just a wild ass guess. Why don’t you try it and see? IMHO, being a pot head would be waaaaay better than being an alcoholic, especially health wise. As mentioned above, at least binge smoking won’t kill you. Can’t actually.
Keep in mind, different types of pot produce different highs. Cannabis Sativa will give you an “up” high, where you get giggly, energetic and tend to have some wild ass ideas. Cannabis Indica will give you more of a relaxing body stone, or “couch-lock”. Some hybrids combine the effects of both.
Oh, and try and take in an AA meeting sometime. They do good work. I don’t go anymore, but I could never have gotten through my first year without it.
Speaking as someone who grew up with an alcoholic who WOULD try to replace booze with weed I can honestly say I would rather live with a pot-head than a drunk. I’m sure there are other “children of alcoholics” out there who could say the same thing.
Now what’s PHYSICALLY better for you…who’s to say? But as for your mental stability as well as that of the people around you, I say (if you MUST have one or the other), ROLL IT UP.
Put me in the “booze is bad, pot is bad” camp, at least for recovering alcoholics. When I sobered up, it was in some ways much tougher for me to quit pot than alcohol, at least psychologically. After all, I had never gotten arrested, gotten sick, or made an ass out of myself because of pot so it didn’t have nearly the negative connotations as with alcohol. When I quit drinking, I’d often smoke pot to take the edge off.
When I discussed this with other recovering alcoholics whose opinions I respected, they jumped all over me. One quote: “If you think smoking pot will help you recover, you’re jacking off with both hands, boy.” And you know, they were right. I can’t speak for all alcoholics, but if there’s something I can abuse, I’ll abuse it, and I ended up smoking about a bag of pot a day. The worst damage that did to me was prevent me from learning to deal with life and pain, something I had to do if I wanted to recover, rather than just white-knuckling it.
So, yeah, although pot is not nearly as physically traumatizing as alchohol, either one will keep me from recovery (however you want to define it).
