When it comes to recreational drugs, both alcohol and cannabis are among the most famous compounds but using them together is worse for health. Crossfading is a common practice among people where they mix alcohol with weed hoping to get an enhanced effect of both. However, this is a dangerous combination and can be fatal if not regulated.
After many states have changed their laws on cannabis, it is now being available at local shops. This easy availability is a plus point for patients who need cannabis to relieve their pains and other problems. But on the other side, it has also indicated a growing trend of using cannabis by teenagers who often like to mix it with alcohol.
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A new study conducted by the Prevention Research Center at Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation studies the effects of using recreational cannabis and alcohol, as both of them are easily available in Oregon. This trend of co-use is exceptionally common among teenagers, making them high-risk groups for drug-related complications and side effects.
This study is now published in the journal Substance Use & Misuse.
Using cannabis and alcohol together increases each other’s effects leading to a ‘high’ feeling which lasts for many hours. Many people like to drink before taking cannabis as alcohol helps to absorb the THC from cannabis, inducing higher effects.
These results might be tolerable for some people but in young children and first-timers they can completely knock them out. This dangerous combination can also cause a number of side effects such as hallucinations, dizziness, digestive distress, nausea, vomit, losing balance, difficulty in breathing and losing consciousness.
This research team obtained the data on 11th-grade students who were a part of a Student Wellness Survey (2010-2018) hoping to assess their usage of alcohol and cannabis.
Based on the findings, the team was surprised to see that there was a significant increase in co-using alcohol and cannabis especially in counties having multiple retailers of both of them.
This exceptionally high increase after the legalization of cannabis possess a huge risk for the health of US teenagers. Shockingly, these results also reported an increase in parental approval of cannabis and alcohol use to their children.
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The legalization of cannabis has drastically increased its availably and reach especially for teenagers. Although many of them were using cannabis before its legalization too it was not easily accessible as it has become now after the introduction of the local retailers.
This common availability has also changed people’s prescription on alcohol and cannabis finding it to be the ‘new normal’ completely ignoring the risks attached.
Dr. Grisel García-Ramírez is the lead researcher of this study. According to her, these findings suggest a high increase in alcohol and cannabis especially in counties that have more retailers of recreational marijuana as well as alcohol. Although it is illegal for underage people to buy any of these somehow, they are able to get access to both and their resources are not commercial retailers but social.
