Lit up and tanked up. Smoking cannabis and drinking alcohol are the two most widely used substances to get intoxicated. And many people who party, use them together.

There has been a lot of research on the effects of either on our brains and bodies, but what happens when you mix the two?

AsapSCIENCE explores the research of being drunk and stoned and how that affects us biologically.

Listen to how great alcohol is...

Alcohol changes how your neurons communicate with each other, and this affects your central nervous system. Alcohol suppresses the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate, while also increasing the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA.

source

The result is that you feel less, you perceive less, and finally you remember less.

Doesn't that sound great? Decreased perception, decreased affection, and decreased memory. What a recipe for success in life, don't you think? Yeah, I remember all the "great drunks" I've met, right?

Cannabis is different. The active ingredient is THC, and it acts on the cannabinoid receptors in the brain.

Some neurons fire continuously as a result, making our imagination and thoughts feel more magnified and connected.

However, cannabis does share commonality with alcohol, and that is the glutamate inhibition. Glutamate is crucial to the learning process, and studies have linked getting high and drunk at the same time with poor memory.

source

There was a study in 2002 that studied how cannabis and alcohol are widely co-abused, particularly among adolescents. The study investigated the effects on rats, and show that rats had a harder time recognizing objects when they were drunk and stoned compared to those who were only intoxicated by one substance.

And if you're looking for an extra high, drinking increases the effects of marijuana. Another study has shown how drinking two shots of alcohol will make your THC blood plasma levels double, compared to those who drank a placebo alcoholic drink.

The reason for this increase in cannabis intoxication is most likely because our blood flow increases in our body when we are intoxicated with alcohol, thereby increasing THC absorption. There is also an additional study that shows evidence that cannabis is more of a benefit than simply increasing your intoxication with alcohol. Cannabis can potentially reduce some of the damage done to the liver from heavy alcohol consumption.

So far combining the two might not seem like a big deal, but there are some side effects to consider.

Some of the features that make cannabis an effective treatment for chemotherapy, it is dangerous to take while also drinking. Cannabis prevents vomiting, which is why it's useful to treat nausea from chemotherapy, but over intoxication from alcohol requires vomiting to expel the poison. Being stoned and high can pose a serious health risk due to the prevention of vomiting which is a requirement to save your life from being killed by alcohol poisoning.

In my experience and from the data above, it indicates that marijuana is much more safe than alcohol. This is also borne out in many studies. You can die from drinking too much, but you can't die from smoking too much, and there are many more incidents of violence at the hands of those intoxicated by alcohol, than those stoned with cannabis.

Here is a short video explaining the same:

What Happens When You're Drunk AND Stoned At The Same Time?

So maybe take it a bit easy this New Year's Eve, and stick to just one substance at a time. Better yet, get rid of the dumbing-down "Devil's Juice" that can turn people into "demons" of anger and hate, and instead opt for some peace-pipe chillaxin.

Smoke as much as you want, you will never die. The same can't said for alcohol... and yet, the former is "dangerous" and "illegal" while the latter is "safe".

Jailing people for an extremely safe plant, while rapists get less time. Such a "sane" world we live in... no wonder we want a damn escape from this shit... LOL!

Happy New Year!

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Thank you for your time and attention! I appreciate the knowledge reaching more people. Take care. Peace.

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References:

• Here's what happens to your brain when you're drunk and stoned at the same time
• Memory impairment following combined exposure to delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol and ethanol in rats.
• Ethanol increases plasma Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) levels and subjective effects after marihuana smoking in human volunteers
• Cannabidiol protects liver from binge alcohol-induced steatosis by mechanisms including inhibition of oxidative stress and increase in autophagy.

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@krnel
2016-12-31, 9:30am