Drinking alcohol and getting high at the same time – sometimes known as “crossfading” – can enhance the effects of both and potentially lead to some real side effects. It’s possible to develop an emotional and/or physical dependence on both substances. Adolescents who use marijuana and alcohol together are more likely to develop drug and alcohol addiction, depression and other health and social problems . Unfortunately, more people are driving under the influence of weed and alcohol.
Enter your phone number below to receive a free and confidential call from a treatment provider. People’s responses to each substance can vary greatly, so what seems safer for one person might not work for someone else. Both can also leave you feeling a bit worse for wear the next day, though this is more likely to happen with alcohol.
Mixing edibles with alcohol
Combining weed and alcohol can increase the effects of both drugs and cause adverse reactions. The combination can also lead people to engage in unusual or risky behaviors. If you’ve mixed weed and alcohol and are having a bad reaction, it’s probably because alcohol seems to make the high from using weed stronger. This can happen any time you’ve consumed to much weed — with or without alcohol. It is commonly known that alcohol is addictive, but there is debate over whether marijuana can be considered addictive. It is possible to develop a dependence on marijuana, where a person experiences cravings, restlessness, mood and sleep disturbances, and irritability when they don’t use the drug.
Side Effects of Marijuana
Sure, research on the topic is ramping up a bit, but there’s still a lack of large, long-term studies. Before getting into comparing alcohol and weed, it’s important to understand some of the factors that make the comparison tricky. Cannabis and alcohol are both central nervous system depressants, meaning they slow down breathing, heart rate and brain function. Some people, especially those who are not used to weed consumption, may experience a “green out.” A green out can cause intense and unpleasant symptoms, such as dizziness, sweating, nausea, and vomiting. The order in which a person uses weed and alcohol may affect the outcome. Weed and alcohol together can also impair reaction times and other cognitive functions necessary for safe driving.
Weed and Alcohol
The effects of marijuana and alcohol on their own are unpredictable, and combining them makes this worse. You can absorb THC more quickly when there’s alcohol in your blood, which can increase the risk of experiencing uncomfortable side effects. Compared to solely drinking alcohol, using the two substances at the same time doubled the odds of drunk driving, social consequences, and harms to self.
Both drugs have similar how to wean off 10 mg prozac effects on the body and mind, including drowsiness, slowed reflexes, and changes in judgment and time perception. Weed appeared to slow down the rise of blood alcohol levels after consuming a high dose of alcohol. While there’s some research around the effects of drinking alcohol before using weed, there isn’t much about the opposite approach.
If using weed does indeed slow the absorption of alcohol, it might also delay feelings of drunkenness. This might seem like a good thing, but it makes it harder to know how impaired you really are. In a 2015 study, 19 participants drank either a placebo or small amount of alcohol. Ten minutes later, they used a vaporizer to inhale either a low or a high dose of THC. Karoly, Hollis C.; Ross, J. Megan; Prince, Mark A.; et al. “Effects of cannabis use on alcohol consu[…]drinkers in Colorado.” Addiction, September 2021.
Among college-aged drinkers, lifetime and past year use of cannabis increased as level of alcohol consumption increased [24, 25]. Using substances to cope with negative feelings may be a sign of a substance use disorder or an alcohol use disorder. Drinking large amounts of alcohol in a short amount of time can lead to alcohol poisoning, where critical parts of the brain that control breathing, heart rate, and temperature can shut down, leading to death. Because more alcohol is usually consumed when using alcohol and marijuana at the same time, users are at risk for alcohol poisoning and should pay close attention to how much they are consuming.
But if you’re sensitive to weed or don’t have much experience using it, it’s best to avoid mixing the two. It’s also important to remember that people can have very different reactions to the same mix of alcohol and weed. If you’re out in a group, one person’s reaction might be very different than yours. Daily drinking can have serious consequences for a person’s health, both in the short- and long-term.
A dry mouth and increased thirst are also common side effects of cannabis, and taken together, the two substances can worsen the likelihood of dehydration. A shortage of fluids makes a severe hangover the next morning more likely, and dehydration can require medical treatment in severe cases. If you’re old enough, you may remember hearing in the anti-drug class at school that when taken together, alcohol and cannabis double the effects of one another. While there is no evidence of a doubling effect, the research does indicate that the two substances do augment the effects of one another.
How To Handle a Bad Reaction
Further, if you try to cut back on either alcohol or cannabis, your reliance on the other substance is likely to increase. In fact, marijuana is the most frequently used substance among drinkers. People may use a combination of these substances to get more of an effect for both or combat the side effects of one or the other, but it can be risky and unsafe.
Depending on the individual and the amount consumed, users may experience altered senses (such as seeing brighter colors and have an altered sense of time) as well as have issues with cognition. There have been reports of delusions and hallucinations when taken in high doses. Although it is possible to experience negative side effects from marijuana, such as anxiety and paranoia, the drug is considered generally safe and what does flakka smell like non-life threatening.
- Despite the fact that alcohol is legal for people over the age of 21, it can be dangerous and deadly in both the short and the long term.
- Physical symptoms like nausea and vomiting are common, as well as sweating and dizziness.
- The authors reported no evidence for synergistic effects of acute combinations of very-low-dose alcohol and THC on subjective or physiologic response, or on cognitive performance.
- Generally, higher levels of consumption or an increase in consumption of one substance is related to higher levels of or an increase in use of the other substance.
- While cannabis alone had minimal effect on performance, again the combined impact of cannabis and alcohol on divided attention were greater than those by alcohol alone.
Other laboratory research has been used to examine driving-related skills and performance following co-administration of both alcohol and cannabis. Perez-Reyes and colleagues [67] conducted an investigation examining the interaction between alcohol and cannabis on plasma concentrations, subjective intoxication, and psychomotor performance. Alcohol (0.42 g/kg, 0.85 g/kg, or placebo) was administered to participants over 30 min, and cannabis (2.4% THC or placebo) was administered 15 min later. Findings from this research suggested that the performance impairment of driving-related skills attributed to alcohol were potentiated by cannabis. However, alcohol administration before cannabis administration did not significantly impact subjective ratings of “high,” heart rate, or THC plasma concentration. Similarly, Ramaekers et al. [68] assessed the separate and combined effect of alcohol and cannabis administration on driving performance during a balanced, 6-way, crossover design investigation.
It might seem harmless to mix alcohol and weed, but doing so can be a slippery slope toward getting overly intoxicated. If you take medication, talk to your doctor before using weed, alcohol, or both. They may weaken the effectiveness of your medication whats speed balling or increase your risk for certain side effects. When mixing weed and alcohol, there are a lot of other variables to consider in addition to which one you use first.
A number of recent studies also focus on how combining weed and alcohol affects your driving. For example, a 1992 study had 15 participants smoke a placebo, a high dose of THC, or a low dose of THC on three occasions. On each occasion, they’d rank a different dose of alcohol, including a placebo, as a low dose or a high dose. This is because alcohol increases the absorption of weed’s main psychoactive ingredient, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Typically, alcohol withdrawal symptoms happen for heavier drinkers.