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California Study Suggests Marijuana a Substitute for Alcohol

A New York Times article this week, Few Problems With Cannabis for California, reports that a pending study in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management by Mark Anderson and Daniel Reese has found increased marijuana use to be a substitute for alcohol use in California:

Based on existing empirical evidence, we expect that the legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado and Washington will lead to increased marijuana consumption coupled with decreased alcohol consumption. As a consequence, these states will experience a reduction in the social harms resulting from alcohol use.
 

The article discusses alcohol's relationship to traffic fatalities and violent crime, including domestic abuse, predicting that marijuana legalization will reduce those problems, with youth use of marijuana remaining stable.

The substitution question has been raised repeatedly at academic fora on marijuana legalization since the Colorado and Washington initiatives passed last year. In our movement we have tended to assume that they are substitutes, but not all academics are sure. At a one-day conference held by the RAND Drug Policy Research Center, at their Washington office, one of the guest presenters said the evidence they've seen "clearly" indicates that marijuana is a complement for alcohol use, e.g. increased availability of marijuana could have the effect of increasing alcohol use and is at least correlated with it. Another one of the guest presenters immediate chimed in to say that the evidence his team has seen "clearly" indicates that marijuana and alcohol are substitutes.

DPRC co-director Beau Kilmer often notes that a change in the amount of alcohol use, up or down, could dwarf any increase in marijuana use in terms of its public health ramifications, because alcohol is more harmful than marijuana. But he's cited evidence pointing in both directions, sometimes in different directions for different groups of people. Hopefully the JPAM study's findings will be born out by further research.

Permission to Reprint: This article is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license.
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  I was recently released

  I was recently released from federal prison where I was a resident as a result of running the best MMJ dispensary in Spokane Wa. I am now the proud owner of my very own federal probation officer. Isn't THAT special?

  I told this idiot that the reason that I am such an avid consumer of cannabis is that I was born an asshole, and further, that I came from a long line of assholes. All those assholes that preceded me believed that they could resolve this problem with alcohol. They were wrong. As a result of my choice, my six kids were the first generation in the known history of my family to be raised WITHOUT alcohol.

  My youngest is now thirty years old and I couldn't be more proud of that choice, those kids, or the life we've had as a result of that choice.

  Two more years of probation and I'm rid if the idiot and back in the saddle.

Cannabis and Beer

What people are failing to see here , is that the Hops plant is a member of the Cannabis family . That is your " connection " . Cannabis can work very well as a substitute for that evening 6-pack . I prefer to combine the two . The effects compliment each other . If you choose to get that daily buzz , Focus more on the Cannabis . Don`t become a daily guzzler . Alcohol is hard on the body . You don`t see many 90 year old drunks . A 100 year old Cannabis user is realistic . Vaporize your bud for the longevity .

Gee.. ya think?

Hm, the recreational drug that makes you dumb, dulls the senses, packs on the calories, leaves you feeling like shit in the morning, and damages your liver... or the one that enhances everything good about life with none of those side effects?  It's a no brainer.  Marijuana IS an ideal substitute for alcohol.

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