Patients weaning themselves off alcohol often ask me if they can use Marijuana as a substitute for alcohol.  They have come to rely on alcohol to soothe their complicated emotions and cannot envisage a life without something to make them feel better.

This is often referred to in AA as “switching the witch for the bitch.”  Both are chemicals and destroy brain cells.

Marijuana these days can cause changes in the brain that impair learning, especially in teenagers as their brains have not finished developing. Brains are not fully developed until the age of 25 or 26. Chronic marijuana use can lead to changes in personality, judgement and reasoning skills.

Pot damages the heart and lungs, increases the incidence of anxiety depression and schizophrenia and it can trigger acute psychotic episodes. Many adults appear to be able to use marijuana with relatively little harm, but the same cannot be said of adolescents, who are about twice as likely as adults to become addicted to marijuana.

Much of the marijuana available today is more potent than it was in the past, so the potential exists for it to have more intense deleterious effects on the user. Medical professionals are seeing more emergency room visits with excessive vomiting and with adolescents; there is greater risk of psychosis and delirium.

Teenagers who smoke a joint or two and also drink heavily suppress their vomiting reflex and imbibe alcohol in quantities that would normally make them ill. Excessive blood alcohol results in uncontrolled anaesthesia, which can end in coma or death.

Cannabis can also produce the following acute side effects:

  • Reddening of the whites of the eyes
  • Dry throat
  • Heightened appetite (grazing on munchies all day)
  • Anxiety, panic and paranoia, especially in naïve users
  • Impairment of short-term memory, concentration span and psychomotor function, increasing the risk of an accident if you drive a vehicle or operate machinery when stoned.
  • Possible psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations.

Chronic side effects:

  • Probably respiratory disease (emphysema)
  • Possible cannabis addiction
  • Memory damage and decline in other intellectual skills
  • Increased risk of cancer of the digestive tract
  • Increased risk of developing schizophrenia
  • Increased risk of leukaemia and birth defects in the children of women who used cannabis during their pregnancy
  • Marked decline in occupational performance in adults, and educational underachievement in children.
  • Reduced output of reproductive hormones, leading to impaired ovulation, sperm production and libido.
  • Lower white blood cell production and impaired immune system.

Growing old, feeble and infirm is part of life and in the normal course of events it should take you a lifetime to get there. Recent studies found brain atrophy equivalent to people aged 70 to 90 in young adults using heavy doses of daily cannabis.

Young people risk losing their libido with continual use of cannabis even though it has the reputed effect of elevating mood and arousal and stimulating the libido. Many young people report having a substantially decreased libido and it can be difficult to arouse people under the influence of cannabis. Total loss of libido has been reported after a decade of using cannabis but try telling that to a young teenager embarking on daily usage of cannabis to heighten their senses.

Cannabis abuse for a short term high can end up leaving a legacy of long term brain damage.

When it comes to feeling mentally and emotionally switched on, we have to have the correct brain chemistry – get it wrong and you will never achieve the feeling of wellbeing that you crave.  Cannabis users have a predisposition to a depleted dopamine neurotransmitter – the centre of satisfaction in the brain.

When trying to break the habit of using cannabis, I recommend using Tyrosine Mood Food to help my patient through the early days of withdrawals. Tyrosine is necessary for the manufacture of dopamine and noradrenaline which is required for concentration, alertness, memory and a happy stable mood.

Magnesium Ultra Potent is the great relaxer and is assists in the reduction of stress, nervous tension, anxiety and sleeplessness.

LivaTone Plus supports liver function and metabolism and supports phase 1 and phase 2 detoxification pathways, ensuring optimum detoxification of many toxic substances, including alcohol if you have been mixing it with cannabis.

I also recommend the use of Gaba to help stress levels during the detox period.

The above statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.