I received a letter in my podcast inbox asking a question that many people have debated: Which is safer, pot or wine? The answer is somewhat complicated, and I turned to Kathleen Brady, M.D., Ph.D., for an answer. She was the highest-funded NIH researcher in addiction science for many years, has written over 500 articles, and edited ten books in the field of addiction, so if anyone can address this, she can.

Brady explained that marijuana is comprised of over 100 compounds, and active attempts to create more potent varieties have drastically changed it from the pot of the 1960s and 1970s. Delta-9 THC is the major constituent that creates the “high” of marijuana, and the percentage of marijuana that is Delta-9 THC has increased from 4-5 percent to sometimes over 30 percent. Needless to say, this affects not only the marijuana “high” but also its potential addictive potential.

CBD is a compound that has anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and it also causes sedation. For these reasons it has become a popular go-to for pain relief and as a sleep medication. Relying on any substance, though, including CBD, as a nightly sleep aid leads to long-term disruption of sleep architecture as well as dependence on the drug to sleep. If, for example, you use CBD nightly for sleep during a particularly stressful period of time, you will find yourself having more difficulty sleeping than at baseline when you try to withdraw from the drug. It may take several weeks to restore your normal sleep habits back to your pre-stress baseline.

Brady related a study performed by Leo Hollister with the U.S. Navy in 1964. He first tested a group of pilots in the flight simulator and recorded their accuracy and reflexes. Next, he had them smoke pot and perform the same battery of tests. He then had them stay in a confined area for 48 hours, during which time they did not use pot. When they were retested, they continued to have a marked decline in their piloting competency and reflexes. Most fascinating, though, was that although the pilots readily observed their poor skills when acutely high, they did not recognize their diminished performance 48 hours later, even though the fall-off in performance remained substantial.

Brady noted that one big difference between marijuana and alcohol is that alcohol is dissolved in water in the body, and so it is mostly gone within 12 hours. Marijuana, however, is stored in fat and can be found in the body for months after the last use, indicating that the psychoactive effects are quite long-lasting.

Marijuana does appear to be less addictive than alcohol, with a rate of marijuana use disorder about 10 percent, compared to 20 percent for alcohol use disorder. Marijuana addiction is characterized by increasing use despite efforts to cut back, with harmful effects on job and school performance as well as interpersonal relationships. While pot may be safer than alcohol in some ways, it is far from a harmless drug, particularly for young people with developing brains. Data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (2021) indicate that 7.1 percent of 8th-graders, 17.3 percent of 10th-graders, and 30.5 percent of 12th-graders reported using marijuana in the past year, reflecting an alarming rate of drug use among young people at a time when their brain development is still highly vulnerable to disruption. Legalization of marijuana has been accompanied by the erroneous public perception that marijuana is harmless, and rates of use continue to climb in affected states.