Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The missing link between scientific journals and relationship counseling. The Last Show with David Cooper.
All right, if you drink a lot, you might want to consider swapping out a cold one for a cannabis beverage. Why might we want to do that? How might it help? And side note, only investigate these things if they're legal where you live. Well, I'm here with someone who has researched a lot about these beverages. Her name is Jessica Kruger.
She's a professor of public health at the University at Buffalo. Jessica, welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me.
Chapter 2: What are the potential benefits of swapping alcohol for cannabis beverages?
So here we are. And alcohol is not necessarily the best thing to be drinking a lot, like after work to relax every day, is it?
Correct. And actually, there's a lot of harmful effects of alcohol already linked to 200 different health conditions.
Oh, that few. That seems alarming.
Exactly. And it's legal and you can get it almost anywhere.
It's one of the most dangerous drugs there is. I don't think people realize that.
Yeah, it can be, especially if you're using it daily and over-consuming.
So what made you ask the research question, could cannabis drinks, you know, like I guess made from marijuana, weed, whatever, actually help people drink less alcohol?
We started seeing these cannabis beverages pop up in dispensaries, but also some bars. Now, while that's still illegal in New York State, there are some places who have it. And some of our friends started saying, you know, I want to quit drinking. I don't feel like drinking anymore. And started replacing alcohol with cannabis beverages.
And we thought this is the perfect example of some harm reduction. And we want to study it and look further at how people are using it and why.
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Chapter 3: What health risks are associated with alcohol consumption?
Well, cannabis beverages can range from about 5 milligrams THC to up to 20 milligrams. We often see them in the 5 to 10 milligram range of THC, and they usually have some CBD. Now, the important part about that is THC can cause people to feel a little anxious, and that CBD has been known to kind of take away a little bit of that anxiety.
And so we see these being available in the legal market and dispensaries, again, illegal at bars currently, but we hope to investigate that further to see if we can begin to influence some policy. Now, you might think, well, you're out at a bar and you're drinking cannabis. You're going to drive home high.
Well, we already know people are driving high and we know that people are driving under the influence. So we need to better educate folks about this to reduce that harm. But ultimately, this could be a way to reduce. remove some of the effects of alcohol. Now you're going to feel similar to what you would feel if you were smoking, but it takes longer for that duration to hit, right?
This is an edible, considered an edible when you're categorizing cannabis products. And so it does take longer to metabolize. And that's where some people get in trouble with edibles is they don't feel the effects right away like they do with smoking.
So they take more and then it hits like a ton of bricks?
Exactly. And that's another area where we really want to focus on education with folks of how do you use edibles properly?
So when people do incorporate this into their unwinding, having a cold one routine where they might drink, what do they end up doing? Do they end up drinking less? Does it end up curbing kind of the negative effects of alcohol?
In fact, we found that people who are using cannabis beverages are drinking less and engaging in less binge drinking. Now, this is great because we also compare that to other modalities of cannabis use, such as smoking, thinking, was it just the cannabis or is it actually the beverage? And we think it's because it's a one-to-one swap out.
You're drinking a beverage where you would have drink a cold one. Instead, you're drinking a cannabis beverage. And so we see lower alcohol use. One of these on average, not drinking multiple like you might if you had a case of beer.
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Chapter 4: How can cannabis beverages help reduce alcohol consumption?
I don't drink. But I kind of understand once I quit drinking that that powerful social ritual of like holding a can at a party or holding a can at a bar or a cocktail or something. Can this kind of like help with that social ritual, but maybe in a less harmful way?
That's something we speculate of. It is because it's a kind of one-to-one switch out. And these cans could look like a can of alcohol, especially they kind of are in the shape of like a white cloth. So if people don't know exactly what you're drinking or you have a nice koozie on it, it could be a great way for that social elixir to hit when you're out with others.
Now, were you expecting that these cannabis beverages could reduce bins drinking? That seems like a kind of a surprising thing to me.
Yeah, that was definitely an interesting finding, right? Binge drinking is a really challenging health topic because people binge drink for a lot of different reasons. And oftentimes people don't recognize the definition of binge drinking.
And so we wanted to add that as a question in our survey, and we're surprised that it did reduce that, especially because people were switching it out and having very few cannabis beverages as a replacement.
I am like skeptical and not biased on this particular area. I'm just going to voice a question that a critic might voice. I don't necessarily agree with it. A critic might hear what we're talking about and worry that you're just replacing one bad habit with another. How would you respond to someone who had that concern about replacing beer or alcohol with these cannabis beverages?
Absolutely. It's always a concern when you're switching out one product to another, especially because cannabis can be addictive and that's often not recognized. But when we think about the overall harms and we're still understanding what those harms are when it comes to ingesting cannabis beverages, we do know that alcohol is dangerous, right? There's no safe level of alcohol.
But if cannabis beverages are can reduce some of that risk compared to smoking cannabis and other modalities. This could be a promising alternative for folks.
How exactly are they made? Like, is it just the THC is mixed in? Is it chemical similar to the way you might do it with brownies or something? Like, how do they make these drinks?
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Chapter 5: What effects do cannabis beverages have compared to traditional alcohol?
And is that dependent on some other variables such as We know that as people age, alcohol may not feel as well, especially in the morning. So how is this impacting folks? What are their behaviors around it?
But also, I think there needs to be a lot of education around cannabis beverage use and cannabis edible use to ensure people don't get too high or have too intensive an experience and find that level of intoxication that they're looking for.
And remember, kids, be careful, be safe. Only do this if this is legal. Also, kids, don't do this at all. Only adults. Jessica, thank you for sharing your research with me. I appreciate you coming on the show.
Thanks so much.
Jessica Kruger is a professor of public health at the University of Buffalo.
Welcome to Survivor 50. February 25th on Global. We chose you to represent 25 years of the greatest adventure on television. It's the biggest season ever. The twist is going to open a Pandora's box. Now I see Zach Brown on Survivor. Welcome to Survivor. Mr. Beast. Feels a little like a high school reunion meets a massacre. Survivor 50th season. Wednesday, February 25th on Global.
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