There are plenty of totally functional alcoholics out there, too.Agreed, probably more than [we'll ever know][1]. I'm just not sure that they function anywhere near as well as those that consume marijuana as regularly. For one, *most* people can stop regularly consuming pot with little or no side effects. Certainly nothing like delirium tremors, etc. that almost all alcoholics have to deal with when/if they quit.
Also, I think that brain functioning is superior on pot than it is with alcohol. Lots of “functioning” alcoholics have injured and killed themselves and other people while working dangerous jobs:
You don’t see that with most marijuana usage. You also don’t see violence and menacing with marijuana like you do with alcohol usage:
Granted, there’s anomalies and I’m sure there’s some dangerous potheads out there who’d be much higher functioning without marijuana, but I don’t think that’s the norm. There’s research that supports this as well:
" … The Scripps scientists discovered that eleven months of binge alcohol consumption that produced a blood alcohol level sufficient to be considered intoxicated decreased neurogenesis by more than fifty percent! Furthermore, the decrease in neurogenesis lasted for many weeks of abstinence. You might think that alcohol binging also caused more cells to die; actually, this did not happen. That old urban myth is simply not true. The only change observed was a decrease in the production of new neurons. The authors suggested that these changes might produce a long lasting vulnerability within the hippocampus that may well predispose these young adults to neurodegeneration later in life.
In contrast to the effects of alcohol, a series of publications during the past few years suggest that stimulating the brain’s marijuana neurotransmitter system appears to have the exact opposite effects upon neurogenesis in the hippocampus of both young and old laboratory animals and humans, i.e. neurogenesis is increased by stimulation of our brain’s marijuana receptors.
When we are elderly, our brain displays a dramatic decline in neurogenesis within the hippocampus. This decline may underlie age-associated memory impairments as well as depression. Research in my laboratory has demonstrated that stimulating the brain’s marijuana receptors restores neurogenesis. Thus, later in life, marijuana might actually help your brain, rather than harm it. … "
Source for quotes above … read more here:
Alcohol vs. marijuana in the brain
EDIT: You might also find this interesting:
Source for quotes below (A very good read and VERY well sourced, IMO):
" … Alcohol at 0.75 g/kg (slightly less than four standard drinks) causes high levels of impairment in psychomotor performance and medium-to-high levels of impairment in such tasks as critical flicker fusion and short-term memory. Alcohol impairs pursuit tracking, divided attention, signal detection, hazard perception, reaction time, attention, concentration, and hand-eye coordination.
Alcohol also reduces the perceived negative consequences of risk-taking, which can increase willingness to take risks after drinking, the amount of risk-taking behavior while driving, even at low alcohol doses, and the incidence of road traffic accidents while driving drunk.
…
Surprisingly, given the alarming results of cognitive studies, most marijuana-intoxicated drivers show only modest impairments on actual road tests. Experienced smokers who drive on a set course show almost no functional impairment under the influence of marijuana, except when it is combined with alcohol.
Many investigators have suggested that the reason why marijuana does not result in an increased crash rate in laboratory tests despite demonstrable neurophysiologic impairments is that, unlike drivers under the influence of alcohol, who tend to underestimate their degree of impairment, marijuana users tend to overestimate their impairment, and consequently employ compensatory strategies.
Cannabis users perceive their driving under the influence as impaired and more cautious, and given a dose of 7 mg THC (about a third of a joint), drivers rated themselves as impaired even though their driving performance was not; in contrast, at a BAC 0.04% (slightly less than two “standard drinks” of a can of beer or small 5 oz. glass of wine; half the legal limit in most US states), driving performance was impaired even though drivers rated themselves as unimpaired. Binge drinkers are particularly likely to rate themselves as unimpaired, possibly because they tend to become less sedated by high doses of alcohol. … "
