Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/05/23/americans-prefer-weed-to-alcohol-all-in-all.html
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Not exactly how I’d phrase what the study actually says:
The number of Americans who smoke cannabis on a daily or near-daily basis now exceeds those who drink alcohol as often, a study has found.
That “as often” is some pretty important context. Considerably more Americans drink alcohol than smoke weed, most just don’t do so every day.
If 17 million people smoke weed 7 days a week but 100 million people drink alcohol 4 days a week then it doesn’t follow that weed is more popular than alcohol.
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I’m preferring weed right now!
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I quit drinking 38 years ago, it was ugly and a miracle I didn’t end up dead or worse.
I don’t ever see myself drinking but when I no longer have any responsibilities like having to work and when I no longer need to be anywhere in particular, I will get me a bag of weed, roll some joints and really relax.
If my wife says I can. So it may not happen.
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Damn, you beat me to it!
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Not a big fan of smoking anything.
Edibles are much easier on my stomach than booze.
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Dispensary edibles are plentiful and most are plenty tasty, too. The results are not only less drastic, but the dose is also far more accurate than when a friend stirs a quarter ounce into some brownie mix, then bakes them and their roommates. It comes on more gently, and coming down is also more gentle.
Budtenders (what a delightful term) will be able to suggest edibles (and otherwise) who serve diff purposes - for sleep, for relaxation, for euphoria, etc. The ones that have only CBDs in, 'steada THC, aren’t nearly as psychoactive, too.
It still blows my mind that a Michigan resident can now walk into a shop and buy papers or cones, a pipe, a tray, a cone filler or maybe a rolling machine, lighters, and a bag of ganja, pre-rolled doobs, and edibles.
It’s just so fucking civilized.
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I quit drinking 18 years ago, it was ugly and a miracle I didn’t end up dead or worse.
I also don’t see myself ever drinking again, but I tried weed once, back when I still drank, and it was not a pleasant experience. At all. I’ve never had any desire to repeat it, and I see no reason to try it again even though it’s legal recreationally. I also have addiction history with other substances, so I’m just not going to risk it. That being said, between alcohol and weed, there’s no question that weed is the safer drug.
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mainly because if you have alcohol first you get a very ill feeling.
alcohol after can be nice if it’s just a drink or two, but i’ve noticed a different and worse mood the following day after any amount of alcohol enough to feel an effect, even just a single manhattan… not like… a hangover… just noticing my mood is different and worse? i dunno if it’s partly because of lack of REM, partly due to something with GABA (I got a similar feeling the day after taking benzos when I had a script)
i had a lovely evening once zonked out on edibles wandering las vegas when they were newly legal. stuck to club sodas most of the way, but circled back and had a nice cocktail at the Chandelier Bar at the Cosmopolitan. (A very well designed “casino themed casino” that has a lot of glass/lighting done in ways that are nice when you had a 20mg edible on no tolerance)
i’ve been going to defcon since before the riviera exploded, and fallen in love with the city – the tourists can be… interesting… but the staff and other locals always were super respectful, and if you want to indulge in eating/drinking rather than gamble you can get some good deals – the cocktail i had would have been 2-3x as expensive in a much shittier bar in DC for example. and i’ve noticed that (and maybe this is through my “hacker gourmand” lens of the city) that people seem less rude/aggressive with weed legal.
anyways im kinda drunk, because a job im looking at piss tests and apparently even a medical card doesn’t matter…
in closing if youre even high as fuck in vegas, consider the peppermill – there’s a dispensary near stratosphere, and they’ll give you a hash and eggs the size of a baby and they have a cute little cocktail bar that makes a mean manhattan.
(i love manhattans high, they’re sweet but not full of sugar in a hangover inducing way and not bloaty like beer)
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It blows my mind that it’s not legal here in Wisconsin. In literally all of our surrounding states it’s legal, but despite majority support for it across the political spectrum (non-binding referendums) our politicians keep saying no. The dispensaries close to the borders of the state sure appreciate our elected dimwits, though. Along the highways near the state line there’s lots of advertisements pointed towards us, those same dispensaries also frequently have more WI vehicles in the parking lot than IL (for example), and we received flyers to “Current resident” for one that opened up in the Illinois town closest to us. (Nice discount, too, and they applied it with my veteran’s discount.)
Yeah, seriously. At maybe two edibles (10mg each) per week, I’m not exactly a heavy user. I can count on the thumbs of one hand the number of times I’ve been actually drunk and stopped altogether about 20 years ago. (It just wasn’t my thing.) I didn’t try weed (in any form) until just over a year ago, but I’m quite sure I’ve now had more single edibles than alcoholic drinks, but how do you fairly compare these two different things? Apples and fried chicken!
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Came across a paper recently testing the LD50 of THC. In one of those awful studies that were too common in the early 1970s, they gave THC to animals until it killed them (if it could). Rats died at high doses. With monkeys they went as high as 9g THC per kg body mass. The monkey was stoned for 6 days, but none died
9g/kg would be 775g (1.7 lb) of THC in me. Not 775g of weed, 775g of THC. That would be like 11 pounds or 5 kg of weed at once.
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If I decide to partake before I go it will be more for nostalgia than getting high.
That means a bag, a tray, and some papers or an old school pipe. Maybe I just grow a few plants next to the tomatoes.
And yes, it is wild to see billboards for weed everywhere in Michigan.
When I think back on how we used to get weed in the good old days or how we sold it out of our high school lockers vs. today it is plenty weird.
Being legal might even take a way from the experience.
But, I am glad it’s readily available today help people who use it for medical reasons.
The last weeks of my dad’s life he had a problem with appetite, I asked him if he talked to his doctor about some edibles to help or would he just like me to get him some. Nope no way, that stuff is bad. Even being legal wouldn’t change his mind.
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Yeah, as I said, weed is definitely the safer drug.
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Thank you - everything from the headline to the commentary missed the key findings: comparing daily users of alcohol to daily users of mj: there are more of the latter.
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That’s right up there with Pearly Sweetcake levels. Truly heroic.
(For those not in the know, Shel Silverstein was known for much more than just his books of children’s poems.)
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At my usage level, that’s over nine months of THC! Yeah, I think I’m pretty safe. 
Edit: it was pointed out to me that I read that figure as milligrams instead of grams, so that would mean nine thousand months, or 750 years at my current level of us!
My dad grew a bit, some for personal use, some for sale. He had small plants scattered out in the woods on the family property. Looking back, I’m a little floored over how much he was risking for what had to be a low quality, fairly minimal return. It also explains some of the regulars we had hanging around his garage that never seemed to be there to have their vehicles repaired.
(And I’m suddenly thinking of the song Copperhead Road by Steve Earle.)
In a different part of the county, a friend and I got shot at one night when we got too close to the cornfield that was camouflage for someone’s pot growing. It’s probably a little more accurate to say that we were shot near, but we did hear the pellets from the shotgun as they went through the leaves of the nearby corn. We did a 180 and found somewhere else to explore our teenage lust, calling out “Sorry!”
While I can imagine someone getting shot breaking into a grow facility on purpose, it’s now difficult for me to see a scenario where someone would risk killing some horny teens just for being near a Sunnyside dispensary anymore than I can imagine vehicular gun fights on Chicago streets over liquor territories.
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I just quoted half of this from memory, and my BF was fair astonished and shook my hand! 
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I can’t help thinking of that poem every time I drive past San Rafael.
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