Before you down that fifth shot of Jägermeister, you might want to fire up a joint. Research shows that compared with alcohol, marijuana causes less brain damage.
In a study completed at the University of California, San Diego, the results of which were published in the current issue of the scientific journal "Neurotoxicology and Teratology," researchers examined the white brain matter of 42 teenage participants. The participants were placed into three groups: those classified as binge drinkers (defined in this case as males who consume five or more drinks in one sitting and females who consume four or more), binge drinkers who also smoked marijuana "regularly" and a control group of those who neither drank nor smoked.
The binge drinkers displayed lower fractional anisotropy (FA) scores — indicating white brain matter damage — in all eight sections of the brain than the control groups, whereas the second group (those who also smoked marijuana) had lower FA scores than the control in only three sections. Additionally, in a finding the researchers termed "surprising," the second group had higher FA scores than the first in seven of the brain sections.
So, how are the experts reacting to these findings? Mason Tvert, co-author of "Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?" and executive director of the marijuana legalization advocacy group Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation, sees validation in the results.
"I find it ironic that marijuana can actually protect you from alcohol," he said. "It's just one more way in which marijuana is safer than alcohol, and I hope this dispels the myth that marijuana kills brain cells when it's actually protecting brain cells from damage. Marijuana gives a temporary euphoric effect, whereas binge drinking causes long-term permanent damage."
Tvert's message is apparently reaching the masses: "Marijuana is Safer" climbed as high as No. 14 on Amazon.com's bestseller list following the publication of the UC San Diego study.
In a press release, Tvert's "Marijuana is Safer" co-author, Steve Fox (LA '90), who is also the director of state campaigns for the advocacy group Marijuana Policy Project, defended his belief that the use of marijuana is less harmful than that of alcohol.
"This study suggests that not only is marijuana safer than alcohol, it may actually protect against some of the damage that booze causes," Fox's press release read. "It's far better for teens not to drink or smoke marijuana, but our nation's leaders sent a dangerous message by defending laws that encourage the use of alcohol over marijuana."
However, the study doesn't quite live up to press reports heralding the findings as a definitive sign of marijuana's benefits, according to Dr. Klaus Miczek, director of the Behavioral Core of the Neuroscience Research Center at the Tufts' Sackler School of Biomedical Studies. Miczek isn't convinced of any causal link between marijuana usage and a lesser degree of binge drinking-induced brain damage.
"The imaging study represents a very preliminary study that correlates imaging data with the diagnosis of binge drinking plus past marijuana use," Miczek said. "It certainly does not present a causal relationship. [The press] got carried away with this story."
Yet the study, regardless of its preliminary nature, does shed light on an ongoing debate — one with potential implications for university policy — over the safety and potential health benefits of marijuana, particularly in the wake of the decriminalization of the substance in the state of Massachusetts last November.
"This kind of begs the question of why current college policies make marijuana an equal or more of a serious offense than alcohol, which drive people to drink, when they might otherwise make a safer choice like marijuana," Tvert said. "This study should put off an alarm in the heads of universities."
At Tufts, the current marijuana policy considers possession of the drug as roughly equivalent to underage alcohol consumption, Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman said in an interview with the Daily last year.
Some students, perhaps predictably, are in favor of lessening the severity of being caught with marijuana compared to alcohol.
"As of now it's kind of hazy if there haven't been any conclusive studies, but if it does have health benefits then it shouldn't be as serious a thing as drinking," freshman Krishna Soni said.
Regardless of student opinion or the results of the recent study, Director of Alcohol and Health Education Ian Wong doesn't foresee any change in disciplinary policies regarding those found in possession of the drug, at least for now.
"Our policy is driven by federal, state and local law," Wong said. "Regardless of what the study says, we have to uphold those. We are bound by those rules."
For Wong, the addictive nature of marijuana is more important than the legal status or potential health benefits of marijuana is its addictive nature.
"What I kind of look at more is the addictive part if it. If it really is restorative, whatever, that's one thing. But what I see in students who smoke marijuana is that they never really vandalize things or do anything destructive like students who drink, but they're failing their classes."
Though Wong said that alcohol is more addictive than marijuana, he said that it is nonetheless a drug with potentially harmful side effects.
"What people need to understand is that these are all drugs," Wong said. "In some ways, alcohol is considered a ‘good' drug, when heroin and cocaine are ‘bad' drugs. I don't know why we categorize them when they all have some benefits, if you will, in some ways, and are all damaging in others, including marijuana.
"As for the issue of, ‘If we let kids smoke marijuana, it's better than drinking alcohol,' we have no comment on that. Until the government says it's legal, marijuana is an illicit drug."
Still, Wong said that the school is "more lenient than the state" when punishing marijuana possessors.
"We aren't charging kids $100 [as per the state's fine for those caught with an ounce or less of marijuana]. You get on Pro[bation] One like everyone else."
If and when future scientific and medical testing demonstrates marijuana as beneficial and the government responds in kind, the school's administration will address the issue, according to Wong.
"It's a very interesting question. What it comes down to is good drugs, bad drugs, what people accept, what people don't accept. Times are changing. This is a timely question," Wong said.
