#72 Notable Clinical Interest
Emerging findings or policy developments worth monitoring closely.
If you are weighing the risks of cannabis versus alcohol for symptom management, understanding that alcohol carries substantially higher risks for organ damage, dependence, and death can help you and your clinician make more informed treatment decisions.
Comparing the long-term health consequences of alcohol and cannabis is a clinically important discussion, as alcohol carries well-documented risks including liver disease, cardiovascular damage, neurotoxicity, and a strong association with dependence and mortality, while cannabis, though not without risk, has a significantly lower profile for organ damage and fatal overdose. In my clinical experience with over 30,000 patients, cannabis can be problematic for certain populations, particularly adolescents and those predisposed to psychiatric conditions, but the aggregate body burden of chronic alcohol use far exceeds that of regulated cannabis use in adults. Physicians should be having honest, evidence-based conversations with patients about relative risk rather than relying on outdated cultural assumptions about either substance.
“Alcohol has killed more of my patients than cannabis ever has, and pretending these two substances carry equal risk is not caution, it is misinformation.”
⚠️ The alcohol-versus-cannabis debate keeps resurfacing, and for good reason: patients deserve an honest accounting of relative risk. In over a decade of clinical cannabis practice, I have seen alcohol destroy livers, families, and lives at a rate that cannabis simply does not match. That said, cannabis is not risk-free; chronic heavy use can impair cognition, worsen certain psychiatric conditions, and create problematic dependence in vulnerable individuals. ️ The key clinical takeaway is that lumping these substances together as equally dangerous is intellectually lazy and medically harmful. Patients benefit most when clinicians engage in nuanced, individualized risk-benefit discussions rather than defaulting to reflexive stigma about either substance.
💬 Join the Conversation
Have a question about how this applies to your situation? Ask Dr. Caplan →
Want to discuss this topic with other patients and caregivers? Join the forum discussion →
Have thoughts on this? Share it: