Does smoking marijuana make us want to drink more? Or does smoking marijuana make us drink less? That’s the question that researchers at the University of Washington set out to answer when they sat down to review more than 750 studies on marijuana and alcohol use, focusing on 15 that specifically addressed the links between marijuana policies and drinking. They looked at how decriminalized marijuana, medical marijuana and recreational marijuana impacted alcohol use. What did they find? More research is needed. The problem, according to a University of Washington news release, is that study findings were all over the map, depending on the demographic and the type and frequency of alcohol and marijuana use. One study found that states where marijuana is decriminalized had more emergency room visits related to marijuana and fewer visits linked to alcohol and other drugs. Others found that high school seniors in states where pot was decriminalized tended to drink less, while other research found that college students who used pot also drank more. Other research found that while legalized medical marijuana wasn’t associated with any increases in underage drinking, it was linked with more binge drinking and simultaneous use of pot and alcohol among adults.
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