A “synergistic relationship,” Dr. Reiman explains, means that when alcohol and cannabis are added together, they “enhance the effects of each other. It's a one-plus-one equals four scenario, not one-plus-one equals two. And that's really where folks have to be careful. And the order in which you consume them also makes a difference.”
Her best advice is to avoid using both at the same time, or even switching from one to the other with some downtime in between. Given the choice between using alcohol or cannabis, Dr. Reiman goes all in on the latter, a conclusion based on research and her study of therapeutic plants.
She points out that no one has fatally overdosed from cannabis use, while overconsuming alcohol can cause death. Alcohol abuse also can cause physiological harm, such as liver damage, high blood pressure and other life-threatening ailments.
Dr. Reiman says there is scientific evidence showing cannabis can help treat people trying to reduce or eliminate alcohol dependency by lessening the effects of withdrawal symptoms, such as spasms, irritability, and sleeplessness.
“Cannabis is not a vice, and I think it's important to say that because I do consider alcohol a vice,” she says. “I think alcohol provides relaxation and it can help with sleep, which are definitely therapeutic uses, but I do not think alcohol is a medicine. I think cannabis is a medicine. And even for people who are using it for what we would call ‘recreational purposes,’ it's still providing therapeutic benefits, and I think it firmly belongs in the field of a therapeutic tool.”
