A recent study has found that adults who smoke marijuana are also far more likely to have alcohol use disorder as well. City University of New York and Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health researchers and investigators teamed up in order to perform the study. 
The investigators found that adults who engaged in marijuana use were 5 times more likely to also have issues with alcohol abuse when compared to the general population which did not smoke marijuana. The results of the study were published in the online version of the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. The study researchers analyzed data that was collected from more than 27,000 adults. All of the adults participated in the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions and provided the data that was analyzed for this study.
The study on individuals who smoke marijuana showed that adults who smoked the drug had a 23% higher risk for alcohol use disorder. Mailman School of Public Health researcher Renee Goodwin, Ph.D., explained “Our results suggest that cannabis use appears to be associated with an increased vulnerability to developing an alcohol use disorder, even among those without any history of this. Marijuana use also appears to increase the likelihood that an existing alcohol use disorder will continue over time.” Goodwin also noted that “From a public health standpoint we recommend that further research be conducted to understand the pathways underlying these relationships as well as the degree to which various potentially vulnerable population subgroups —youth, for example — are at increased risk. If future research confirms these findings, investigating whether preventing or delaying first use of marijuana might reduce the risk of developing alcohol use disorders among some segments of the population may be worthwhile.”
