5 Reasons to Choose Cannabis Over Cocktails This Holiday Season

The holidays are a great time to get together with loved ones. Being a Marine Veteran, most celebrations, holiday or otherwise include alcohol. As I get older and hopefully a bit smarter, I do my best to avoid the negative side effects of drinking too much. Whether it’s the hangovers that seem to get worse with each passing year, or the arguments stemming from stupid drunken behavior, I don’t want to deal with it. Luckily I live in a state that allows both the medical and recreational use of cannabis.

Choosing cannabis over cocktails can help us better enjoy time with family and friends, while avoiding the negative consequences of drinking. Below are just a few reasons to consider using cannabis this holiday season.

1. Cannabis leads to a pleasant experience, great conversations, and a better feeling of connection to those around you. Alcohol helps people loosen up early in the night. The effect of continued drinking can be unpredictable and unpleasant for the morning after, if not longer.

2. Cannabis has many health benefits. It is used to relieve anxiety and depression, used for pain relief, cancer treatment, and seizure relief. The list of medicinal uses grows daily as research expands. Excluding the supposed health benefit a daily glass of red wine may have for our heart, you would be hard pressed to find a doctor that will recommend alcohol for any ailment.

3. Alcohol gives the impression of relaxing us after a hard day at work. In reality our bodies are working overtime to process the poison (yes, alcohol is poison) to rid our body of it. Our body naturally accepts the active compounds in cannabis. Neither THC or CBD, the active compounds in cannabis, are toxic to humans. There are no known overdose deaths from cannabis use….EVER! The U.S. Center for Disease Control states nearly 90,000 people die from alcohol related causes in the U.S. annually.

4. You can tailor your desired experience with cannabis. Whether you want a slightly sedating indica buzz suited for game night or a movie with friends, or an uplifting sativa buzz to attend a holiday party, you can choose how you want to feel. With alcohol, drunk is drunk.

5. Cannabis has many different ways it can be consumed. You can smoke it, you can eat food prepared with it, take capsules of it, and vaporize extracts made from the plant. There are MANY options. The only reasonable way to consume alcohol is to drink it, and that almost always contains calories and/or carbs. If you are watching your figure this holiday season, cannabis is the best option.

These are just a few examples of how choosing cannabis could make the holiday season more enjoyable. Learning to use cannabis to improve our lives can be fun and rewarding. Avoiding the negative side effects of alcohol and drunkenness is the bonus. Whether you smoke some cannabis, or eat a THC infused sugar cookie shaped like Santa, consider choosing cannabis (where legal) this holiday season. Stay warm, be cool, and Live The High Life.