The information in this blogpost comes from Martin Lee, Alcoholism and the Endocannabinoid System.

Cannabis decreases damage to our bodies associated with ingesting alcohol.

1. Cannabis is a neuroprotectant: Cannabis minimizes cell death in the brain associated with overconsumption of alcohol.

In 2009, the journal Neurotoxicology and Teratologypresented clinical data indicating that compounds in marijuana helped to “protect the human brain against alcohol-induced damage.” This study, conducted at the University of California in San Diego, found that adolescents who smoke marijuana may be less susceptible to brain damage from binge drinking.

Five years earlier, researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health demonstrated that cannabidiol (CBD), a significant nonpsychoactive component of marijuana, functioned as an “in vivo neuroprotectant... in preventing binge ethanol-induced brain injury.” CBD reduced alcohol-induced cell death in the hippocampus and the etorhinal cortex of the brain in a dose-dependent manner by 60 percent.