Taco Bell Won't Sober You Up (and other AOD facts/myths)

This week, we cover various facts and myths about alcohol and cannabis...and why eating Taco Bell isn't helpful in sobering you up.

Transcript

Intro: Welcome to the Last Call podcast! I'm Sarah Hartman, and my name is Marissa Whitaker. We're both alcohol and other drug educators, or AOD educators for short. Our job is to approach substance use from a neutral stance, based on science and public health. We educate students to help teach them how to make healthy and informed choices.

Sarah: All right, welcome back to the last call podcast. Today, we are going to be taking a deeper dive into the most common alcohol and other drug myths and facts that we hear in our everyday lives.

Marissa: Yeah, the first thing that we're going to talk about that I've heard a lot in conversation are the different factors that affect intoxication. 

Sarah: Sure, this is really interesting because sometimes you'll hear, you know, women say that they can drink a man underneath the table. Unfortunately, this is a myth because biologically, males have more of something called alcohol dehydrogenase in their liver that allows them to process alcohol a little bit more quickly than females. Marissa, what's the next thing that can impact intoxication?

Marissa: I think something that we often don't talk about enough are different medications that someone's taking. So that's anything from allergy medicine to, um, anti-depressants to ADHD medication… all sorts of medications interact with alcohol. And I have never seen on the side of a pill bottle, drink with a white club, because it'll work faster. That's just not how medicines work, and you always really want to be aware of how that interacts with alcohol.

Sarah: The next thing is tolerance, and I think it can get confused – tolerance and BAC. So people think when you have a high tolerance, you are not intoxicated. If you have a twin brother – your twin drinks every day you don't drink every day you and your twin are the same height. Same size. Same gender. Same weight. You drink every single day at the bar. Your twin, never comes out. So if you in your twin pound, the same amount of drinks within the same amount of time, same quantity, if you drink all the time, outwardly, you're not going to exhibit the same symptoms as your twin would.

But your blood alcohol contents are going to be exactly the same you just won't show that you're intoxicated, which is how tolerance comes into play. So it doesn't necessarily mean they're not intoxicated. It just means that because you've built up tolerance and you drink on a regular basis, you don't outwardly show those same signs and symptoms of being intoxicated that someone else would who doesn't drink as often.

Marissa: Something else that could impact someone's intoxication levels is what they're drinking. So, the concentration of that drink. Beers, seltzers, all of that, anything that comes into can in a bottle, you have your serving. 12 ounces of vodka is going to be different than 12 ounces of beer. And then to complicate it further, um, different types of hard liquors have different concentrations. So, be very mindful of how you're drinking and what the proof level or alcohol by volume level is with something that you're drinking.

Sarah: Continuing with alcohol consumption. Depending on how quickly you consume a drink that will affect the rate of intoxication. So obviously, if you're using a funnel compared to, if you're stepping up your slowly that's going to make a huge difference. If you are pounding back forties versus, you know, you're consuming a lot at 1 time versus A normal amount over a reasonable amount of time. 

And then the last thing that we did touch on extensively that I just kind of wanted to remind people that your mood does impact your intoxication. So, if you start off drinking and you're in a horrible mood, you're angry as you drink. You're just going to get more and angrier. If you're sad, you're going to get more and sadder. So, even if you normally drink 2 beers on a Saturday night, and you're fine, your mood can really impact how intoxicated you are, and really make that worse. If that makes sense. 

Marissa: Yeah. Oh, yeah, definitely. So now we're going to kind of switch gears to another fact, or myth in this 1 as a spoiler. It's a myth. So cannabis withdrawal isn't real.

That's actually a myth, cannabis withdrawal is real, although it looks a little bit different than someone detoxing off of opioids or alcohol. Just because it doesn't have the same withdrawal symptoms doesn't mean that it's not real. So some side effects, people may experience if they give up or take a tea break from cannabis is irritability, difficulty eating difficulty sleeping.

And that can be really tough for people and a lot of the reasons why people use cannabis in the 1st place is because they have difficulty sleeping difficulty eating, or irritability. And then that can kind of become a bit of a vicious cycle, because then you're using it to help with those things, then when you're not using it, you experience those withdrawal symptoms. So then you use it again. So if you're going to take a tolerance break, those are some things that you might experience, and it won't be a permanent thing.

Sarah: Absolutely, and I think it's really interesting that people think, you know because cannabis is a plant, it's withdrawal can't be as bad, but if you think about cannabis and cannabis use, it has such a psychological tie and it's really, you know, relationship builder people use cannabis for different reasons. But it can be really hard to break that habit if you're using cannabis, you know, for different reasons, to make friends or, you know, to loosen up or you know, to sleep, like you said, and that's psychological tie can be really hard to break or it can be hard to find other things to replace that. So, I think that's just as hard as, you know, not using as figuring out kind of why you're using in the 1st place.

Marissa: Yeah, and it becomes part of people's routine. So if every day with 420, you smoke a blunt with your boys and then go to new or wherever dining hall you choose to go to. Um, giving up something that you like to do, can be really difficult taking, you know, the physiological sort of, um, dependencies out of the equation. Just giving up something that you like to do, can be really tough. 

I've actually surveyed this question with a lot of students and different sort of outreach events that I do and a lot of people overwhelmingly think that withdrawals aren't real from cannabis. So, you're not alone if you thought that that was a fact, but, um, looks a little different, but withdrawals really can't happen from stopping cannabis use.

Sarah: And it's really interesting too, like you mentioned, when talking to students when talking about how they feel and some of those withdrawal symptoms are actually some signs of dependence with cannabis use, so that's kind of important to think about if you're getting to the point where you're getting irritable, because you haven't smoked that day, that, you know, like our other 1 of our other podcasts. That might be a good sign that maybe you need to cut back or reduce your use.

So, the next thing we're gonna talk about this is one of my favorite myth or facts. So, there are other things that sober you up, so I'll just give you a little sneak peek over the years - you know, there's a family secret that if they eat can peaches before they start drinking or after they drink that will store them up. If they go for a run after they're drunk, that will sober them up, greasy food, milk, which spoiler alert that really grosses me out thinking of a ton of milk after you've consumed alcohol. Not a good idea. But the bottom line is that none of those things actually sober you up and the only thing that sobers you up as time. 

So psychologically, you might feel like those things are helping you and of course, it's always good to eat after you've trained because that's a good practice. It's always good to hydrate yourself because that will hopefully, you know, prevent a bad, hang over the next day.

But the bottom line is that none of those things are actually gonna sober you up the only thing is time. So if you drink 10 beers, it's gonna be about 10 hours before you're actually sober. So that's, you know, those are all things to keep in mind. No matter what your family's secret is, the bottom line is that the only thing that's holding you up as time so all those secrets are minutes.

Marissa: I've never heard the, peaches one before! Yeah, so like your Taco Bell, not going to sober you up so, keep that in mind.

Sarah: Um, adding more drugs into your system regardless of what they are is not going to help you either. And this is a huge one that I hear quite a bit is, I'll have students say, like, oh, I smoked a blunt after I drink a lot and that helped me not puke. So that's not going to sober your up. It's just making it so that your gag reflex isn't able to work how it should.

Marissa: Cannabis is an antiemetic. So that's why they give it to people that are going through chemo to help with nausea. So with alcohol you want to throw up when you have too much of it cannabis the opposite happens. Not good for the body. Um, in the same vein of facts and myths, um, in particular with cannabis… Cannabis makes you sleep better, Sarah. Do you think that's true? False fact myth.

Sarah: I'm going to say it is a myth.

Marissa: Yes, it is. Um, albeit the research is mixed on how cannabis affects people's sleep, a lot of that reason, is in part of how it's scheduled as a schedule 1 drug so you can't really get a lot of reliable research. Um, but here's some of the things that we do know.

So, cannabis might help you fall asleep, but it also might mess with your sleep cycles. In particular, the, you're like the REM sleep state, and this is where dreaming occurs.

So there's some research out there saying that it suppresses you from hitting that sleep state. So for a lot of people who use cannabis regularly, maybe we're talking, like, every day, sometimes you might not experience dreams because that's being suppressed. Especially like I said, with heavy consumers. 

Again, part of the reason why this would be helpful and used medicinally for people with post traumatic stress, because we want to stop those bad dreams from happening. But at the same time, there's a lot of really cool research coming out, saying that proper sleep, hygiene aids just as much as cannabis used before bed. So we're talking get off your phone turn off the TV. Your bed is used for sleeping, and then setting up a really healthy sleeping routine can be just as helpful.

So, before you go for, the security bowl at the end of the day, um, think about what your sleep hygiene habits look like as well.

Sarah: And Maris, I just wanted to kind of reinforce that. So, news flash if you're not practicing good sleep habits, some weed isn't going to magically fix everything. So weed is not the magic pill that cures insomnia, or it has not been found to do that as of yet.

Marissa: So, the jury's still out to get some really solid scientific data on that, but until we have a really solid answer, I wouldn't use cannabis to fall asleep every night. Because then that can become a bit of a habit. And you need that sleep state I mean, you need to kind of sort through all of the things of the day that you don't need like, how your brain decompress at the end of the day. Cannabis does impact it in one way or another.

Sarah: One last thing that I just wanted to touch on quickly. Um, and this is, and Mariss, I'll let you guess: So myth or fact, if you drink a lot of alcohol and pass out that you, you get good quality sleep.

Marissa: Oh, I'm sure that that's a myth. 

Sarah: It sure is. So large amounts of alcohol might cause someone to fall asleep quickly, but you're not going to get that good quality of sleep. So I know that we did talk about that a lot with the cannabis piece, but I just kind of wanted to reinforce that for alcohol. So if you're using alcohol for a sleeping, that's not a good idea either because you're not able to get that good quality of sleep, a lot of the time your body is always trying to stay in a state of homeostasis, which means that if you're really intoxicated your body's going to be putting off adrenaline to kind of regulate the alcohol that's been put into it. So you're not gonna get good quality sleep.

You're not going to stay asleep for a long time and ultimately you're gonna wake up not feeling refreshed. You could have a hangover and all those factors could play into why you're not getting good quality sleep. You're gonna toss and turn a lot of the night - not a good sleep paid. 

Marissa: Yeah. And falling asleep fast doesn't equate to high sleep quality. But just summarize that fantastically though.

Sarah: All right, Maris. So, the next one, this is really interesting and kind of a hot topic these days, so fact or myth: the word marijuana is rooted and racism.

Marissa: That is a fact Sarah and here is a very brief explanation of the history of cannabis and the racist roots of the word marijuana. So I'm gonna read this like, it's the side effects from a prescription bottle, so this will be very quick. Um, but I want to keep it concise for everybody…

Cannabis was actually used for thousands of years in religious ceremonies and America's earliest settlers were actually required to grow hemp under the scientific name: Cannabis. It was widely sold in pharmacies to treat insomnia migraines and a plethora of health ailments. And from the 1840s-1900, hundreds of articles about the therapeutic benefits were published in scientific journals under the, the clinical name cannabis.

After the Mexican revolution in 1920, Mexicans migrated to the United States, they popularized recreational cannabis use in the form of a cigarette calling it marijuana. Politicians who were not keen on immigration or recreational cannabis use saw opportunity to exploit fear of immigrants. The Federal Bureau of narcotics claimed that cannabis caused inferior races to commit murder, corrupt the minds of your sons and daughters and viciously attack white women (Queue Reefer Madness). This fear based strategy worked, and in 1907 the marijuana tax act was established essentially prohibiting the use and sale of cannabis. It was then replaced by the controlled substances act, because the marijuana tax act was ruled unconstitutional. In 1970 and labeled the schedule 1 drug, where it currently sits today so that is a very brief history. 

We didn't even get into a William Randolph Hearst or Harry Ainslinger, or yellow journalism. But that is essentially a very brief history of cannabis in where the racist roots of marijuana come from, which is why I try to refer to cannabis or weed when talking to people.

Sarah: That was really interesting, Maris. And one thing, you actually introduced me to that helped me learn a lot of this history and background was the book smoke signals. So, if you nerd out on this stuff,

like we do, that's a really good book to buy and read to truly kind of understand some of these things that we're talking about, in terms of the recent history of cannabis and kind of how all that stuff truly came to play in in history.

All right, so the last our last myth, or fact of today and this is one of my absolute favorites. All right. Are you ready? If you puke, you're getting rid of the alcohol in your system, and you can keep drinking.

Marissa: My gut is telling me that this is indeed a myth.

Sarah: That is absolutely correct. So puking and rallying is not a thing. And the bottom line is that you might be throwing up some of the alcohol that you've consumed, but the majority of the alcohol is already in your system. So, throwing up isn't going to do any good.

So, when you, when you've gotten to the point where you're now throwing up, that's your body's natural way of saying, hey, you drank too much time to slow down. So, instead of continuing, that's a good point to say, hey, maybe it's time for me to alternate with some water. Maybe it's time for me to slow down and think about heading home. So, the bottom line is that your blood alcohol content can actually keep going up, even after you've stopped drinking, depending on what you've drank and how much you've consumed. So, that's always people think that you're picking up the alcohol and that you can keep going. But the bottom line is that puking and rallying is not a good idea.

Marissa: Well, thank you for clarifying that Sarah. I think that's a really popular myth that circulates, but I'm glad that we have dispelled that myth. So, that covers everything that we have today about the various MIS of alcohol and cannabis use. Thank you for tuning in and if there are any facts or myths that, you have heard along the way, let us know, and we can cover it in another episode.

 Sarah: Bye!