19 - Alcohol Vs Cannabis: Kyla de Clifford.

In this solo episode of Canna Curious, Kyla gets personal about grief, self-care, and the choices we make when life gets heavy. She unpacks one of the oldest debates: alcohol versus cannabis.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• Why alcohol is responsible for 2.6 million deaths a year globally, while cannabis has zero overdose deathsrecorded.
• How cannabis-related harms are often tied to polydrug use or accidents, not toxicity alone.
• The gender double standard: wine marketed as “self-care,” cannabis framed as “irresponsible.”
• How alcohol worsens hot flushes, mood swings, and sleep in perimenopause — while cannabis may support relief.

Key Takeaways:

• Alcohol is normalised but deadly. WHO reports show millions of deaths annually.
• Cannabis carries risks but far fewer. And no deaths from toxicity alone.
• Context and gender matter. Women are pushed toward alcohol, even though it worsens health outcomes in midlife.
• Narrative is everything. Stigma has shaped laws and culture more than evidence ever has.

Statistics:

Breakdown of Cannabis-Related Deaths in Australia (2000–2018)

This comes from a retrospective review of coronial records via Australia’s National Coronial Information System, as reported by Emma Zahra and colleagues at NDARC, UNSW Sydney

Manner of Deaths (out of total 559 cases):

• Accidental injury: 29.9% (~30%)
• Suicide: 25.0%
• Polysubstance toxicity (i.e., cannabis plus other substances): 17.0%
• Natural disease: 16.1%
• Natural disease plus drug effect/toxicity: 7.9%
• Assault: 3.0%
• Unascertained (unknown): 1.1%
• Cannabis toxicity alone: 0%—no deaths were attributed solely to cannabis toxicity

Polydrug Involvement

• In 81.4% of cases, other drugs were noted alongside cannabis in the cause of death citations.
• The most frequent co-detected drug was alcohol, appearing in 47.2% of these cases

Resources & References

• Zahra E., Darke S., Degenhardt L., Campbell G. Rates, characteristics and manner of cannabis-related deaths in Australia 2000–2018. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 2020.
• World Health Organization (2024). Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health.

Transcript

Hello, Kyla here — welcome back to Canna Curious.
Today I want to talk about a topic that’s close to my heart. Honestly, it’s been on my mind a lot lately. As some of you know, I’ve been grieving the loss of my beautiful Nanna Mary. And grief makes us reach for something to take the edge off, doesn’t it? If this had happened 11 years ago, I would have hit the bottle hard. Because alcohol does that — it makes you feel better for a minute, numbs the pain, helps you forget. But it never lasts. So today, while I’m sitting in this very human place, I want to unpack one of the oldest debates: alcohol versus cannabis.

We’ll dive into some science, we’ll talk stories, and of course, we’ll get into stigma — because you know I can’t leave that one out.
 And before we go further, I need to acknowledge something. There are so many women who would love to share their cannabis stories but can’t. They’re scared. Scared an ex-partner might use it against them, even threaten custody of their kids. And yet, some of you still trust me with your experiences, even if they never get shared out loud. I want you to know — I see your courage, I hold it close, and I value it deeply. The stigma is still real, and for some women, the cost of honesty is just too high.

So, let’s spark up the conversation.

Let’s start with the big picture. Why does this comparison between alcohol and cannabis matter? One is legal, sold on every corner, and practically baked into our culture — Friday knock-offs, champagne toasts, mum memes about wine o’clock. The other, cannabis, is still seen as taboo, dangerous, or morally suspect. That’s not just about laws. That’s about stigma versus normalization.

When my kids were little, I went to playdates where wine was poured as casually as water. Nobody batted an eyelid. In fact, it was encouraged — wine was the social glue that held these mums’ groups together. But can you imagine if I’d sparked up a joint at one of those? The judgement would have been swift. Someone would’ve had a meltdown about “drugs.” The irony kills me — because alcohol is a drug. And not just any drug, but one of the most harmful when you look at health and social impacts. Yet because it props up tax revenue and has decades of clever PR behind it, it slips under the radar.

So let me ask you this: have you ever heard someone say, “Oh, I’d never touch cannabis,” while they’re literally sipping on a glass of wine?

Alright, let’s line them up on the kitchen counter. Alcohol first. According to the World Health Organization’s 2024 report, alcohol is responsible for 2.6 million deaths every single year worldwide. That’s like wiping out the entire population of Brisbane — every year. Because of a “social lubricant” most of us don’t even think twice about.

Cannabis? Overdose deaths — zero. Not one. Nobody’s died from cannabis toxicity alone. But if we look at associated harms, it’s not squeaky clean either. In Australia between 2000 and 2018, researchers found 559 cannabis-associated deaths. But here’s the kicker: not one was due to cannabis on its own. Most were tied up with accidents, polydrug use, or mental health struggles. In other words, cannabis wasn’t the main ingredient — it was part of a messy recipe.

So if these two were guests at your dinner party:
Alcohol is the one who shows up drunk, breaks the vase, starts fights, and leaves you cleaning up the chaos every single time.
 Cannabis might spill a little wine on the tablecloth, but the damage? It’s on a completely different scale.

Here’s the thing though: numbers don’t tell the whole story. Alcohol’s harms are easy to see — hospitalisations, liver disease, violence, deaths. Cannabis’ harms are trickier. They’re often indirect, entangled with other substances, and very dependent on the context. For example, cannabis plus alcohol plus driving? Very risky. Cannabis alone? Very different story.

Let’s do a quick body check.
Alcohol: liver disease, cancer, brain damage, dementia risk (133% ↑ in heavy drinkers).
Cannabis: higher risk of heart disease, 29% increased heart attack risk, 20% increased stroke risk — mostly in heavy, long-term use.

Here’s my playful reframe: Alcohol is like throwing petrol on a hormonal fire. Cannabis? More like lighting a candle. Still something you want to be careful with, but not remotely the same burn.

Alcohol’s impact is obvious. Aggression, domestic violence, impaired judgement, car accidents — the list is endless. And most of us don’t even need a stat to know someone who’s been harmed by it. It’s baked into culture to the point where we almost forget how damaging it is.

Cannabis has a different profile. Yes, there’s a small risk of psychosis in vulnerable groups, especially if you’ve got a family history of schizophrenia. Dependency happens, but less severely than alcohol or tobacco. And then there’s the “lazy stoner” stereotype — which, let’s be real, the science doesn’t really back.

But let’s zoom in on the gender double standard. Women are practically rewarded for “wining down.” Whole industries exist to sell us pink gin, rosé spritzers, cutesy Instagram memes about wine being self-care. Swap that wine for a cannabis vape, though? Suddenly you’re a bad mum, irresponsible, a “drug user.” Same nervous system. Same intention: to relax. Completely different judgment.

And let’s tie it back to perimenopause, because here’s the hypocrisy in full colour. Alcohol makes hot flushes worse, wrecks your sleep, and fuels mood swings. Basically, it’s pouring petrol on a fire that’s already raging. Cannabis, on the other hand, has the potential to do the opposite: help sleep, reduce anxiety, ease pain, balance mood. Yet which one gets marketed to women as “self-care”? And which one gets whispered about like it’s shameful?

One of the most stubborn myths is that cannabis is a “gateway drug.” Heard that one before? The claim that cannabis will lead you straight to harder, more dangerous substances.

But research tells a different story. For many, cannabis is not a gateway into harm — it’s an exit ramp out. People switch from opioids to cannabis for pain, or from alcohol to cannabis for sleep. Several studies show it reduces reliance on far riskier substances.

And the lived experiences back that up. Women swapping their nightly glass of wine for a few drops of oil or a quick vape — and waking up clearer, sleeping better, without a hangover.

Here’s the bigger question: if cannabis had the same PR team as wine, how different would things look? Imagine glossy ads with women laughing together, raising a vape pen or sipping a cannabis mocktail instead of a chardonnay. Imagine memes celebrating cannabis as self-care instead of shaming it as “drug use.” The stigma isn’t about the plant. It’s about the story we’ve been told.

A woman in my local community used to down two or three wines every night to deal with her pain. She was exhausted, sick in the mornings, snappy with her kids. We chatted, and she decided to try cannabis instead — just a few puffs in the evening plus some CBD oil. A couple of weeks later she told me: “I don’t even crave the wine anymore. Cannabis actually helps the pain rather than masking it.” Now her sleep is better, her liver’s happier, and her family says she’s more present. That’s not a gateway into harm. That’s a doorway out.

So here’s the real question for me. Not “which one is worse,” but “why are they treated so differently?”

Alcohol is everywhere. Legal, celebrated, baked into every ritual — from weddings to work drinks. But WHO tells us it’s responsible for 2.6 million deaths each year. That’s cancers, liver disease, accidents, violence.

Cannabis? Far lower harms. No overdose deaths. Lower individual and social risks compared to alcohol and tobacco. Yet it’s still heavily restricted.

So why the disconnect?
 Ask yourself: what does safety really mean? Is it cultural acceptance, or actual evidence?

Because here’s the thing. We normalize alcohol despite its obvious toll, and we stigmatize cannabis based on history, politics, and bad PR. The laws don’t reflect harm — they reflect narratives.

So what if we judged substances not on tradition, but on data? What if safety meant looking at actual harm and making choices accordingly — not based on stigma?

And let me say this about cannabis studies — you’ve got to read carefully. For decades, researchers could only get funding if they studied harms. That creates huge bias. And most studies don’t separate cannabis from alcohol or sleeping pills. So always read the fine print.

We’ve looked at the numbers. Alcohol’s massive death toll. Cannabis’s lower, but not zero, risk profile. We’ve looked at how culture gives alcohol a free pass while keeping cannabis under stigma. And we’ve asked: what does safety really mean?

Now I want to hear from you. Have you swapped a glass of wine for cannabis? Have you been judged differently for choosing one over the other? Share your “wine versus weed” stories with me. I’d love to feature them in future episodes — because this conversation is far from over.

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