When alcohol and marijuana are the topic of lectures aimed at college students, Jason Kilmer said the message is often clear: don”t use them. While Kilmer said he does not endorse the use of illegal drugs, he said he didn”t necessarily want to send that message in his Cautious Consumption Week keynote speech Wednesday.
“I can”t come to your chapters and tell you how to smoke crack in less dangerous ways,” Kilmer said.
His speech, “The Science of Alcohol and Marijuana” explained the effects of both substances on humans based on research, including studies he has conducted.
Kilmer said he wanted his speech to be more interactive than a traditional keynote address. He asked the audience what they thought were some positive effects alcohol had on social interactions.
Attendees said they were usually more relaxed, outgoing and competitive.
Kilmer said the audience”s responses matched the majority of surveys, but went on to describe an experiment he conducted that showed that the perceptions of what alcohol does to people”s social habits may be the main cause of the positive effects, not the alcohol itself.
Kilmer”s research required the creation of a fake bar lab and a group of willing college students over the age of 21. The students were divided into four groups, he said. One group was told they were going to be given alcohol and they were, another group was told they were going to be given non-alcoholic beverages and they were.
These first two groups yielded no unexpected results, Kilmer said. The group that was given alcohol was more outgoing and loud, and the group that wasn”t seemed more bored and quiet.
He said the remaining two groups were more interesting. One group was told they were getting alcohol and they were given non-alcoholic beverages, while the other group was told they weren”t getting alcohol and they actually were.
Kilmer said the group that received no alcohol but were told that there was alcohol in their drinks behaved like they were given alcohol. They were more outgoing, started drinking games and said they were feeling a buzz. When they were told there was no alcohol in their drinks, Kilmer said he enjoyed watching the men”s reactions.
“There”s always one guy that says, “Yeah, I knew there was no alcohol in there,”” he said.
The other group that was given alcohol and didn”t realize it were still more reserved, as if they were sober. Some felt the physical effects of the alcohol – they were more tired, hot and clumsy, he said, but without any of the positive effects.
Kilmer then moved on to explain the effects of alcohol and marijuana on people”s sleep cycles. He said the ideal sleep cycle would bring a pretty equal back and forth between deep sleep and Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, with steadily more REM and less deep sleep further into the night. He said both alcohol and marijuana extend the amount of deep sleep and cut back on REM sleep, which is why people under the influence of alcohol or marijuana rarely dream.
The effects of this type of cycle can lead to daytime sleepiness or anxiety, Kilmer said. Although many people smoke marijuana or drink alcohol to deal with anxiety, he said doing so could actually be detrimental.
Kilmer also said marijuana takes a long time to get out of people”s systems. He said if people choose to drive after smoking, it still counts as driving under the influence.
He also said people are more likely to take higher doses of edible marijuana because it takes longer to ingest and feel the effects, so people take more in a short period because they don”t feel the high immediately like they do when it”s smoked, Kilmer said. This can have an intense and unpleasant result for the user, he said.
Toward the end of his speech Kilmer discussed drinking tolerance. He said tolerance is largely based on environment. If someone drinks in the same environment on a consistent basis, the body starts to associate and prepare itself of the alcohol upon entering the environment. When the environment changes and alcohol is consumed, the body isn”t prepared for it and tolerance is lowered.
One audience member asked if elements other than location constitute a common environment. Kilmer said yes, things like familiar people, time of day and types of drinks can count for a consistent environment and if any of those habits are broken people are more likely to experience negative effects.
“If there is ever a time when you”re worried about someone, you feel like they”ve had too much to drink, realize that there are resources on campus that you can point them in the direction of,” Kilmer said.
Erin Bamer can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @ErinBamer