Should I Mix Weed and Alcohol? Learn How to Avoid a Woozy Crossfade

"Keep it crunk," Lil Jon famously suggested, "and drop dem boyz." It's good life advice, in many ways, and for a long while cannabis fans have combined weed and alcohol to get an even better buzz. Cannabis fans, after all, are always looking for new challenges and new opportunities, which is why the opportunity to get high and drunk simultaneously may be too good to pass up. As with all things in life, however, there's always the risk of too much of a good thing, and in the cannabis world, the term "crossfaded" refers to just that. The cross faded meaning is too much bud, too much liquor, and too much overconfidence in your ability to hold both down. A woozy crossfade is, well, just that: all of the chemicals hitting you all at once, harder than you'd like. Since it appears that smoking marijuana also increases your body's uptake of alcohol, you can get drunker and higher together than you would with either substance alone. Here's how to maintain your head when both alcohol and THC are going straight for it.

Know Thyself

The most practical way to keep yourself from doing too much is to know where the line of "too much" is. That can be hard if you are a newer smoker or a newer drinker; there's a reason why the cliche of college freshmen throwing up during a party is based in reality. The first time you try a dab, for example, you may find that you've bitten off much more than you can chew (or just inhale). Likewise, a six-foot bong may be a great photo opportunity, but it might get you far higher than you are comfortable with.

What is true of cannabis is true of alcohol. New types of alcohol, from kombucha to hard seltzers, can make it hard to know where the line of tipsy and the line of drunk begin to blur. Figure out where your hard boundaries are, perhaps when a shot of tequila is placed in front of you by a friend, so that you know how to have a good time without going over the edge of drunk and high and miserable.

Make a Plan

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Spontaneity is the spice of life, and when it comes to drunk vs high nights out, neither of them often involves long-term strategy beyond having a good time. You are sober, you don't want to be sober, and you want to be around your friends as you go from point A to point B. The easiest way to prevent a smoking and drinking session from going overboard is simply to make a plan, however, and having a plan can prevent you from having a bad night or a rotten morning. The plan doesn't need to be complicated, one shot per hour, one toke an hour, or something similar as long as you stick to it.

Don't overdo it with something that is going to hit hard deliberately and if you do, make sure to give yourself the time to recover. If you want to use homemade cannabis products, that's perfectly fine, provided you know how much is going into it and how that compares to your tolerance level.

Hydrate

By far the best solution when you are cross faded, or about to be cross faded, is to get water into your system. Both alcohol and marijuana will dehydrate you, which is why you get cottonmouth after smoking and why beer is more refreshing the more you drink it. The general advice you hear is one glass of water per drink of alcohol. It leaves you having to break the seal more often, but that's a small price to pay when the alternative is throwing up or passing out. Vitamin Water and Gatorade can be beneficial because it provides hydration as well as the electrolytes your body needs to send communications along with your nervous system. 

Cut the Lights, Hit the Floor

Sensitivity to light is more commonly associated with hangovers than with crossfade sessions, but there's a real reason you want darkness when you've had too much. And it's not just to avoid being seen in a miserable state. Darkness prevents overstimulation, which is why it's easier to concentrate on a movie when the theater (or the basement) has no other light. 

Likewise, getting as much gravity off your shoulders as possible will help with a woozy crossfade. Lie down, and if possible, lie down on a smooth cold surface like a tile floor. This draws the excess body heat as your heart hammers away, trying to filter out the bad juju while decreasing the demands on your physical self. While a bed may be more comfortable, the blankets can push a crossfade all the way to the point of sweats or even a fever, which is the last thing you want on a night when nothing is going the right way as is.

Do you have any funny stories about taking too much cannabis and too much alcohol in one sitting? Did you find any strategies from both substances that help you to avoid a woozy crossfade? Let us know in the comments below about your resistance, or lack thereof, to this kind of fun mix!