When country singer Kacey Musgraves sings in the song High Time, "I've been too low, so it's high time," there are a lot of folks nodding their heads in agreement these days.

A new study shows that for the first time in U.S. history, daily or almost-daily marijuana users outnumber daily or almost-daily drinkers.

Many of the 18 million daily marijuana users think they've traded up for something that's "natural."

Unfortunately, they're ignoring health hazards from smoking (COPD, cancer, heart disease) and from taking in marijuana's psychoactive chemical, THC, or any of the other 99 active components in the plant.

Teens who use marijuana risk damaging their cognition and developing cannabis use disorder. At any age, marijuana can exaggerate or cause depression, paranoia, and anxiety.

People ages 50 and older are especially vulnerable to marijuana’s negative side effects, according to a study in JAMA Internal Medicine. And since cannabis was legalized in Canada, visits by older people to the emergency room for cannabis poisoning (especially from edibles) have tripled.

That's also reflected in U.S. data on the increasing number of seniors in the ER for the ill effects of synthetic and real cannabis. Symptoms of cannabis poisoning include muscle weakness, lack of coordination, slurred speech, and with a big enough dose amnesia, hallucinations, and agitation.

If recreational marijuana is legal where you live, be aware of the potential hazards.

Our advice is to cut edibles into quarters and don't re-dose for 90 or more minutes (it can take that long to feel the effects of the first dose), and don't smoke or vape at all.