California Sober: Why People Are Switching from Alcohol to Weed

It works for some, but one drug is not a replacement for another, counselor warns

By Art Bukowski | April 12, 2025

They call it “California sober.”

Generally speaking, this term applies to folks who use marijuana but abstain from alcohol and other drugs, particularly narcotics or other highly addictive substances. People choose this lifestyle for a variety of reasons, though it’s often encountered in people who have had medical, legal, or financial problems with alcohol.

Is marijuana better for you than alcohol? While there are recognized medical benefits from cannabis for some people, it’s problematic to use it purely as a replacement for more harmful substances, medical professionals say. Northern Express checked in with those who advocate for this lifestyle, those who live it, and those who caution against it.

The Dispensary Perspective

Steve Ezell owns Interlochen Alternative Health, a pioneering dispensary in the local medical marijuana scene that now sells recreational weed. He’s a strong advocate for marijuana use, which he says is tremendously beneficial for many people.

“The stigma is gradually being lifted,” he says. “I’m 75 years old, and if you’d have told me when I was younger that there would be dispensaries all over the place in my lifetime, I would not have believed it. And I think the justification for the [widespread] acceptance is the fact that the proof is in the pudding.”

A lot of his clients find relief after trying cannabis products, he says, even those who aren’t using it as a replacement for any other substance.

“We have a lot of older people that come through, and they’re looking for pain relief or something to help them sleep, and cannabis is very effective for both of those,” he says.

Ezell says there’s “no comparison” when it comes to the downsides of use between alcohol and marijuana. Marijuana users aren’t harming others in traffic crashes or domestic violence incidents, he says, and marijuana itself is less harmful to the body. Overall, he believes, alcohol presents a much, much larger problem.

“I don’t have science to back this up, but I bet that you’d be hard pressed to find a single family in the United States that has not been adversely impacted from alcohol,” he says. “Either DUIs or something like that, or health issues, or sometimes it’s getting involved in a wreck, or whatever.”

He says many people who cannot or do not want to use alcohol or other substances come to him looking to find something else.

“A lot of people are forced to switch, and a lot of people just search and find it on their own. And I can tell you this—I think our retention rate is close to 100 percent. When people try it, they like it.”

The Personal Perspective

Northern Express connected with a few locals who prefer marijuana over alcohol and now avoid the latter.

Amanda Mangiardi of Interlochen is 73. She “got in trouble” with alcohol earlier in life. In addition to causing problems in her work and personal life, it simply made her feel terrible. The hangovers, the sloppiness, the lack of focus—it was all just one giant “albatross around the neck” that dragged her down, she says.

“I’m really glad those days are over,” she says.

She feels the exact opposite with marijuana, which she says greatly enhances her life. “I’m not one of those people that smokes marijuana and sits around and doesn’t do anything,” she says. “I enjoy taking walks. I enjoy playing my piano and painting. I love to just get high…and laugh.”

Mangiardi says she gets a creative burst from marijuana use, perhaps her favorite thing about the substance.

“I feel so good afterwards. I feel like I’m in touch with the creative part of myself. I can certainly do things without it, but it enhances my ability to just sort of leave my body behind and just fall right into what I’m doing, whether it’s painting or music.”

Jack Braden, 76, is a Traverse City native and retired contractor who hung drywall for decades. Like Mangiardi, alcohol wore thin on him many years ago.

“I got tired of it. Every time I went somewhere, I was getting stopped for drinking or getting into other trouble, and I just quit,” he says. “And I told a lot of my friends [who drank] ‘Don’t come over and see me, because I don’t need that stuff.’”

But being high is a constant state for Braden, and like Mangiardi, he feels it enhances his experience.

“It’s pretty much my normal. I’ve been smoking weed all day every day [forever],’” he says. “My mom couldn’t even tell in all the years she knew me. She’d say ‘When are you high?’ And I’d say ‘Ma, every time you see me.’”

Mangiardi feels that marijuana is not addictive, though Braden acknowledges that some people—himself excluded—can struggle with the substance, especially if they mix it with alcohol.

The Counseling Perspective

Emmy Hendry is a licensed counselor and chief quality officer at Addiction Treatment Services, northwest Michigan’s largest addiction services provider.

She says that alcohol “without fail” accounts for the highest number of ATS intakes year in and year out, but there has been an increase in people who struggle with marijuana addiction.

“Marijuana is now legal, and way more accessible and readily available,” she says. “I have noticed an uptick in terms of us giving people a diagnosed cannabis use disorder…there are far more people now that are identifying that they absolutely misuse marijuana.”

It’s not accurate to describe marijuana as less harmful than alcohol, Hendry says. People who use alcohol may in fact be more aggressive or harmful towards others, she says, but the social, economic, or physical harm caused to one’s own self by addiction is just as problematic.

“With alcohol and marijuana, the effects are the same in terms of the release of dopamine in the brain, which is how the science of it all works—increasing that happiness and creating that reward system,” she says. “[Excess of both substances] creates that tolerance, and the need for more has serious adverse effects.”

Hendry says it’s a “red flag” when she hears talk about replacing one substance with another.
“If we’re looking for a replacement, then we’re not addressing the real problem,” Hendry says. “Clinically…the goal is sustaining a life where they don’t have to rely on a mood-altering substance to cope.”