The holidays are a time of overindulgence when you drink and eat too much and time doesn’t feel real. Dry January has grown in popularity due to these reasons, providing people with plenty of health benefits that can impact their lives over the course of the year.

Though that all sounds amazing, for a lot of people, giving up on alcohol for an entire month is not an easy ask. While it may be easy to stick to these rules at home, once you enter the outside world, temptation will likely strike. Here’s how cannabis can help.

While replacing one behaviour with another may not be the answer, if you consume marijuana with a calm and clear head, the drug may help make the month breeze by, while also boosting your energy and allowing you to stick to your sober goals. Here are three things marijuana can do to help you stick to dry January:

It may make your goals more realistic

For habitual and social drinkers, Dry January can be difficult to stick to. Adding weed into the mix may help you curb some of your cravings, especially when spending time with friends or doing an activity that usually involves alcohol. Weed could relieve some of the pressure associated with going out.

Weed may prevent extreme behaviours

While Dry January has plenty of health benefits, it’s also associated with some extreme behaviours. For example, once people quit drinking for a month, it could give them a false sense of security and encourage them to drink more in the following month, getting rid of the health benefits that they carefully constructed. While weed affects your brain and your body, it provides a very different reaction for your body, eliminating hangovers and calories that accompany alcohol.

It’s fun!

Lastly, weed can be a helpful addition to Dry January because it’s very fun. January is already a tough month, the unofficial Monday of the year, coming in the wake of the holidays and holiday breaks. Weed might help make the weeks more bearable and allow you to focus on your mental and physical health.