Both weed and alcohol can be used as escape drugs. Both can be heavily abused.

I personally don't like weed or alcohol. They are both stupefying to a certain degree. With alcohol they call the stupification being "drunk" and with weed they call it being "stoned".

To be honest, I'd rather be surrounded by stoned people than a bunch of drunken people. At least stoned people don't usually cause a lot of trouble. People drunk off their asses usually do really stupid things like get depressed and jump off of buildings, kill people by driving, cause family fights, etc. It's much more scary to be around someone drunk out of their mind. People stoned off their asses usually just sit there and don't cause trouble.