If you've ever smoked marijuana, you probably don't need me to tell you that taking it has some wonderful and strange side effects. After just a few puffs, bites, or drops of your favorite flower, edible, or tincture, sweet Mary Jane begins to work her magic; you just have to decide for yourself if the potential for weird side effects and potential Wonderful side effects.
First, to understand how cannabis affects us, it’s important to know that humans are born with cannabinoid receptors. They live on the surface of cells and are responsible for communicating changing conditions outside the cell to the inside of the cell, thereby stimulating cellular responses. The main cannabinoid receptors, CB1 and CB2, are responsible for the high you get from THC, and both are found in various parts of your body. But the effects are not necessarily the same for everyone—in other words, people may experience different side effects or different levels of benefits.
To help explain the effects of cannabis on the body, Bustle spoke with Dr. Jordan Tishler, MD, an expert in cannabis healing and holistic care. Here are seven side effects of drug abuse, explained below:
1. cotton mouth
“Cotton mouth” occurs when cannabinoids such as THC bind to receptors in our submandibular glands (a pair of glands located at the floor of our mouths that produce about 70% of saliva). It then causes them to stop receiving messages from their parasympathetic nervous system, which normally tells them to produce more saliva.
Dr. Tishler points out that even though you may feel thirsty after consuming cannabis, that doesn't necessarily mean you're dehydrated. "For those with heart or kidney disease, drinking too much water can be dangerous, so they should be warned to drink water in small sips rather than drink large amounts," he said.
2. Increased heart rate
Now, when it comes to marijuana and heart rate, Dr. Tishler says there are two important factors at play. "First, cannabis has a direct stimulating effect on heart rate through CB1 receptors," explains Dr. Tishler. "In addition, it causes a decrease in vascular resistance, which leads to a decrease in blood pressure. When blood pressure decreases, an increase in heart rate is required to compensate." For most people, the increase in heart rate is mild and not particularly noticeable, he said. But if you get a weird feeling in your chest when you're high, he recommends reducing your dose. Your heart usually beats between 60 and 100 times per minute. However, heart rate may increase to 70 to 120 beats per minute after smoking marijuana.
However, if you are dealing with established cardiovascular problems, you should take this side effect more seriously. "For patients with coronary artery disease or congestive heart failure, the increased morbidity can be dangerous," Dr. Tishler said. "...This can cause chest pain, shortness of breath, and in the worst case, a heart attack." He made it clear that the condition was rare but serious.
3. Possible erectile dysfunction
If you don't have a penis, erectile dysfunction probably won't affect you directly - and having a penis shouldn't prevent you from consuming cannabis safely and legally if you wanted to - but you should know that it may be a possibility. "When it comes to the sexual effects of marijuana, men are more dose-dependent than women," says Dr. Tishler. Still, some of the existing research on erectile dysfunction and marijuana use is conflicting and requires further research.
4. Potential increased tolerance
Female rats are more likely than male rats to develop a tolerance to marijuana, according to a 2014 study by Washington State University psychologist Rebecca Craft published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence . The female mice in Kraft's study were also more sensitive to marijuana's pain-relieving properties than males, and were most sensitive during ovulation. Still, Dr. Tishler is unconvinced by the available data on marijuana's pain-relieving effects in men and women. "There is some evidence that women may need higher doses than men to control pain, but I haven't seen that in practice, and I don't believe the studies are accurate," he said.
5. Increase appetite
Even weed-smoking virgins have probably heard that the drug will make you super hungry, but the weird part about this side effect is why smoking weed can sometimes make us feel like eating an entire pizza and a mountain of macaroni and cheese all by ourselves.
A 2018 study by Washington State University experts found that feeding marijuana to mice stimulated a surge in ghrelin, a hormone released when the stomach is empty that tells the brain it's time to find food. Additionally, a 2015 study published in Nature found that our cannabinoid receptors are related to proopiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons that live in the hypothalamus and control appetite stimulation. So when people consume marijuana, these neurons are activated, causing you to feel hungry.
Still, Dr. Tishler tells Bustle that he doesn't think we have a good answer yet to explain why eating occurs after taking the drug. "It's clear that cannabis interacts with receptors in the hypothalamus, the area that controls satiety," Dr. Tishler said. "Beyond that, we don't know."
6. giggle
Not only is laughter super fun, it’s also good for you. One of the most enjoyable (and weird) side effects of getting drunk is that it might make you laugh—but Dr. Tishler points out that this side effect isn't necessarily universal. "This may exacerbate people's natural giggles or their underlying emotions, but uncontrolled laughter is not a universal phenomenon," he said.
Unfortunately, most of the research on marijuana and laughter is more than a decade old, but research on the topic does exist. For example, one such study found that marijuana activated blood flow in the right frontal and left temporal lobes of the brain, both of which are associated with laughter. Plus, laughter is contagious, so it makes sense that if you're smoking with a friend and they start giggling, you're likely to start giggling too.
7. Slowed perception of time
As every drunken scene in any movie or TV show will tell you, drug use tends to slow down—and it can actually be very relaxing because it forces us to slow down, too. Dr. Tishler tells Bustle that we're still learning why this happens, but it may have something to do with the hypothalamus. "Once again, the hypothalamus is involved in some of our timing apparatus, so it's likely that interactions exist, but why and how remain unexplored," Dr. Tishler said.
According to a 1998 study, marijuana changes blood flow to the cerebellum (the part of the brain that regulates muscle activity), which is involved in our body's timing system. A recent study published in Psychopharmacology found that participants who smoked marijuana overestimated their activity by 25% of the time compared to sober participants.
Research references:
Koch, M., Varela, L., Kim, JG, Kim, JD, Hernández-Nuño, F., Simonds, SE,...Horvath, TL (2015). Hypothalamic POMC neurons promote cannabinoid-induced feeding. nature. https://www.nature.com/articles/nature14260
Mathew, RJ, Wilson, WH, Turkington, TG, & Coleman, RE (1998). Disturbances in cerebellar activity and sense of time after THC. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9666122
Sewell, RA, Schnakenberg, A., Elander, J., Radhakrishnan, R., Williams, A., Skosnik, PD,...D'Souza, DC (2013). Acute effects of THC on time perception in frequent and infrequent cannabis users. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3581701/
Sneider, JT, Pope, HG, Silveri, MM, Simpson, NS, Gruber, SA, & Yurgelun-Todd, DA (2006). Alterations in regional blood volume in chronic cannabis users. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17115869
Association for the Study of Ingestive Behavior. (2018). How Marijuana Affects Appetite: Brain Changes. Science Daily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180717094747.htm
Wakley, AA, Wiley, JL, & Craft, RM (2014). Sex differences in antinociceptive tolerance to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol in rats. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4161674/
expert:
Jordan Tishler, MD; President, CMO Inhalation MD; President, Association of Cannabis Specialists. https://inhalemd.com/about-us/
