It’s time to throw out the lazy stoner myth. Yet another study has found that cannabis promotes more physical activity—not less! Published in the Journal of Cannabis Research, this recent study found that cannabis, particularly legal cannabis, is linked to greater levels of physical activity. 

The study found legal medical cannabis is associated with increased activity for those experiencing chronic medical conditions. Meanwhile, legal recreational cannabis is associated with even greater increases in physical activity for those without these conditions. 

Will cannabis make you lazy or active? 

On the other hand, a number of studies have found that cannabis use is associated with more physical activity in adults, including exercise and light activity like walking.

Being sedentary is tied to a lot of health issues, such as cancer, obesity, and diabetes. But in the US, most adults don’t meet the suggested levels of exercise to stay healthy. So, it’s important to know if a substance like cannabis will cause disruptions to your physical activity levels. Many studies have investigated this, but the results have been mixed.

Some evidence has suggested cannabis use can lead to increases in sedentary behavior for teenagers. One 2017 study also found a tie between less physical activity and cannabis use in adults. 

On the other hand, a number of studies have found that cannabis use is associated with more physical activity in adults, including exercise and light activity like walking. One study also found that teens aged 15-18 who exercised more had higher levels of cannabis use. 

Study limitations could explain inconsistent findings

These inconsistent findings could be due to the fact that studies defined physical activity in a variety of ways, with different studies including different types of activity. But they could also be due to limitations in the studies showing less physical activity. 

These studies didn’t control for factors like chronic conditions, which could explain both early cannabis use and sedentary lifestyles. While pain can both reduce physical activity and motivate cannabis use, these associations could be misunderstood as cannabis causing the reductions in activity. 

Does legality or health status change cannabis’ impact? 

The authors of this new study were motivated to find out whether the association between cannabis and physical activity would remain if they controlled for certain factors, like chronic medical conditions and whether cannabis is legal. 

They hypothesized that greater physical activity would be associated with current cannabis use. They also thought there would be more physical activity in states with legal cannabis, and that cannabis use would help those with chronic conditions stay more active. 

To study this, they analyzed the 2016-2022 data from a cross-sectional study conducted each year on 400,000 adults in the US. The questionnaire included questions to assess physical activity, cannabis use frequency, medical conditions, demographic characteristics, and whether cannabis is legal for medical and/or recreational use in their area. With this, they were able to look for any statistically significant associations between cannabis use, physical activity, and the other factors involved.   

Legal cannabis consumers are more active

The results of the analysis supported all three of the researchers’ hypotheses. 

There were significant associations between cannabis use and increased physical activity. Cannabis use has almost doubled between 2016 and 2022, going from 7.48% to 14.71%. Physical activity levels also went up by 3.5% during that time. Throughout the time studied, the association remained strong between cannabis use and more physical activity. 

There were significant associations between cannabis use and increased physical activity.

More physical activity was also associated with areas that had legal recreational or medical cannabis. Cannabis use was also 6.5% higher in areas with legal recreational cannabis, and 0.7% higher in areas with legal medical cannabis (compared to areas where it is illegal). 

Importantly, the association between physical activity and cannabis use frequently depended on the legal status of cannabis—with the association dropping away for illegal cannabis use. Only using legal cannabis was associated with more physical activity, with the highest levels associated with legal recreational cannabis. 

The authors argue that “it may be that the greater flexibility in how a person can use cannabis because of legalization for recreation can explain this result.” Those free to use cannabis however they see fit may be more likely to use it to encourage exercise.

Legal medical cannabis boosts activity in chronic illness

The results also supported the third hypothesis, that cannabis use would mediate how much someone could exercise if they had a chronic illness. Each year, those with a chronic condition had consistently lower levels of physical activity than those without. But for cannabis consumers, this association did not remain significant, suggesting that cannabis use allows those with chronic conditions to stay more active. 

While this study adds to the growing body of evidence that cannabis is beneficial for physical activity, it is limited. The survey only asked about specific conditions, and did not ask if they were controlled or consistent, which may have shifted results. Since it was a survey, physical activity and cannabis use were self-reported and not measured physically.

Although many variables were controlled for, it was underpowered to be able to show causal relationships between cannabis and physical activity. 

Still, the results suggest that cannabis may allow for more physical activity, something that benefits those with and without chronic health conditions. 

Cannabis use during pregnancy has been increasing in the US, and many people may be wondering what impacts this trend could have on children. Some previous research has pointed towards the possibility that prenatal cannabis exposure could increase the likelihood of having autistic children. But a recent study—one of the largest ever conducted on cannabis and autism—found that cannabis exposure in early pregnancy did not lead to higher odds of an autism diagnosis.

What is autism?

Autism is classified as a developmental disorder. It impacts how individuals interact with others, communicate, learn, and experience life. One in 36 Americans are diagnosed with autism; symptoms usually appear during the first two years of a person’s life. Autism is also a spectrum condition—it encompasses a wide variety of different symptoms that an individual might experience, and different levels of health care support may be needed.

Some of the challenges that autistic people might face include having a style of communication that non-autistic people have trouble understanding, having sensory issues because of heightened or reduced sensory perception, and having more repetitive or restricted patterns of behavior than non-autistic peers.

While medical literature classifies autism as a disorder, many autistic advocates point out that many of the “symptoms” of autism are not inherently problematic or disordered; they simply clash with non-autistic expectations, leaving autistic people marginalized. 

Previous research on cannabis exposure and autism

The recent study, conducted by researchers from Kaiser Permanente and UC San Francisco, evaluated whether cannabis use in early pregnancy could increase the likelihood of a woman giving birth to an autistic child. Autism has been linked to a variety of potential environmental causes, but most research points towards genetics as the primary cause.  

One study, published in 2020, did find an association between prenatal cannabis use and autism, leading to questions about whether cannabis use could cause autism. However, otherstudies found no associations. Unfortunately, those studies utilized self-reporting methods, which may have skewed the results due to a potential underreporting of cannabis use. 

Researchers in the recent Kaiser / UCSF used more rigorous methods to determine whether prenatal cannabis use caused higher rates of autism in children.

Studying prenatal cannabis and autism

This recent study was one of the largest ever done on the topic (it included 178,948 pregnancies), but it also utilized a more robust data set for cannabis use and autism. The study incorporated information from Kaiser Permanente Northern California’s integrated health-care system, which universally screens pregnant individuals for cannabis use—via both self-reporting and a urine toxicology test. Kaiser also routinely screens and assesses children for autism.

The researchers also included related factors in their analysis like sociodemographic data, the additional medications and substances that a mother consumes, and general health conditions.

Prenatal cannabis use not associated with autism

While an initial analysis appeared to indicate an association between autism and prenatal cannabis use, the association disappeared after adjusting for factors like sociodemographic characteristics and the medical conditions of the mother.

This lack of association suggests that mothers who use cannabis during pregnancy are more likely to have autistic children—not because of the cannabis itself, but because of other factors that also increase likelihood of cannabis use. 

While the researchers don’t identify those specific factors, these results shouldn’t be that surprising: For one, Autism has high hereditary rates. Furthermore, cannabis is sometimes used as an effective treatment for symptoms of autism. Separate studies have noted that autistic individuals tend to have lower levels of endocannabinoids in their bodies, which could suggest an impairment of the endocannabinoid system. 

Mothers with autism—or other conditions tied to the same genes as autism—are more likely to both use cannabis and have autistic children; this correlation may help explain the initial results of the study. Still, only more research will offer conclusive answers to these questions. 

Limitations and future research

This study used a strong methodology, with a large and diverse data set. Still, it was limited by the fact that cannabis use was only measured in early pregnancy. Future studies should measure cannabis use throughout pregnancy, and ideally include information like the methods and dosing of the cannabis itself.

While this study suggests prenatal cannabis use is not associated with autism, the authors nonetheless caution that there is evidence that cannabis can impact development in other ways and should be avoided during pregnancy. 

Had too much THC and need to reduce its effects? Generally, science and cannabis professionals say take some CBD, the non-psychoactive cannabinoid, to balance it out. But new research indicates that may not be a good idea. 

A recent study in Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics found that CBD can actually increase the psychoactive effects of cannabis. This news may surprise many, as CBD has been touted as a substance that can block or reduce the psychoactive aspects of too much THC. The theory goes that CBD, due to its unique engagement with endocannabinoid receptors, can block the activity of THC, the most abundant cannabinoid and main driver of cannabis’ psychoactive effects. 

Can CBD reverse your high? 

The idea that CBD can block THC’s effects comes from a 2006 study by cannabis researcher Dr. Ethan Russo. Russo’s theory made sense at the time, based on the data available; the study discusses the advantages of the entourage effect, and noted that in clinical trials, “CBD is demonstrated to antagonize some undesirable effects of THC including intoxication.”

But follow-up research has found mixed results in CBD’s efficacy for consistently reducing THC’s psychoactive effects. Some studies have found benefits to adding CBD to THC, such as reduced anxiety, paranoia and cognitive impairments, while others found CBD had no impact. 

This latest study shifts the conversation by providing the first piece of evidence that CBD might actually increase psychoactive effects from THC rather than blocking them. 

Can CBD increase THC’s pain relief?  

This study aimed to figure out whether adding CBD to THC would reduce psychoactive effects while still complementing its pain relieving abilities. The authors’ interests lay in how to make cannabis more accessible as a pain reliever, since many medical patients and recreational consumers seek out cannabis for pain management, but don’t want psychoactive effects for their day-to-day lives.

To examine the impacts of adding CBD, the researchers designed a randomized, double blind, placebo controlled clinical trial. Thirty-seven healthy, adult participants ages 18 to 45 took part in the trial. All were previous cannabis users, but had not used cannabis more than once per month in the 6 months prior to the experiment, or at all in the previous 3 weeks. 

At each test session, participants were given oral tablets with 9 mg of THC and either a placebo or varying levels of CBD, from 10 mg up to 450 mg. Then standardized tests were performed to determine the psychoactive and pain-relieving effects of the varying treatments, including measures for subjective effects like alertness, mood, depression, paranoia, anxiety, and just “feeling high.”

There were additional recordings of effects on cognition and motor function, like attention, stability, vigilance, and coordination. 

Large CBD doses can increase THC’s effects 

Surprisingly, the results show no reduction of psychoactive effects with higher levels of CBD. Instead, the highest dose of CBD (450mg) seemed to add to the psychoactive effects, with significantly higher scores on most measures. This enhanced psychoactive high was accompanied by elevated levels of THC and its metabolites in the participants’ blood.

This suggests that the increased psychoactivity may result from the way CBD can alter metabolization of certain drugs by inhibiting enzymes involved in metabolizing chemicals like THC. 

Interestingly, the lower doses of CBD (10mg and 30mg) made no significant impact at all. 

Sadly, none of the doses of CBD increased levels of pain relief. Still, researchers point out that this does not invalidate previous research supporting CBD’s pain relieving effects. The fact that the participants were healthy volunteers, rather than patients with chronic pain challenges, could explain why the CBD did not increase pain relief. In patient populations, we may see different results. 

Will adding CBD increase your high? 

While these results do not support the theory that adding CBD to THC can reduce a psychoactive high or increase pain relief, take the study with a grain of salt. Despite the double-blind and randomized study design, the sample size was still relatively small, and thus limiting how far we can generalize the results. 

But before you remove CBD from your cannabis routine (or add it in to make your high even stronger), it’s important to note that the study found increases in psychoactive effects only with very large doses of CBD. These doses are much higher than what most consumers normally use. The study doesn’t suggest that low doses are likely to significantly increase your high—but the authors say it’s possible.

To add to the complications, CBD can have biphasic effects, which means that it can have one effect at a low dose, but a different effect at a high dose. Given this, and previous research suggesting no impact, or a reduction of psychedelic effects with CBD, we still don’t have much evidence to suggest that typical doses of CBD could enhance a psychoactive high. 

Based on the totality of the research, it’s clear that CBD and THC might interact in a myriad of ways when it comes to psychoactivity. This study expands the possibilities, suggesting the interaction is even more complex than we originally thought.