Cannabis and the Pursuit of the Runner’s High
Recreational athletes are using weed to spark joy on the run. Science says they’re onto something.
When I run near my home in Portland, Oregon, I’m more likely than not to catch a whiff of weed in the air. It might be wafting from a dispensary, or a passer-by, or a wake-and-baker on their front porch.
I’ve always felt a vague sense of superiority — I’m sweating it out while you’re on the couch eating Cheetos — but recent research suggests my smugness may be misguided.
Consuming cannabis can make running for fun more, well, fun, according to a research article published last month. The researchers asked runners who were also habitual cannabis users to run on a treadmill and answer some questions about how they were feeling on two occasions: once sober and once high. They also looked at whether a high-THC strain (the chemical that gets you high) had a different effect than a mostly CBD strain (a different cannabinoid that isn’t psychoactive but is thought to have anti-anxiety and anti-inflammatory effects).
“The bottom-line finding is that cannabis before exercise seems to increase positive mood and enjoyment during exercise, whether you use THC or CBD,” first author Laurel Gibson, a research fellow with the University of…
