Cannabis MythBusters
By Aidan
Cannabis has been legal for six months now, and apart from some odd smells outside of a few designated buildings and an onslaught of half-baked headline puns, not a lot has changed here at the University of Alberta.
But whether you’re a regular cannabis user, a proud cannabis teetotal, or more ambivalent to the substance, you probably have a lot of vague preconceptions about what smoking cannabis does and does not do for you. Well, it’s time to put those preconceptions to the test. It’s time for the inaugural episode of Cannabis MythBusters!
To try and bust these myths, we sat down with Dr. Scot Purdon, a U of A Clinical Professor who has been researching the effects of cannabis use on young adults.
Myth: Cannabis use can enhance studying and/or creativity
Purdon said that this is a common misconception, and as of now the evidence does not support the idea. To the contrary, there is “firm evidence” that verbal learning and memory are in fact diminished when using cannabis.
“If you’re studying for an exam, and it’s a heavy verbal load that you’re trying to retain, cannabis will undermine your encoding and retention of that material, and your performance on your exam will suffer,” Purdon said.
Like studying, cannabis use will not help you learn a creative skill like music. However, the story is different when it comes to being creative with a skill you’ve already mastered.
“It’s possible that once you’re highly skilled, then the effects of cannabis may contribute to additional creativity,” Purdon said. “But for most people who are trying to learn how to play music or any type of performing or visual art, it’s going to impair their ability.”
The bottom-line here is that cannabis use will do you no favors while you are trying to learn, so it’s probably best to leave it out of your study sessions.
Verdict:
Myth: Eating cannabis will result in a more pronounced effect than smoking it
Pronounced is the wrong word here. The main differences between eating cannabis products (edibles — which are set to hit the legal market in October 2019) and smoking cannabis are the onset and duration.
“The effects of edible ingestion take a while to kick in,” Purdon said. “And they are slower to dissipate. By comparison, inhalation will have a very rapid effect. Presumably the dissipation of the effects will also be rapid.”
It is also worth noting that the overdose factor with edibles is more prevalent, usually in the form of nausea and vomiting. This is more prone to happen because of the late onset people may think they have not taken enough and will consume more, and by the time the effects start to kick in they have consumed too much. Luckily, Purdon has a solution if you do feel like you’re overdosing.
“If an overdose occurs, the best advice is to have a hot shower or a hot bath, that tends to settle the effects fairly quickly,” Purdon said.
Verdict:
Myth: Cannabis use can help deal with stress
This one is harder to dissect as the testing is largely subjective. However, what type of cannabinoid you use may affect stress levels.
“The critical thing here in terms of stress is going to be how much tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) are in the product,” Purdon said. “These are the two cannabinoids that we’re most interested in that have an effect on the brain. The THC content will likely not be very helpful in terms of stress, but we believe that the CBD content may have an effect.”
This thinking is still preliminary, as there is currently not a lot of guidance in defining CBD versus THC. The most we can go off of for now is some people say it helps them with stress.
“As a general rule I would not say that cannabis is going to help you alleviate stress or anxiety,” Purdon said. “For most people, it will not.”
Verdict:
Myth: It takes 24 hours to completely sober up after cannabis use
Another area that cannabis research is still unclear on. However, 24 hours is generally considered to be too short a window to be 100% sure of your sobriety.
“The longer the better,” Purdon said. “It looks like from the preliminary analysis that we’ve done so far that beyond three days we’re not really seeing a significant effect, at least on the verbal learning side. Ideally, you should wait three days from last use or more to make sure that you have no contributing effects.”
Verdict:
Myth: Cannabis use can inhibit brain development
“There is good animal data that suggests that exposure of the young and developing brain to cannabis products may be harmful to neurodevelopment,” Purdon said. “When we move to humans, the data are not as compelling.”
The strong suspicion is that cannabinoids will affect developing human brains in similarly negative ways. Given the ethical and legal complications behind performing tests on young, developing children’s brains, Purdon is skeptical that we’re going to see a more concrete study on the subject anytime soon. However, the current view in the medical and psychological communities is that cannabis should be avoided if possible at younger ages.
“[Cannabis use] prior to 18 would probably be a mistake,” Purdon said. “Even between 18 and 25 might be a mistake, but we just don’t have the evidence to clearly state it’s going to certainly have a negative effect on the developing brain.”
Verdict:
Myth: State-dependent learning applies to cannabis use
State-dependent learning is the notion that our memory retrieval is at its best when we are in the same state of mind when the memory was formed. In terms of cannabis use for students, the myth here is that if you study high, you should also take your exam high in order to be in the same state.
“I am almost 100% convinced that that is not going to be true,” Purdon said. “Because the use of cannabis diminishes your ability to encode and retain information through time, when you get to the study time the information is not there anyway. State-dependent learning will only kick in if you’ve acquired the material to begin with, and the compromises we’re seeing as a result of cannabis use is a failure to encode. Point being, if you don’t learn the material, you’re not going to remember it in whatever state.”
Verdict:
Myth: Everyone experiences the effects of cannabis use differently
The short answer here is yes, everyone will experience the effects of cannabis a little bit differently. The ambiguity in question is what characteristics are causing the discrepancy.
“Prior use history seems to be particularly important,” Purdon said. “That’s true of almost any neuroactive substance you might consume. If you have no prior experience with it, you’re going to have a much more significant effect than if you had had prior experience with it.”
Verdict:
Myth: We know a lot about the effects of cannabis use
While cannabis has been around for a long time, it’s only since its legalization that researchers like Scot Purdon are being given an opportunity to properly study it and its effects.
“We’re getting a stronger commitment from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and other funding agencies to support research in this area,” Purdon said. “It’s also encouraging that the distributors also are at least giving us lip-service to a commitment for funding research.”
“This is a national experiment — we have potentially 30 million customers for the product. This is monumental. We’ve never had this opportunity before, for better or worse I suppose, but we’re going to know a lot more this year than we’ve ever known before.”
Verdict:
For more information regarding cannabis at the U of A, send any comments or questions to cannabis@ualberta.ca or check our our online resource below:
