The nation-wide legalization of marijuana isn’t just a PIPE dream for the wavy-gravy pot smokers in the United States. It seems like it’s only a matter of time before people are free to partake in the sweet leaf, so with that in mind, this might be a good time to brush up on what the chemicals you inhale or ingest do to your body.
We won’t waste your time by telling you that marijuana gets you high and makes you do dumb things like watch a full season of a TV show while eating Oreos by the box or that it can be used to apppease some ailments like chemotherapy aftereffects. Instead, we’ll be focusing on the effects that you might not even be aware of.
This is what happens to your body when you smoke weed.
It slows down your motor skills.
If you can talk coherently to someone on the phone, do the New York Times Sunday crossword, clean your entire apartment and drain 3-pointers like Steph Curry while high, you are a medical marvel. For most people, smoking or ingesting weed can turn you into a straight-up zombie. Blame it on the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) causing a ruckus in your brain’s orbital frontal cortex.
It throws off your appetite.
Thank you, obvious science. When you consume marijuana, the cannabinoids interfere with the appetite-suppressing receptors, which tell you when you’re full. Instead of telling you to stop eating, your pleasure hormones (endorphins) trick you into eating more. The munchies aren’t a myth, they are science.
It messes with your short-term memory.
The hippocampus—a key component for memory—gets cloudy when THC infects it. Good luck trying to remember…anything.
It irritates your lungs.
You’re literally burning your airways. Simply put, the chemicals within marijuana—and other air pollutants like cigarette smoke—annoy your lungs, which cause you to cough like, well, a smoker. The difference between smoking weed versus tobacco, is that people tend to not physically smoke as much weed as tobacco, so they don’t reap as many potential harmful side effects. Another explanation might be because pot has some anti-inflammatory properties.
It weakens your immune system.
In case you’re one of those people who are always sick, a study from 2006 found that marijuana decreases immune cell activity and suppresses your inflammatory responses, which can boost your susceptibility to viruses and infections.
It dries out your mouth.
And that’s not even the worst part. A literature review in the Journal of the Tennessee Dental Association suggests that weed can inflame your gums—potentially loosening your teeth. Hot.
It actually changes the size of your brain.
While researchers are still unclear as to how marijuana affects brain development later in life, if you habitually lit up during your adolescence , certain structures in your brain shrink, which affects how your brain communicates with the rest of your body, says Filbey. One study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that marijuana users’ IQs were five points lower than non-smokers. So, about those SAT scores….
