Alright. I did a quick search to see if this has been talked about and I didn’t come up with anything useful. If its been answered, I apologize.
I am wondering how Marijuana makes you “high”.
I want to know exactly happens after you take that first puff.
My friends are telling me lack of oxygen helps in the “high” feeling, but I know its more than that. Or else they’d stop smoking weed and hold their breath instead.
What causes that paranoid feeling?
The cottonmouth?
The red eyes?
The uncoordination?
The giggles?
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The THC in marijauna is inhaled, and absorbed into your blood by your lungs during the process of cellular respiration. Once it is in your blood, it is circulated through your brain, where the THC bonds to the nerve receptors in your brain, blocking certain neural impulses. This is what makes you feel high, as well as I understand it.
The short answer to your question is, “The chemicals in the marijuana are what give you those symptoms.” When you take that first puff, those 400 chemicals rush into your body and start fooling around with your body chemistry, giving you effects like giggles, munchies, etc.
You want to pinpoint what each and every chemical does to your body? In that case, allow me to introduce you to my favorite search engine.
I can’t remember exactly, but the THC acts on certain neurotransmitters which cause the varying effects and side effects. It’s either Seratonin or Dopamine… and I can’t remember which one it is. In your google searches, look up “psychopharmacology.” If you can get through all the technical terminology… you’ll find mention of one of those neurotransmitters somewhere.
The neuron cells that make up a brain have a receiving end and a transmitting end. Signals are sent electrically between those two ends along what is called the axon, which is basically a wire insulated with fat. When the signal reaches the transmitting end called the terminal branch, chemicals called neurotransmitters are released into he gaps between neurons, called synapses, to bond with receptor sites on the dendrite, the receiving end of a neuron. There is a range of these chemicals and their levels in your synapses have distinct effects on your mood, perception, and emotions. Many drugs work by blocking a particular receptor site in your cells. This cuts off your neurons feedback and they are tricked into continuing to produce more of that neurotransmitter. Cocaine does this to your dopamine receptors. Marijuana is different though, some of the chemicals only found in marijuana called Cannabinoids oddly enough have their own receptor sites in your neurons. How they got there is unknown (my own theory is that humans have been ingesting and smoking weed for so long its become wired into our brains). As for the uncoordination, according to this link “there is a dense concentration of cannabinoid binding sites in the basal ganglia and the cerebellum of the base-brain, both of which affect movement and coordination.”
Not sure about cotton mouth and red eyes, but I assume they are related to the changes in your circulatory systems associated with smoking grass, I do know that it will speed up your heart rate temporarily. And the giggles? They are usually only around for the first year or so, eventually the novelty wears off. With time, weed becomes more of a relaxant like a cold beer at the end of a hard day, at least for me anyway. Enjoy, and smoke safely.
I would say that these symptoms are caused by taking too much. I put up with all this for years until I realised I wasn’t enjoying it. The pleasurable ‘high’ (as opposed to being ‘stoned’) is achieved for me (when in Amsterdam where it’s decriminalised, right ;)) when I have about 1/5 of what everyone else is having.
The best book I’ve read on the field of hash and its effects is 'Cannabis Culture by Patrick Matthews. It’s a level-headed look at hash; it’s history, effects & its chemical composition.
