Gemma Speck

So I'm not going to be a hypocrite and say don't do it or pass any judgment.

or for your usage or lack of usage.

I just think the psychology is very fascinating.

It's important purely from like a research standpoint.

Weed is just has there's so much cool information about it.

So without further ado, let's get into it.

To begin understanding the psychology of weed, we have to start with knowing what the heck it actually does to our brains and bodies to make us feel the way it does.

Basically, where does the high feeling come from?

A lot of the feeling of being high starts with something called the endocannabinoid system.

This is a natural system in your body, everybody's body and in your brain as well.

And it helps regulate mood, stress, appetite, memory, pain, reward, even how strongly we react to things around us, basically how we interpret sensations.

In other words, it is involved in many of the exact same functions that people notice shifting when they consume weed.

Fun fact, the endocannabinoid system is also the same system responsible for the high feeling that some people get from exercise.

Everybody has an endocannabinoid system and every body naturally produces its own endocannabinoid molecules.

Whether you smoke weed, whether you don't, whether you've ever seen weed, looked at weed, smelt weed or not, your body already has a system in place.

In particular, your body naturally produces two well-known cannabis-like chemicals, anandamide, which is known as the bliss molecule, and 2-AG.

These chemicals naturally bind to cannabinoid receptors in your body to influence mood, pain, appetite, memory, and

Another fun fact, a Harvard report found that we actually have more cannabinoid receptors in our bodies, specifically CB1 receptors, than nearly any other receptor in our brain and in our system.

That is how important they are to how we function.

Now, cannabis works by interfering with the system and acting on those same receptors of which we have many, but in ways that is artificial, meaning basically the chemicals that are coming in weren't naturally produced by the body and may occur at like a higher level than what the body is normally used to, meaning it disrupts the system, meaning we get the symptoms of being high that we are used to.