A new study has uncovered exactly how cannabis impacts your body in the first 24 hours after use.
In the US, laws around cannabis use vary state to state, with recreational use being legalized in 24 states, and decriminalized in a further seven states.
One state where recreational use has been legalized is Colorado, where a team of researchers from the University of Colorado Anschutz used data from the UK Biobank for a study with participants aged from 40 to 70.
In the study, experts analyzed the impact cannabis has on the brain.
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Lead author Anika Guha Ph.D. spoke during a Q&A with Medical Press, where she said: “More older adults are using cannabis. It’s more widely available and is being used for different reasons than in younger folks, such as for sleep and chronic pain.”
The study found that ‘greater lifetime cannabis use among middle-aged and older adults was generally associated with larger brain volumes and better cognitive function’, adding that ‘moderation seemed to be best’ as it was found that most parts of the brain they looked at ‘demonstrated a positive relationship between brain volume and cognitive performance’.
However, this is still ‘nuanced’ according to Guha, who explained: “I think sometimes people have seen my poster on this project or they see the headline and they say, ‘great, I’ll just use more cannabis’.
“But it’s more complicated than that. I think it depends on how people are using it and what outcomes you’re looking at.”
She noted that the majority of those who used cannabis were using it a while ago when it ‘looked very different to what’s available today’.
How does cannabis affect the human body?
According to WebMD, your heart rate can rise by 20 to 50 beats and stay there for up to three hours after you use cannabis.
When that starts, the blood vessels in the eyes will dilate, and your eyes will probably turn red as a result.
By 20 minutes after using cannabis, the THC will be fully absorbed into your blood and moving through every molecule of your circulatory system.
If you’re taking an edible, it won’t happen for a while longer, since the THC needs to be absorbed by your liver.
Once the THC is fully settled in your system, it can alter the body’s neural chemistry and stimulate the part of your brain that responds to pleasure, unleashing a heap of dopamine, which is responsible for the relaxed, euphoric sensation - though it’s important to note that this could also cause anxiety or panic, depending on the individual.