Marijuana and Meditation

DISCLAIMER: This is an opinion blog post and should not be considered medical advice.  If you’re thinking about combining marijuana and meditation, first talk to your physician AND a professional meditation instructor about the potential risks.

Can you combine marijuana and meditation? No study we found has tested the pair, and the side effects THC can bring, from anxiety to poor focus, work against what meditation trains.

Cannabis has a long history: the National Cancer Institute notes medicinal use going back at least 3,000 years, and both it and meditation appear in some religious traditions.

Meditation is studied for stress and pain with mixed results, and cannabis can relax some people but cause anxiety or paranoia in others, CDC notes.

Meditation trains attention, while THC can make it harder to concentrate and remember for a while.

If this sounds like we’re going off into “woo-woo” territory, relax.  We’re not pretending to be metaphysicists or theologians.  We deal with medical marijuana, so we try to keep things as grounded in physical reality as we can.

That being said, research suggests that our mental and emotional states can impact our physical health.  If we want to take control of our health, getting control of our mind is a good place to start.

Meditation is one way people practice that kind of attention.

Although meditation and marijuana have been used in various religious and spiritual traditions,  you don’t have to believe in anything to try meditation.

NIH’s complementary health center lists what studies have and have not shown.

Here is what meditation involves and what that research says.

What is Meditation?

Meditation is a mind-body technique designed to calm the body and mind.  It typically involves settling into a comfortable position (sitting or lying down on your back) and focusing your mind on a particular object.

Keep your back straight and your breathing steady while you hold that focus.

The object of focus can be anything: a lit candle, a statue, a point on the wall.

It can also be a word, phrase or mantra that you repeat in your mind.  Or you could simply focus on your breathing.

If you get distracted and start thinking about something other than your chosen object, you simply take note that you were distracted, and you return your focus to your chosen object.

And that’s pretty much the nuts and bolts of meditation.   You can do it for ten minutes or you can do it for two hours.

If you’ve never meditated before, you may want to try ten minutes first.

Why Meditate?

Studies have looked at whether meditation helps with these conditions, with results that range from promising to mixed:

• High blood pressure
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Insomnia
• Pain
• Nicotine addiction

Small studies have linked meditation training with a stronger antibody response to a flu shot in 25 workers, better attention after four brief sessions, and gray matter changes in 16 people after an 8-week program.

Promising, but these were small studies.

Why Combine Marijuana and Meditation?

Some people use both for anxiety, sleep or pain, but the evidence differs: CDC links cannabis use with depression and social anxiety, and NIH calls the evidence for cannabinoids and anxiety small.

So what happens when you combine the two?

We found no research on what happens when people combine the two; reports are personal accounts.

That can either be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your temperament and mental state.

Some people say the pair works for them, but that is a personal report, not a study result.

Others would rather not mix and match.  Marijuana and meditation are pretty powerful on their own.  Adding marijuana to a meditation routine can also add THC side effects such as anxiety or poor focus, which work against the practice.

Meditation and Marijuana: A Positive Story

Many years ago, one of the members of the Dr. Green Relief team (we’ll call him “Rick”) ate marijuana-infused brownies for the first time.

And like many first-time edible eaters, Rick ate more brownies than he should have.   Not only that, he ate them late into the evening and didn’t feel the effects until around midnight.

It was a long night for Rick.

His thoughts were out of control, and his anxiety had backed him into a corner.

Fortunately, Rick had already been studying and practicing meditation for a while.

He put on some Bob Marley to boost the positive vibes in his room, and he started meditating.  Instead of fighting his thoughts, he just focused on breathing in and out.  He imagined himself at the center of his thoughts, where he could observe them peacefully, instead of getting dragged down by them.

Rick didn’t come down from the high until late the next morning.  Although it was a harrowing experience, it was also a valuable one, and it taught him two things:

1. Edibles can take hours to act, so the effects can arrive later and stronger than expected.
2. Anxiety and paranoia are known side effects of THC, CDC notes, and severe symptoms after cannabis use need medical help

Is It Safe?

NIH’s complementary health center says meditation is usually considered to have few risks, but a 2020 review of 83 studies found about 8% of participants had a negative effect.

The most common negative effects were anxiety and depression, so people with a mental health condition should talk with their doctor before starting.  You should notify your meditation instructor of your condition.

It’s even more important to notify your doctor and your meditation instructor before combining meditation with marijuana.

Before You Combine Marijuana and Meditation

1). Develop a meditation practice first

NIH’s complementary health center explains how meditation and mindfulness are practiced and what studies show.

There are also plenty of meditation apps you can download on your mobile device and use for instruction.

An in-person meditation instructor can do what an app cannot.  An instructor can observe you while you’re meditating, help you correct your posture and encourage you to eliminate bad habits.  An instructor can also be a valuable sounding board for any feedback or thoughts that you want to share.

2).  Practice meditating for at least 90 days

90 days may seem like a long time, but there’s a good reason for waiting this long.

Meditation has its ups and downs.  Some days, you might feel like the time you sat went really well.  Other days, you may feel like you weren’t able to shut off your mind.

Also, when you spend a lot of time observing your own mind, emotional and psychological baggage can come up.  You might be ready to face this baggage.  Or you might not be.  Again, this is why it’s so important to work with an instructor.

Doing your practice over a three-month period will give you a sense of the highs and lows of meditation, and of how your mind responds to quiet attention.

3). Talk with your physician before mixing marijuana and meditation

If you use medical marijuana and want to meditate, a few safety points:

• Do not meditate in a bath, a car or anywhere a sudden drowsy spell could be dangerous.
•  Your physician, not a blog, decides the amount and timing of any medical marijuana you use.
• If THC makes you anxious or paranoid, stop, sit somewhere safe and focus on slow breathing; get help if symptoms are severe.
• Never drive or care for others alone after using THC, and tell your physician if you find yourself using more than you planned.

Have you ever combined marijuana and meditation? Share your experiences with us on Instagram or Facebook.

And if you have a Florida qualifying condition and want to know your options, schedule an appointment with us today.