Does Weed Make you Hallucinate?

Smoking weeds is equivalent to weighing out the chances of whether you’ll gain beneficial impacts or pure adversities that could either permanently affect your lifestyle or temporarily let you learn a lesson that moderation is highly necessary. Meaning, along with pleasant experiences with marijuana, we also encounter fatally harmful potency. 

The dark side of Cannabis is known, making it one of the reasons why world countries are yet to approve its legality. Because of that future, yet worried users are asking professionals questions like do Weed make you hallucinate? The answer is yes. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it happens to all users. Along with that, consumers also undergo adverse side reaction aside from hallucination. 

It is no secret that there are certain chemical compounds present in the Cannabis that could alter your perception and change the way you react to things and choose wise decisions. Now, the real question is what constituents of Cannabis are the one responsible for such potency?

THC: The mind-stimulating chemical compound in Cannabis

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse or NIDA’s findings, THC, that stands for tetrahydrocannabinol, binds with CB1 receptors in our brain. Those receptors are the one responsible for stimulating the release of dopamine. Dopamine is a hormone that is also famous for the term “feel-good neurotransmitter” because it makes us feel all things, mostly pleasure. From the sound of it, THC couldn’t be the one at fault in inducing hallucinations. That is a half-truth statement because how can THC affect our minds when it only affects our pleasured-instilled emotions?

Well, the other role of THC is interfering the information that is processing in our hippocampus, a part of our brain that works for memories and regulates emotions. So when it binds with dopamine and intervenes with the hippocampus, the doubled-up connection can indeed bring out hallucinations. Also, it’s not the only side effect of THC. Because, it induces struggle for recalling short-term memories, increase in anxiety and tachycardia, which can lead to tumour. Overall, the THC might be a significant component of Cannabis in terms of medical and recreational use. Still, the side effects, if the user fails to use moderately, can be quite unforgivable.

How to avoid acquiring hallucinating side effect from smoking cannabis?

The medical community is finding it difficult to withdraw from smoking Cannabis, which means they are always at risk of adverse impacts which in this case is hallucinations that could end them up in the worst condition possible. To provide solutions, here are the recommended techniques of physicians:

Limit your Usage

If you can’t find it in yourself to stop consuming Cannabis, you should reconsider limiting your usage and restricting yourself from taking too much. This part is where moderation enters. Abuse of substance will not do you right, no matter how much you wish for it to help you eliminate your illnesses. Besides, using any cannabis strains for medical use without a medical professional’s approval is like suicide. There’s no precise answer if it’s suitable for your disorder or if it’s going to work. As for recreational usage, as much as possible, do not take Cannabis in your system if you’re in a vulnerable state to lessen the worst side effects.

Go for Indica Strain

Cannabis strains have three types which include Indica, Sativa, and Hybrids, where there is 50% Indica and 50% Sativa. Yes, they are both Cannabis and will still affect your overall body nonetheless. Still, the difference is that Sativa is more on stirring cerebral emotions rather than body impacts because that’s Indica’s role. 

Check the THC level

However, if you’re not accustomed to consuming Sativa-dominant or Pure Sativa cannabis strains, you should be aware of the THC percentage of your Cannabis. The level of tetrahydrocannabinol will affect the side effects in terms of medical and recreational advantages. The higher the THC level, the more potent it is. As much as possible, find cannabis strain with a THC level that ranges 10% to 15% because those are the medium levels. 

Does Weed Make you Hallucinate: The signs and Long-term side effects

We can conclude that Weed indeed makes you hallucinate, knowing that THC or tetrahydrocannabinol is behind it. With that, we can say quickly determine THC as a psychoactive component. But, how does Weed cause hallucinations? Medical researchers found that the said chemical compound lessens the activity of the caudate nucleus, which has the role of processing memories and serve feedback to all emotions. They also found that the action of THC in that matter is quite rare.

Nonetheless, when that happens, the user will most likely feel the hallucinations kicking in. Are there other cannabinoids that do the same thing? To answer that, Medical professionals created a study and saw that while THC lowers the activity, CBD increases the movement of the caudate nucleus. For now, THC is the only known chemical compound to make you hallucinate.

The signs hallucinations can deliver is quite distinguishable, especially when you thoroughly know the user you are observing. By definition, hallucination means seeing things that do not exist, which can range from visual illusions such as perceiving non-existent images of people, shapes, colors, etc. Then, there’s the auditory hallucination that will make you hear sounds that are existing but are not happening in real life such as whistling, hissing, screaming, etc. The moment a companion of yours is starting to act livid towards empty spaces or non-threatening objects, your role is to bring him/her to the nearest medical establishments, mostly if it has been going on for quite a long time now. On the other hand, a temporary hallucination as a side effect from smoking cannabis can include minimal delusions that could last for two hours.

There are two possibilities after experiencing hallucinations. One is if it will go away immediately or two if it’s going to stay for a long time. Usually, a long-term side effect from the curative effect is impossible to happen. But in terms of recreational, it is most likely to occur. In this case, the hallucination can go worse. Examples are Schizophrenia, a mental disorder that makes an individual hallucinate, and possess strange behaviors that religious people call as “possessed by demons”, Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, that will make people lose everything they have known gradually over time. Others include delirium, which is a vertical mind adjustment that makes users confused and quickly forgotten, and cancers.