So, you’ve just come back from your local Portland marijuana dispensary with a bag full of goodies. Maybe you’ve had a bad day at work. Maybe you’re grieving over a recent breakup. Maybe it’s Tuesday. No matter the situation, you’re looking for a way to climb out of this funk you’re in.
The beautiful thing about cannabis is its incredible mood-boosting power. You can be crying one minute and laughing hysterically the next. If you’ve ever had this experience, you might have asked yourself, “Why am I laughing?” You may find yourself cracking up over things you normally wouldn’t find that funny, or you’ll be giggling for no apparent reason at all.
You’re not the first to ask this question. This article will take on the big question: “Why does cannabis make everything funnier?”
The Science Behind Laughter
Before we can figure out how cannabis affects laughter, we should first understand why we laugh at all. Laughter is a motor reflex stimulated by our interpretation of humor, which is a complex and subjective concept. However, MRI scans have shown that humans process humor in the frontal and temporal lobes of the cerebral cortex. So, that is where we’ll start our discussion about the connection between laughter and cannabis.
Cannabis and the Brain
Research shows that the consumption of cannabis stimulates blood flow to the right frontal and left temporal lobes. These, as we just learned, are the areas of the brain associated with humor and laughter. We could explain the phenomenon by simply stating that THC causes these cortical regions to become over-active. However, scientists haven’t been able to identify the extent to which increased blood flow directly stimulates laughter.
Happiness and Laughter
THC causes that blissful, happy feeling we get when we’re high because it latches on to the receptors in the brain that modulate neural signaling. If you’ve ever found yourself laughing simply because you’re happy then you understand the connection between bliss and laughter.
We love to laugh because it is associated with happiness. Perhaps that is one of the reasons we enjoy cannabis, and according to the statistics, people do love cannabis. Oregon marijuana dispensaries have sold an estimated $27 million worth of recreational marijuana since the beginning of 2016. These are individuals buying cannabis not because they have a medical need, but because they enjoy the blissful feelings they get when they use it.
To learn more about the effects of cannabis, visit your local marijuana dispensaries in Portland Oregon and talk to a cannabis expert.
