Does Cannabis Actually Help Increase Creativity?
Cannabis has a reputation as being a substance that can help enhance one’s creativity and promote spirituality for as long as humans have been using it. From the early days of humanity when tribal shamans used cannabis along with other natural substances in order to commune with the spirits and reach a higher plane of existence, to modern day musicians and artists that turn to it in order to stimulate their creativity. Many people have turned to cannabis in order to alter their perceptions, heighten senses, as well as their awareness of the world around them.
According to various studies, cannabis affects the flow of blood within the brain, particularly in the frontal lobe which has been connected to creativity. Cannabis has the ability to increase the Cerebral Blood Flow (CBF) within half an hour of consuming it which in turn makes that region of the brain significantly more active. Per a 2007 NeuroImage study: “The higher CBF found in particular brain regions of highly creative individuals during the performance of a creative task provides evidence of a specific neural network related to the creative process.” This seems to substantiate the claim that using cannabis could potentially make you more creative, at least while it is still active in your system.
Cannabis also has a pronounced effect on the body’s dopamine neurotransmitters. The cannabinoids found in cannabis, like THC for example, bind to cell receptors to stabilize the neurotransmissions across the synapses between cells in the nervous system in a similar fashion to how certain Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs), which are used to treat depression and other mental illnesses, work. Using cannabis also produce feelings of euphoria by helping increase the flow of dopamine. A relative recent (2016) study by PLoS One, a scientific journal published by the Public Library of Science, correlates the two when they reported that: “our findings support the idea that dopamine levels in multiple brain areas affect human creativity.”
Based on these and many other similar studies it would appear that cannabis does in fact work on on some levels to help increase a person’s creativity to some extent. The CBF increase in the frontal lobe caused by cannabis allows the creative side of your brain to flourish while the effects it has on dopamine neurotransmitters makes you feel good and ignore the little things, allowing for more focus on more creative endeavors. While cannabis can be used as a way to enhance creativity, relying on it to heavily or using strains or products that are too strong can have the opposite effect leaving you on your bed or couch in a semi-vegetative state or make you too amped up and scatter brained to be able to focus properly. Because of this, we highly recommend that you do your homework and find the best strains and/or products that would work best for what you are trying to achieve.
Do you believe that cannabis can help increase and enhance your creativity? Are there any particular cannabis strains that you find work the best in this regard?
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