Why an Athlete Might Use Cannabis

Recently, the American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson was denied a spot in the Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for marijuana. The Olympic committee’s position on cannabis is clear and explicit. So why would someone so talented risk expulsion from the Olympics by breaking the rule? After all, cannabis does not enhance physical performance. Therefore, Richardson was not smoking to enhance her speed or endurance. So, what’s the attraction?

The answer lies in understanding the function of the brain’s own cannabinoid chemistry. My student athletes have told me that cannabis helps them recover from challenging workouts, reduces their pain, and helps them to feel calm and sleep better that night. Some of them actually preferred to exercise after using cannabis. They claimed that it made doing boring exercises more enjoyable. One student claimed that “time just flew by” when she was high. Are these claims true?

Does cannabis help with pain after exercising?

Inside the brain, after an extreme level of exercising, the decreased pain perception, reduced anxiety, and profound euphoria are due to the actions of endorphin (an endogenous morphine-like chemical) and anandamide (an endogenous cannabis-like chemical) produced by the brain and body, as well as two other cannabis-like molecules: 2-arachidonoyl glycerol and N-palmitoylethanolamine.

The brain evolved a cornucopia of psychoactive drugs to self-administer in response to the repeated injury that was associated with either extreme exercising or the risks of daily survival. My research has demonstrated that some components of cannabis exhibit modest anti-inflammatory actions as well; an effect that would also reduce pain after exercising.

Does cannabis induce good sleep?

Cannabis shares many of the same problems associated with standard over-the-counter and prescription medications. Recent studies have shown that cannabis does not improve sleep quality or reduce the severity of insomnia. Indeed, cannabis dose-dependently produces poor sleep quality.

The reason that cannabis does not improve sleep quality is related to the fact that the endogenous cannabinoid neurotransmitter system in our brain is not directly involved in the onset or maintenance of normal sleep cycles. Therefore, cannabis cannot, and does not, produce normal sleep patterns. Cannabis increases the lighter stages of sleep, known as NREM slow-wave sleep. Consequently, it decreases the amount of time spent in REM sleep. REM sleep is usually called dream sleep.

Not getting enough REM sleep has many consequences, such as an increased risk for obesity, significant memory problems and mood disorders. Depressed patients who used cannabis reported significantly more sleep impairments. Using cannabis to help fall asleep was also associated with frequent nighttime awakenings.

Marijuana might be useful for people who suffer with chronic pain disorders. One study found a marked improvement in subjective sleep parameters provided by patients with a wide variety of pain conditions including multiple sclerosis, peripheral neuropathic pain, intractable cancer pain and rheumatoid arthritis. Chronic pain, neurological illness, and sleep disorders are clearly comorbid conditions with insomnia. Cannabis likely improves sleep via its ability to reduce pain symptoms.

Does cannabis make exercising less boring and does time pass more quickly?

It is widely recognized today that cannabis modulates the brain’s reward circuitry by indirectly influencing the release of dopamine in the brain. Through these interactions, cannabis will increase the degree of pleasure experienced and reduce the degree of boredom.

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My research demonstrated many years ago that changing the activity of dopamine neurons with psychoactive drugs alters our ability to accurately judge the passage of time. Temporal processing depends on an interplay between dopamine neurons and acetylcholine neurons – both of these neurotransmitters are significantly affected by cannabis.

Essentially, the athletes are correct: Cannabis does reduce pain, and also alters athletes' ability to accurately estimate the passage of time, thus making exercising significantly less boring.