Of course, the answer to this question is always going to be sometimes. Some medications mix fine together, others don’t, some mix alright with drugs, and others don’t. I would never say it’s a good idea to mix harder drugs or amphetamines with your medications. Most of these are made up of bits and pieces that might mess up what you are taking. However, cannabis is a lot less likely to interact with certain medications. Now, to be clear, I am not encouraging the mixing of drugs and medication. I’m just going to give you an idea of which combinations are safe and which ones are less so.
Mental Health
Let’s start off with mental health medications and how they can be affected by smoking weed. This is a tricky conversation because obviously cannabis affects mental health in a variety of ways before we even look at medication. For some people certain strains will massively improve anxiety, depression, PTSD, bipolar and just so many other disorders. In places where medicinal cannabis is prescribed these are all issues that would warrant a prescription.
However, there are a lot of strains that would make all of these issues significantly worse. So right from the start even if you are unmedicated you need to be extremely careful what you smoke if you suffer from any mental health problems.
Now when we look at mental health medications there are obviously hundreds of different ones used. One of the big ones that doctors warn against is mixing weed with sedatives. If you have been prescribed something like valium or diazepam, drinking or smoking weed while on the drug could potentially be fatal. Since many strains can be a depressant in the sense that they slow bodily function and suppress the nervous system, adding them to a sedative can have a number of negative effects. If you take non-medical amounts of cannabis while on sedatives or opioids you risk extreme sedation, reduced brain function, coma, and even death.
The other side of this coin is that sometimes doctors will prescribe certain amounts of certain strains so that they can reduce the dosage of the opiates. In these cases the combination can be extremely beneficial as excessive use of opioids can be a problem for some people. So as long as you take medically prescribed doses you can mix weed and opioids.
Next let’s have a look at one of the most common psychiatric drugs which is the old antidepressant. I literally know about two people who aren’t on these boys and they probably should be. So how does cannabis interact with the antidepressants that you’re probably on? Just like the opioids, if you do this right it can be great but doing it wrong can cause major issues. This is also largely about strains and if you don’t know what you are doing you can mess with or reduce the effectiveness of your meds. Obviously, some strains will increase anxiety, will reduce energy which can increase depression if you’re already feeling low, and can make you paranoid which for certain mental health problems can be extremely triggering. It is unlikely you’ll die from mixing weed and antidepressants but you also may not be helping yourself. Always best to check with a doctor before mixing.
Some other drugs such as lithium carbonate for bipolar disorder can have a funny reaction when mixed with weed. Mostly that when lithium and weed come together they buddy up to increase anxiety. Probably best to avoid if you’re on lithium, I’ve definitely reduced what I smoke since being diagnosed as more strains will have a negative effect on me than before I was medicated.
Physical Health
Let’s have a look at why cannabis might negatively affect drugs that you take for physical ailments. Studies have shown that the enzymes affected by cannabis are mostly similar to those affected by prescription medication. One of the primary concerns here is that weed can alter how your body processes prescription drugs. The dosages are based on a body with no other drugs in it so adding a wild card can be dangerous.
Essentially there is a chance that smoking weed can increase the effects of prescription drugs. This just means you may as well have just taken double or triple your prescribed dose which could either be lethal or at least pretty damn dangerous. The other end is that weed could just cause your body to flush your meds through not allowing them to take effect at all. A lot of drugs can be affected in this way such as ibuprofen, blood thinners, cancer medications, and painkillers.
Smoking weed can affect the enzyme’s abilities to break down the prescribed drugs you are taking. However, this is more aimed at people who are completely new to smoking or smoke incredibly rarely. Funnily studies have shown that those who smoke relatively regularly don’t experience a change in metabolism which is what will mess with meds. These people are far less likely to notice any clear change. The issue comes in for regular smokers when they take other recreational drugs. Then you can get into really difficult territory with prescription medication so just don’t do that.
A weird one is how THC and CBD have opposite effects on blood pressure. THC lowers it and CBD raises it so one of the big ones to watch out for is the classic blood-thinner warfarin. This is a very common drug and it’s extremely strong and you should not mess with it. If you are on warfarin please just don’t smoke weed. That combination can easily be lethal for a few different reasons. We also are just a full on avoid with tamoxifen the breast cancer drug. To work this drug needs to be broken down uninterrupted by the body, and weed can interrupt it.
When it comes to any of these drugs don’t assume you’ll be fine just because you smoke regularly. If in doubt at all, always ask your doctor you will be shocked by how much stuff can just straight up kill you.
Written by Tasha Porritt
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