Most of us reach for weed to chill and have some fun, enhance an experience like a concert, and maybe soothe anxiety after a long day or in tough times. So why does it give us that silly “feeling”, constantly bringing us to the brink of laughter even when nothing funny is happening…only to burst us into hysterics.
First off, laughter is simply a reflex, like sneezing or coughing according to Timothy Fong, a professor of psychiatry who also oversees the UCLA Cannabis Research Initiative. “It’s something that can be triggered spontaneously by things we see and feel.”
Cannabis puts your mind into an altered state in which you perceive time, color, and pretty much everything differently. “That altered state makes the reflex [to laugh] more likely to be triggered,” says Fong, not unlike how a cold makes your coughing reflex more sensitive. Cannabis does this partly by boosting levels of chemicals in your body that trigger your laugh reflex, especially dopamine. As a result, “things that aren’t funny become funny.”
Secondly, cannabis lowers the inhibition of your laugh reflex. Unfortunately, it often happens in situations that your sober mind would deem giggling inappropriate. It acts on the frontal lobe, responsible for inhibiting behavior. Plus, the binding of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the compound in weed that makes you high, to the endocannabinoid receptors located throughout your body spurs the release of dopamine and serotonin.
It sets off “the happy neurotransmitters,” says Lewis Nelson, chair of the department of emergency medicine and chief of the division of medical toxicology at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. These in turn lower impulse control.
Let’s not forget the big one: laughter is just contagious, which explains why you get giggles. Throw in a fun drug like that messes with your laugh reflex, and “everything becomes a lot funnier.” Naturally, the more potent the product with a high-level THC, the more likely it’ll cause the giggles as the THC binds to your endocannabinoid receptors with more neurochemicals being expressed.
For example, have you ever simply turned up your stereo and all of a sudden everything becomes more intense? How about that edible along with a nature documentary? Oh yeah, you know what I’m talking about!
So, what are the best strains to tickle your laugh reflex? My favorites are:
Dabwoods – The all-new Lil Woods Live Resin.
Great small size to fit in a pocket
Endos – Formula 1-Indica (Go Max!)
Pre-roll, cuz I can be lazy
Maven Flower- Orange Truffle Souffle-Sativa
If I’m packing a piece
And now with FREE delivery, you can have these to your door in about 30 minutes!