Suffering from writer’s block? Struggling to find inspiration for your next song or visualize your next painting? Have you thought about trying cannabis? While it may sound cliche, cannabis products appear to exhibit some kind of connection with increasing creativity. And there’s more than just anecdotal evidence to prove it, too. That’s why in this post, we’re going to explore how cannabis can spark creativity with help from experts at a Sacramento marijuana dispensary.
Cannabis and Artists: They Go Way Back
Artists and cannabis have enjoyed a close relationship for…well, maybe forever. Some sources believe a neolithic era cave painting from between 5,000 and 10,000 BC is the first time cannabis makes its appearance in art. More recently, scientists discovered residue from cannabis products in a pipe from William Shakespeare’s garden.
Marijuana has contributed significantly to American art as well. A century ago, jazz musicians used cannabis to get their creative juices flowing when they built the foundations of what would become much of today’s popular music. Jazz legend Louis Armstrong, for example, was a lifelong proponent of cannabis. He even spent time in jail for cannabis charges in 1931.
Today, you’d probably have an easier time making a list of artists that don’t use cannabis than of ones that do. From the Grateful Dead to Snoop Dogg, many of today’s great musical and visual artists have openly used cannabis to enhance their talents.
Okay, so that’s plenty of anecdotal evidence. But what does science have to say about cannabis and creativity? Our friends at a Sacramento marijuana dispensary helped us connect the dots with research.
Cannabis Products and Creativity: What’s the Connection?
Cannabis and creativity definitely have some kind of connection. At least, that’s what a 2017 study published in Consciousness and Cognition appears to suggest. Researchers examined 412 sober cannabis users and 309 non-users to assess this connection and found some interesting results. Notably:
- Sober cannabis users reported feeling more creative.
- Cannabis users scored higher on divergent thinking tests.
- Marijuana users demonstrated a higher degree of openness to new experiences.
- Because of this openness to new experiences, sober cannabis users expressed higher levels of creativity than the non-user control group.
Cannabis and Creativity: Breaking Out of Your Shell
That study paints only part of the picture, though. One 2014 study drew a connection between cannabis and increased impulsivity. In this study, researchers ran brain scans on participants to measure blood flow in several different brain regions.
They found that THC appeared to stimulate these regions, which they associated with increased impulsivity. Not only that, but researchers also discovered that regular cannabis users demonstrated these same changes even when they weren’t using marijuana.
This increased impulsivity means that cannabis users appear to have lower inhibitions than non-users. That’s an important facet of creativity. Lower inhibitions means that an artist is more likely to actually go out of their comfort zones to express themselves. The more often they do this, the more practice they get creating art. And the more practice they have, the better they get at creating it. Long story short: use cannabis as a tool, not as a crutch!
Cannabis and Creativity: Don’t Overdo It
Taking a few puffs before embarking on an artistic project may sound enticing after learning about all this research. However, if you’re using cannabis to inspire creativity, it’s important to make sure you don’t overdo it.
A 2015 study in the journal Psychopharmacology appeared to find an inverse correlation between high doses of cannabis and creativity. They found that participants in the study who took extremely high doses actually performed worse on creative tests than participants who took lower doses of cannabis. In fact, participants who took high doses of cannabis appeared to perform even worse on these tests than those who received a placebo.
Spark Up Your Creativity with This Sacramento Marijuana Dispensary
Although research regarding creativity and cannabis isn’t complete, the data we do have draws some interesting connections. Several different factors (that we’re currently aware of) may cause cannabis to increase users’ creativity.
What’s more, this doesn’t appear to be just an acute effect. In other words, the spark doesn’t only happen when a cannabis user is high. Instead, research suggests that regular cannabis users demonstrate enhanced creativity even when they’re sober.
Interested in using cannabis to spark up your own creativity? Stop by this Sacramento marijuana dispensary to stock up on premium cannabis products. Toke on some flower or a concentrate for effects lasting between 1 and 3 hours. That’s enough time to get those creative juices flowing!
Resources Used by Writer:
Cave Painting
https://www.vice.com/en/article/78yvgz/a-visual-history-of-the-pot-leaf-weedweek2017
Shakespeare and Cannabis
https://time.com/3990305/william-shakespeare-cannabis-marijuana-high/
Cannabis and Louis Armstrong:
https://hightimes.com/culture/high-times-greats-louis-armstrong/
Consciousness and Cognition:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053810017303744
Cannabis and impulsivity
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4052819/
Psychopharmacology
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00213-014-3749-1