Does Weed Improve Your Social Experiences?

June 6, 2023
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Highlights

  • Cannabis can improve social experiences by helping you relax and making everything seem funny.
  • A small study from 1987 found that the groups that used cannabis had significantly more “total daily social interaction time.”
  • Many people feel that cannabis gives them a bit of social anxiety. A recent study in mice found that THC changes energy metabolism in the brain. These changes led to “alteration of social interaction in mice.”

How to use cannabis or CBD to enjoy your social experiences even more

Does weed improve social experiences? Did you know that cannabis can help you connect with friends and family and improve your social experiences?

Whether you are a seasoned stoner who has been toking up with friends for decades or you are just beginning your cannabis wellness journey, you have come to the right place. In this article, we will explore why weed improves social experiences better and show you how to find the best weed products to enhance your social experiences.

What does it look like to use cannabis to improve your social experiences?

It could be a group of moms trading Wine Wednesday for Weed Wednesday and splitting a batch of homemade edibles as the kids play. Or a few friends sharing a joint as they watch a movie. Or a solo concert goer using cannabis to connect with the strangers around her.

A friend with weed is a friend indeed

Have you ever heard the saying, “a friend with weed is a friend indeed?” Why is a friend with weed a friend indeed? Because cannabis is a wonderful tool for improving social experiences! Everyone knows that weed makes everything hilarious. And as the comedian Victor Borge wrote, “Laughter is the closest distance between two people.”

Studies have shown that when strangers laugh together, the shared laughter acts as a social glue that bonds them. When strangers laugh together, they like each other more and they feel more alike. And for centuries we have known that cannabis can help people connect through laughter.

In 1860, Charles Baudelaire wrote a book called Artificial Paradises on his experiences with hashish. He describes his experience with the cannabis concentrate like this: “The demon has encompassed you; it is useless to kick against the pricks of this hilarity, as painful as tickling is! From time to time you laugh to yourself at your stupidity and your madness, and your comrades, if you are with others, laugh also, both at your state and their own; but as they laugh without malice, so you are without resentment.” Evidently, Baudelaire had discovered what many of us know today: cannabis can improve social experiences by helping you relax and making everything seem funny.

Does weed improve social experiences?

Cannabis is the perfect substance to improve your social experiences because it helps you relax, boosts your mood, and makes you laugh. While drug use is often framed in a negative context, there are numerous studies that indicate that people use drugs “in social settings such as bars, clubs and parties to enhance their interactions with others through increased confidence, greater sociability and less anxiety.”

People certainly use cannabis at parties or social gatherings to feel more relaxed and social. But does weed make you feel more social in these contexts due to cultural reasons or because of the way cannabis affects you? In other words, how does cannabis affect social interactions in a lab setting?

A small study from 1987 explored the effects of cannabis on social interactions of a small group of subjects. The researchers divided 12 subjects into four groups of three subjects. They had the subjects spend half the day in their rooms alone doing work and the second half of the day they were allowed to socialize. The subjects smoked cigarettes containing THC or a placebo four times throughout the day.

The researchers found that the groups that used cannabis had significantly more “total daily social interaction time.” Evidently, cannabis can improve social experiences even in artificial lab settings.

Why does weed make me socially anxious?

While weed can improve your social experiences, many people feel that cannabis makes them socially anxious. Significant social anxiety could be Social Anxiety Disorder, so if you feel social anxiety is affecting your daily life, please consult your doctor or a mental health practitioner.

If your social anxiety is caused by cannabis, a recent study may shed light on why so many people experience social anxiety from weed. A study in mice found that THC interacted with CB1 receptors on mitochondria, altering energy metabolism in the brain. These changes led to “alteration of social interaction in mice.” It is not yet known if a similar mechanism exists in humans.

CBD and enjoying social experiences

Many people find that a purposeful dose of CBD is one of the best ways to stay relaxed during social gatherings. How does CBD relieve stress and improve your social experiences?

Research has shown that CBD can affect the serotonin system and the endocannabinoid system in ways that may promote stress-relief. Animal studies indicate that CBD appears to have stress and anxiety reducing effects in a variety of experimental designs. Please note that CBD is not an FDA approved treatment for Social Anxiety Disorder. We are discussing using CBD to improve your general wellbeing.

If you want to keep a clear head and improve your times with family and friends, give CBD a try. You can experiment with different CBD products and record your results on the Jointly app until you find a product that works for you.

Best weed strains for being social

The best strains to improve your social experiences will likely be strains that relax you and make you giggly. Cannabis contains many different chemical compounds including hundreds of cannabinoids, terpenes, and flavonoids. Many of these chemical compounds exert distinct biological effects. As a result, there may be weed strains or product types that make you feel more social than others.

Before you choose a weed strain to bring to your next social gathering, we encourage you to look at our article Why Jointly is Better than a Strain Finder? In that article, you will learn what strain names really mean and how to use Jointly to discover the most effective products in your area.

How to use Jointly to enjoy your ideal experience every time

You might find that you have the best social experiences with cannabis when you and your friends smoke a high CBD strain outside in nature.

Looking for weed products to bring to your next hangout? Brands and manufacturers have designed a range of cannabis and CBD products for this purpose: packets of mini joints to share with friends, THC-infused mock beer, a box of CBD chocolates, and more.

Find top-rated products for your goals 

Jointly is a cannabis discovery app that makes it easy to find and match with the best cannabis and CBD products for your goals. Your matches are calculated from the real product ratings and experiences of hundreds of thousands of people using the Jointly app.

If you're ready to discover new products and reach your goals, download the Jointly app today on the App Store or Google Play, or explore your matches on the Jointly website.   

Are you curious about Jointly?

Whether you want to improve sleep, relieve daily stress, or just relax and refresh, Jointly can help you reach your goals with cannabis.  

With Jointly, match with top-rated products, and build lists of your favorites to save, share, and bring to your local dispensary to help guide your shopping experience.  

Jointly also helps you track your cannabis experiences through reflections that help you understand what’s working, and what’s not. In fact, the quality of your diet, how much you slept, who you’re with, and the time of day are just some of the factors that can impact your experiences.  

So if you're ready to enjoy your perfect cannabis experience, download the Jointly app today on the App Store or Google Play, or explore your matches on the Jointly website. Discovery awaits.

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