Cannabis

How you will feel depends on, among other things, the order and the amounts you take. And whether you smoke and/or drink more often.

If you drink first and then smoke weed, there is a good chance that you will feel quite nauseous. You may have to throw up. The more you drink, the more likely it is.

Smoking weed first and then drink? Then the amount of alcohol someone drinks is often much smaller than the other way around. You can then easier feel what is still pleasant. And it’s easier to stop drinking if you notice that you’re feeling a bit nauseous.

The combination of smoking and drinking therefore increases the risk of nausea and vomiting. You can then feel really bad. So before you take the ‘second’ drug, think about whether it will make you feel better. If in doubt, stick to one of them.

If you smoke weed during a trip, it can make for a more intense trip. Keep that in mind. There are users who have later experienced that they relived certain trip effects while smoking weed, as a kind of vivid memory of a previous experience. This can be very scary and confusing. If you experience this, we advise you to stop smoking weed.
It can also suddenly change the direction or vibe of a trip. This new direction isn’t always positive. So before you smoke weed, think about whether it will improve the experience.

Some users find it a pleasant combination. Cannabis can soften the ecstasy rush, especially at the end of the experience. However, it can also make the experience a bit more vague, which is not always positive.

Sometimes people use cannabis after or while using speed to calm down or fall asleep more easily. Cannabis can soften the amphetamine effects, especially at the end of the amphetamine rush. However, this is not recommended for everyone, some people may feel anxious or restless. If you suffer from insomnia after using speed, it is advisable to time your use better. Keep in mind what time you want to go to sleep and do not take any more about 12 hours before you want to go to sleep.

In the Netherlands it is customary to roll joints with tobacco. This is actually an weird habit. It is easy, but it also increases the risks.

Interaction

The experiences of people who combine cannabis and tobacco as opposed to pure use vary. Some combiners experience a stronger high, while others indicate that the high is less. Pure smoking would make you energetic and active. Although of course it also depends on the type of cannabis you have.

Smoking for tobacco or cannabis?

If you fancy a joint, do you fancy the tobacco or the cannabis? Your body quickly gets used to tobacco and because tobacco is very addictive, it may well be that your body is actually subconsciously asking for tobacco. You then think you feel like using cannabis, but maybe your body just asks for tobacco. People who switch to vaping or pure cannabis regularly report that they are using less often.

Harm

Cannabis users often inhale joints of tobacco deeper and longer. This causes more damage to the lungs. The use of tobacco increases the risk of various types of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, pneumonia and reduced functioning of the immune system of the lungs.

Addiction

Combined use of cannabis and tobacco increases the rewarding effects in the brain. The use of tobacco in a joint therefore promotes an addiction. Cannabis is mainly mentally addictive. The tobacco ensures that a joint also has a physically addictive effect. Smoking a joint with tobacco also increases the chance of relapse if you want to stop using cannabis.

If you smoke weed during a magic mushroom or truffle trip, it can make for a more intense trip. Keep that in mind. There are users who have later experienced that they relived certain magic mushrooms effects while smoking weed, as a kind of vivid memory of a previous experience. This can be very scary and confusing. If you experience this, we advise you to stop smoking weed.
It can also suddenly change the direction of a trip. This new direction isn’t always positive. So before you smoke weed, think about whether it will improve the experience.

Always make sure that you are and remain safe yourself. If you are in danger, you cannot help the person in need.
Find a quiet place with the one who is having a hard time. Don’t try to deny that he/she is having a bad trip. Try to reassure him/her: he/she has taken drugs and the effects and thus the bad trip always wear off. Ask the person about what they are experiencing and try to talk the trip on a positive side without downplaying it. For example, by giving a positive meaning to the things he/she sees. Try to do things that make him/her feel comfortable, such as moving or singing. See if it makes sense to talk about pleasant things. Distraction can also help, for example by drawing. Let your voice sound calm and reassuring.
Make sure that the user does not end up in dangerous situations such as traffic. Call emergency services if it becomes unsafe for the user or his environment or if the bad trip is too intense to solve it yourself.

Combining drugs with drugs can be risky. Little research has been done on many combinations. On the Jellinek website there is a medicine matrix where you can read what the risks are per substance and per type of medicine.

Some complaints after using drugs can last longer, A medical explanation or even treatment may then be necessary. The Brijder has set up a national consultancy for party drugs related medical complaints. If you have medical complaints after the use of party drugs, you can call the consultancy: 088 – 358 29 40. This service is only available in the Netherlands.

How long a drug is detectable in your blood or urine depends on a number of factors. How often and how much you use and your personal metabolism influences this detection. Metabolism is the rate at which a substance is broken down, especially by your liver. Drugs are longer detectable in your urine than in your blood.

Cannabis can be detected in the urine for up to 5 days (with occasional use) and up to 4 weeks (with chronic intensive use). In some cases even longer.

The breakdown of cannabis, unlike the breakdown of most other drugs, is very slow. This has to do with the fact that THC, the main active ingredient of cannabis, stores itself in your fat tissue and is not directly broken down by the liver (as with ecstasy, speed and coke, for example). Very slowly, the THC is released from the fat tissue and broken down. So there are two steps:

1. Delivery by blood to the fat tissue.
2. Delivery of the fat tissue to the blood.

Because the release of cannabis from the fat tissue is so slow, cannabis remains detectable in your urine for a long time. With heavy use, THC can be detected in the urine for up to 4 weeks. It’s not like you still feel any of that slow release. The effects are noticeable for a maximum of 4 to 6 hours when smoking, so you will not notice anything of the THC that is later released slowly by your fat tissue.

The brain contains substances (neurotransmitters) that play a role in the transmission of signals between brain cells (neurons). These transfer substances can bind to receptors (receivers) in the brain to transfer signals in the brain. Depending on the part of the brain where this happens, certain functions change.

One of the neurotransmitters that we find in the brain is called ‘anandamide’. This neurotransmitter ensures that the reward center in the brain can be stimulated. This makes us feel good. Anandamide can bind to many receptors in the cortex – the part of the brain thought to be involved in cognitive functions such as planning, language and concentration – and the hippocampus (very important for memory).

Cannabis appears in the brain as anandamide, as it were, and can thus bind to the same receptors, producing the same effects. After the cannabis has worn off, the normal situation in these parts of the brain reappears. So far, there is no indication that this causes damage to the brain.

Cannabis temporarily affects the functioning of the brain. If one is no longer under the influence, the normal situation returns after a short time. As far as is currently known, cannabis has no lasting influence on the functioning of the brain and no brain parts are damaged.

When you smoke cannabis through a joint or (water) pipe, you are taking a risk with your lungs. Cannabis smoke contains three times more tar and five times more carbon monoxide than tobacco smoke. The smoke that arises from the burning of cannabis is therefore more harmful than the smoke of tobacco. To illustrate: smoking a joint is roughly equivalent to smoking four cigarettes. Just like with cigarettes, second-hand smoke is also harmful; in that case you do not smoke yourself, but you are in a room where there is a lot of smoking. By comparison, it is sometimes said that being together for 40 hours with someone who smokes continuously is comparable to smoking 5 cigarettes.

Heavy cannabis use increases the risk of chronic bronchitis (inflammation of the lungs) and coughing. The combination of cannabis and tobacco (in a joint) puts your lungs to the test at least twice as hard. In addition, some studies suggest an increased risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus and lungs with heavy cannabis use.

How does cannabis affect your sleep? Why do people have nightmares after quitting weed? And what effect does cannabis have when you use it when you have had little sleep? Read that in the article Cannabis makes you sleepy at high doses, but do you also get into REM sleep?

Reports regularly appear about the relationship between cannabis use and psychosis. It has been known for some time that cannabis can exacerbate mental disorders, including schizophrenia. In people with a predisposition to psychosis, smoking cannabis can also ‘trigger’ these disorders: cannabis can, so to speak, be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. A study by Maastricht University indicates that a small part of the population carries a certain gene that makes this group more susceptible to developing psychotic symptoms when using cannabis. If there are psychoses in your family (history), we strongly advise against using cannabis (or other drugs).

If you use cannabis there is a chance that you will become very nauseous or dizzy. This risk is increased when you combine cannabis with alcohol.

Also, with a high dose of cannabis (especially when you eat it) there is the risk of a ‘bad trip’ or difficult experience. You can become completely confused, very frightened or even experience hallucinations. The effects almost always disappear when the cannabis wears off.

In addition, cannabis can also make you pass out (white out). This usually only lasts a short time. The persons that fainted is conscious again after a few minutes.

Because THC is not active in the areas of your brain that regulate heart rate and breathing, you cannot die from a cannabis overdose.

Cannabis can trigger psychosis. Someone must already be susceptible to psychosis. It may be that little push, causing the psychosis to start.

THC mimics the action of a brain chemical called anandamide. This substance can bind to various receptors in the brain, some of those are located at the hunger center. When the THC acts as anandamide and binds to these receptors, the nerves in the hunger center are stimulated. This gives you a feeling of hunger (or: ‘munchies’) and makes you reach for the chocolate…

Most people don’t have a hangover after using cannabis. However, it is more difficult to get up in the morning after an evening of smoking weed. Your attention and concentration capacity are less than normal. That is why it is better not to smoke weed if you have to get up early the next morning, for example for work or study.

Cannabis, especially in high doses, makes you more prone to paranoid thoughts and fear. That is why the set (how you feel) and setting (where you are) is very important. So only use in an environment where you feel comfortable. Read more about it in our article on drug, set and setting.

If someone is too high, that person can have very paranoid or anxious thoughts. Try to reassure him or her and possibly give him or her something sweet to eat. Fresh air in a quiet place can also help. Other than that, it’s just a matter of waiting for it to pass. It makes little sense to call the first aid or an ambulance. Only do this if someone poses a danger to themselves or their environment.

Rules for coffeeshops

Cannabis is on List 2 of the Opium Act (soft drugs). It is not permitted by law in the Netherlands to produce, trade, import or possess soft drugs. Penalties are less severe than for List 1 substances (for example cocaine, MDMA, amphetamine). The use of drugs is not prohibited. Therefore, possession of user quantities (up to 5 grams of cannabis) is often tolerated.
There are, however, national guidelines (issued by the Board of Prosecutors-General) on how the law must be complied with. Local prosecutors may deviate from these guidelines, but the guidelines are usually followed.

The guidelines state that coffee shops may exist in the Netherlands and may sell hash and weed, if they follow to certain rules. These are the so-called AHOJ-G rules. The rules are:

A: No advertising. This means no advertising other than the name of the shop on the outer wall.
H: No hard drugs. Hard drugs may not be present in a coffeeshop.
O: No nuisance. Nuisance includes: noise pollution, pollution and/or customers loitering in front of or near the coffeeshop.
J: No sale to minors and no access to minors to a coffeeshop.
G: No high volume sales per customer per transaction. In other words: no more than 5 grams per person per day may be sold.

The Commission has also determined that coffeeshops may not have a trading stock larger than 500 grams.

In 2013, the I criterion (Residents criterion) was added to this. This means that sales may only be made to people who live in the Netherlands. However, this criterion is not followed everywhere. In 2014, the Distance Criterion was also added. A coffeeshop may not be located within a radius of 350 meters from a school.

The local coffeeshop policy is shaped in the so-called triangular consultation. This is a consultation between the mayor, the police commissioner and the public prosecutor. This consultation retains the freedom to deviate from the guidelines. The triangular consultation can therefore decide not to allow coffeeshops in its municipality or to limit the number of coffee shops. Of course, support from the city council for the policy of the triangle is necessary.

Hash oil is so strong that it is listed on List I: hash oil is therefore illegal. This is rare in the Netherlands.

Hash oil is illegal. It is on list 1 of the Opium Act. CBD oil that does not contain THC is allowed.

In principal all forms of cannabis are illegal, but it is tolerated. Only medical cannabis is legal, if it was obtained through a pharmacy. Check the theme The law for more info.

History of cannabis

The hemp plant has fulfilled many functions for thousands of years. This age-old cultivated plant is used by humans in various ways: as a medicine, raw material for textiles and of course as a drug, because of its psychoactive properties, whether or not used in religious ceremonies. The hemp plant is originally from Asia. In 2737 BC the effect of cannabis is already described in medical writings. In India, cannabis was praised as a divine drink in religious ceremonies. In Roman times, guests were offered hemp cookies after meals. But it wasn’t just used for its psychoactive properties; the English used cannabis as a raw material for textiles and rope.

In 1912 the first opium conference was held. This conference led to the eventual ban on most (then known) drugs. The import and export of cannabis has been banned in the Netherlands since 1928. At the same time, appreciation for the effects of cannabis spread across the rest of the United States through the artist scene. But in 1937, cannabis was also banned in the US on the grounds that it would lead to murder and insanity.

From 1960, the popularity of cannabis use in the Netherlands grew. The first coffee shop was opened in 1972. In 1976 the Opium Act was amended and a distinction was made between soft and hard drugs. The law was interpreted as allowing coffee shops to sell hash and weed under certain conditions. The number of coffee shops grew strongly. In 1995 the guidelines were tightened and the number of coffee shops was reduced.
Since 2003, it has been possible to obtain cannabis with a doctor’s prescription from the pharmacist, which is used as a painkiller in, among others, MS and AIDS patients and to stimulate appetite.

Also check out this video from ATTN about the history of cannabis in the US.

Combining different drugs is extra risky and unpredictable. If you combine, you are more likely to have problems with your health. Here we describe the effects and risks of a number of combinations that are common or that are very risky. For more information, check the theme combination use.

When someone close to you uses a substance often it is normal to worry. There are risks: to physical health; that he/she will gradually use more and more and become dependent. When only using it on weekends, there is the possibility that he/she is able anymore to go out without using. It can then be useful to have a conversation with each other in an open, non-judgmental way. Mention the impact the use has on you as a person, for example that you are worried. If you would like tips or advice for this, please contact the addiction care institution in your region.