Love to wake and bake? Many of us do (this editor included), but a recent study has revealed that morning cannabis use may be a strong predictor of weed-related problems in your workplace, in your relationships and in your mental health. So should you be keeping your smoking to post-4.20? (PM guys!), or is this just a bunch of academic waffle? Our science writer reports:
Psychology researchers from the University of Albany recently published a study in the journal Addiction Research & Theory which reveals that daily waking and baking is associated with greater “weed-related problems”.
It’s important to take these findings with a few provisos
There’s been a lot of research already about how much you smoke on average, what age you start and how likely you are to develop lasting psychological and social disorders (ICYMI: mo’ weed mo’ problems). Research on the time of day that you smoke, though, hasn’t yet been given the time of day.
The findings suggest that those who roll a joint as they roll out of bed tend to have more weed-related problems in general
“While researchers have consistently studied frequency and quantity of use as important risks, clinical lore suggests that the timing of use might also contribute to problems.”
There is no data on whether the trends hold true for people who wake and bake on only some of the days a week
It stands to reason that if you eat cannabutter on your pancakes every morning, you’re probably not going to be the most productive worker out, and are more the type to raid the office cookie jar or take 20-minute-long “productivity shits”. This study is not so much about this though, it’s more focused on the long-term consequences.
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If you wake and bake, you probably go through more bud per sesh and per day than your average stoner
The team used a pre-existing questionnaire for measuring weed-related problems – things like work and family issues, productivity, withdrawal, finance issues and issues regarding self-image. That questionnaire gives a standardised score at the end and provides a useful way of measuring statistically a host of problems at once.
The findings suggest that those who roll a joint as they roll out of bed tend to have more weed-related problems in general but their analysis “did not support the idea that morning use led to problems re withdrawal”. (Across both groups, withdrawal effects were pretty low).
The questionnaire is basically self-reporting though, so whether the perceived problems experienced by stoners were clinically significant (i.e. something very distressing to the bongrat) is unknown.
The data presented was from daily smokers… there is no data on whether the trends hold true for people who wake and bake on only some of the days a week
“Morning users reported significantly more problems than non-morning users, and morning use accounted for significant unique variance in problems.”
They also did a comparison of the amount of weed that brekky bongheads smoked in relation to our arvo sesh brothers and sisters. They found that if you wake and bake, you probably go through more bud per sesh and per day than your average stoner (up to a stick difference).
While this makes for interesting discussion, it’s important to take these findings with a few provisos.
Everything you have read is correlational data. While we might be able to build up some mathematical models to make predictions, it doesn’t mean that breakfast billies cause these problems, just that you can use one thing to statistically predict the other.
On top of that, all of the data presented was from daily smokers and really that’s who the study was focused on. There is no data on whether the trends hold true for people who wake and bake on only some of the days a week. The study covered 69.7% men and 30.3% women with the highest response rate coming from Caucasian married males.
What might be most alarming though is that on this voluntary survey (which the researchers incentivised by putting participants in the running to win a vape) the average age of respondents was around 44 with the majority of respondents between 30 and 58 years old. Proving that a fresh pot in the morning never goes out of fashion.
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The study, ‘Don’t wake and bake: morning use predicts cannabis problems’, authored by Mitch Earleywine, Rachel Luba, Melissa N. Slavin, Stacey Farmer and Mallory Loflin, was originally published on volume 24, issue 5 of Addiction Research & Theory.
