Smoke your troubles away: exploring the effects of death cognitions on cannabis craving and consumption.
Journal of psychoactive drugs January 1, 2015 Maayan Nagar, Sharon Rabinovitz
Reminders of death increase cannabis craving in frequent users, and smoking cannabis appears to block death-related thoughts from entering consciousness. In one experiment, 42 frequent cannabis users who were reminded of their mortality reported greater cannabis craving without any change in negative mood. In a second field study, 50 frequent users who smoked cannabis after a mortality reminder showed reduced accessibility of death-related words, suggesting the drug acts as a psychological buffer against death anxiety. The findings imply that existential concerns may drive cannabis use and that terror management theory could inform communication about health risks and medical cannabis for terminally ill patients.