Does weed make you quick-witted?

A study published in the journal Consciousness and Cognition suggests that pot smokers outperform non-smokers in creativity. Perhaps your hilarious one-liners come from the same place. Weed has a way of melting down most of our inhibitions, which in turn boosts our ability to think outside of the box.

Regardless of what you do for a living, creative thinking is always a handy little skill to have. If your job is to crunch numbers or enter data, this unique ability can still help you work out effective approaches. In theory, weed can make you smarter while working. In practice, things are a bit more complicated.

So, should you light it up in your home office?

In Short, Yes and No

Adults need no permission to smoke weed, especially if they live in a country where this harmless activity is legal. But if you need advice on whether or not you should consume while working, we’re afraid we can’t give you a straightforward one. As you already know, pot affects all people differently.

Plus, not every strain increases productivity.

A hybrid Chemdag, for example, will calm you down and make you productive for only a short amount of time, after which you’ll feel very relaxed. When it comes to creative thinking, it may not be the best choice. Various Sativa strains, on the other hand, may boost your energy and even improve your focus.

According to long-time users, the most potent of them is Haze.

If you want to be productive, they add, steer clear from Indica.

The rule of thumb here is to stick to variants rich with THC. If you do, and if you’re anything like the rest of us, you may be able to work stoned for up to 36 hours straight. That’s 36 hours of amazing ideas, warp speed, and laser focus. But still, every man is an island, and every pot consumer is unique.

The Joyce Experiment

So, how to determine whether or not a certain strain can help you work smarter?

Try reading James Joyce stoned.

Any piece of literature that is as mentally challenging as the Ulysses is will be a great test of productivity. If you can stay focused throughout Penelope, which is a couple of pages long chapter written in a single sentence and erratic thought jumps, then you can stay focused through anything.

Whatever you do, don’t reach out to weed when you’re working against a deadline, especially if you’ve never done that before. It’s not rare for moody people to get anxious when high, and the pressure you’re under may completely eradicate the relaxing potential of weed. It’s a panic attack-in-waiting.

What Else Can Go Wrong?

Choose a wrong strain or have too much of a potent one, and you may not be able to think clearly for the rest of the day. Consume just a little from a bad batch, and brain fog may follow you around for a good part of the next day too. It’s all a risk you’d have to take if you decide to consume while working.

For inexperienced users particularly, smoking weed is always a gamble.

Let’s underline that nothing bad can happen to you. Even if you make a wrong choice, no strain of pot can leave long-lasting effects on your health. But there’s an uncertainty that comes with being a casual smoker, which is why you should refrain from experiments unless you have absolutely nothing to do.

So what are these uncertainties that we’re talking about?

What is the worst case scenario that can happen to you?

Well, you might end up achieving a complete opposite of what you’re trying to achieve. If you have no idea of how certain strains and dosages affect a certain mood you’re experiencing, then smoking pot might make you sleepy or giggly, fuzzy or panicky, overwhelmed or enthusiastic, impatient or hungry.

It’s nothing bad per se, but it’s pretty distracting when you have to work.

In the worst case scenario, you’ll waste a couple of peak productivity hours.

Why Consider It at All Then?

With cannabis being legalized throughout the world, many enjoyers of Mary Jane are introducing it to the workplace – be that their personal sanctuary at home or an open-layout office crowded with both users and non-users. You can hear them brag about accomplishing great work thanks to being stoned.

And it’s not an urban myth. Your co-workers are very public about it too.

They encourage you to try it because weed truly has some amazing productivity-related benefits. We’ve already mentioned creative thinking as one of the best ones, but that’s not where the list ends. To burnt-out employees and freelancers, weed offers a support system that helps relax and unwind.

When you use it in moderation and when you know what to expect in terms of your behavior and mental capacities, then weed can cancel the background noise and clear out your internal clutter. It can help you approach a work-related problem with needed lucidity and keep you fixed on a solution.

So if you want to know whether or not you can smoke weed while working from home, the only way to find that out is to give it a good old try. Go for Sativa strains and test their effects on your unique biosystem with the Joyce experiment. Don’t smoke it all at once but ration it carefully with short puffs.

Oh, and have a big bottle of fresh water on your desk.

Stay responsible, and you might be done with work just before 4:20.