The Virtues of Restraint: Delayed Cannabis Consumption

At my previous place of employment, I was under challenged and overqualified for the job. I’m not knocking the position, it was a fine job, in a tough economy you sometimes have to take what you can get.

As the job was easy for me and I was basically unsupervised, I was able to consume cannabis virtually all day and still maintain a strong performance record. This was also helped by the job’s proximity to my home. It was quite convenient to pop home on my lunch break and puff a nug before heading back out to finish my shift.  While this job had its appeal, I found myself longing for a challenge and I was spending a lot more money on weed than I anticipated.

Now, I have a better job. I am challenged and have to commute significantly farther from my home to where it is now prohibitive for me to get home and back in a lunch hour. This job has me leaving the house in the morning and not getting home until about dinner time, when I am finally able to have a smoke. As nice as it is sometimes to just smoke all day, I find that doing that constantly sort of ruins the effect.

It makes sense. Increased cannabis consumption leads to increased tolerance and less impactful highs. With this new schedule, I often can’t even get my first puff until later in the day or evening. What I have noticed is a markedly better sensation and duration of high. Kind of like when you go on vacation to a place that doesn’t embrace cannabis and you can’t have it for a few days or more. When you finally get home and load that first bowl, it’s almost like being a virgin again.

The delay in my daily cannabis intake is not as profound as being away for longer periods of time, but it is still a great feeling to take that first hit later in the day, after most of my tasks have been completed. Sort of like a Pavlovian reward, I start to look forward to that time of day and the supercharged high that awaits me.

I have heard this sentiment echoed among friends as well. One buddy of mine spent a year in Hawaii a few years ago and had access to an unlimited supply of outstanding tropical weed. When he came home, he literally quit smoking for almost 2 months so, as he put it, “I can feel high again.”

If absence makes the heart grow fonder, perhaps it also makes the lungs pinker, so to speak. (I do want to point out, yet again, that cannabis smoke presents no measurable harm to lungs and may in fact protect them; I am being purely figurative when I speak of “pinker” lungs).

If you’re a professional smoker like some of us, maybe try holding off a few hours or a day and see if you can recapture some of that initial cannabis whimsy you felt. Remember when it was just enough to get baked and stare at the sky? You can get there again if you have the discipline to exercise a little restraint. Your wallet will thank you too!

Obviously, depending on any medical condition you might have, this approach may not be appropriate.