Richard Lazarus famously wrote, “Stress occurs when an individual perceives that the demands of an external situation are beyond his or her perceived ability to cope with them.”184 Life is often stressful and it is well understood that elevated stress response can have a profoundly negative impact on health. Stress induces the production of hormones that elevate heart rate and blood pressure, stimulates the gut to speed up digestion, and aggravates many medical conditions. The “fight or flight” response is triggered by stress. Anxiety and depression are often the result of chronic stress. Nearly all cannabis users, medical or recreational, note that cannabis helps counteract the effects of stress. Because chronic cannabis use is associated with higher blood levels of stress hormones, it be might be that heavy cannabis use risks initiating a cycle of stress release, followed by increased stress response.

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Hans Selye coined the word stress in his 1936 study, “A syndrome produced by diverse nocuous agents.”185

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