Certain things just don’t mix, and it’s important to know what medications don’t go well with other substances. Usually if you are sick with a bacterial infection, doctors will prescribe some form of antibiotic with strict instructions on what you can and cannot consume while taking them.
Terry Roycrof, the president of Canada’s Medicinal Cannabis Resource Centre Inc. (MCRCI), has studied the effects of marijuana, and what can happen when it is mixed with antibiotics. According to him and Medicalopedia mixing the two may not be as bad as you think.
Don’t Mix Antibiotics and Grapefruit?
According to the UK’s National Health Service, it’s smart to stay away from drinking when taking antibiotics, although only two medications call for completely avoiding alcohol altogether and that’s metronidazole and tinidazole.
Even something as harmless as grapefruit can cause issues when taking antibiotics. It’s super interesting how something like fruit can interfere with your metabolism. In fact, Roycroft says that when trying to understand how cannabis and antibiotics mix in the body doctors first examined grapefruit.
Marijuana and Antibiotics
The reality of the situation is there hasn’t been enough testing done on if mixing cannabis and antibiotics is safe. This of course is due to cannabis being illegal for so long which has limited the amount of testing that could be done with marijuana.
Now that cannabis is more available than ever before, doctors are beginning tests to see if marijuana and antibiotics can work together to help people heal faster.
Ways doctors are beginning to study cannabis and antibiotics together is reducing a patients antibiotic dose and adding cannabis to see if the same benefits occur as if the cannabis was never added. Testing to see if the body has any negative or positive reactions to the combination.
There still isn’t enough evidence to show if mixing cannabis with antibiotics is good or bad for you. Time will tell as more and more doctors are experimenting with cannabis as the legal market continues to grow.
What About CBD?
CBD acts as a super vitamin for many people, and is able to help with several different ailments. In fact, some studies even suggest that CBD has antibiotic properties.
Newsweek reports that Australian scientists have discovered that cannabidiol killed numerous strains of bacteria, including some that have been notoriously resistant to traditional antibiotics.
With that being said, it will most likely be a very long time until CBD were to replace antibiotics in some form.
So Should You Consume Weed with Antibiotics?
According to Roycroft it shouldn’t cause any issues when mixing your marijuana with antibiotics. You may however feel an increase in the side effects of the antibiotics you are taking.
Most doctors will say that if grapefruit can cause an issue with antibiotics then cannabis may not be the smartest decision. However, there is no direct proof that indicates that marijuana can cause issues with antibiotics.
If you are suffering from a lung or respiratory infection then putting smoke into your body is probably not the smartest idea, so be your own judge and put your pipe down and grab some edibles as a different option.
When you have been prescribed antibiotics you are most likely suffering from some form of illness so taking it easy should also be on the mind. If you still choose to consume marijuana take it easy no reason to push the limits and see how high you can get when your body is trying to recover.
