Whether using cannabis recreationally or medicinally, everything changes when you go in for surgery. A patient’s substance intake is regulated before and after many surgeries, and weed is a substance.

So, this article provides everything you need to know about if you can smoke weed after surgery.

What You Need to Know about Cannabis and Surgery

With over an estimated 20 million users in the United States, you may have noticed how cannabis use is gaining widespread acceptance and popularity for medical and recreational purposes. As of this year, medical marijuana is legal in 30 of the United States and recreationally legal in 10, including the District of Columbia.

As cannabis undergoes a much-needed cultural reformation, the public faces ambiguity concerning circumstances when smoking weed is safe, and when it is not. Overall, weed is a safe and healthy recreation alternative to alcohol, but medical procedures change that norm.

Weed has medical benefits which are duly recognized by the medical community. Some post-op patients will find great benefits to weed, while others might be detrimental. It all depends on the nature of your surgery.

Inform your Surgeon of Cannabis Use

There are many reasons why surgeons need to know about any medications you currently take before you undergo an operation. Often, surgery patients are given tranquilizers or anesthesia, and foreign chemicals can accentuate or dilute the effects.

If you are a cannabis user be sure to inform your surgeon well in advance of your procedure. Check out our blog for more info.

Don’t Smoke Weed Before Surgery!

You should not smoke cannabis before surgery of any kind.

After you are at home and healing, is a different story, but there are serious risks to consuming weed before undergoing a surgical procedure.

Everyone reacts differently to weed, but surgery is different.

You might not think about it, but there is a cocktail of drugs that they pump into you during surgery. Surgeons and Anesthesiologists are highly trained in how to not kill you with the number of drugs that they have to use. The number of drugs to give you, and when, depends on a complex equation.

If you consume a chemically altering substance prior to surgery the math will be off.

When you smoke weed, your blood’s oxygen consumption increases. When your blood oxygen consumption increases, it lowers your blood oxygen level, which is dangerous when undergoing surgery.

The best way to ensure your safe and effective recovery from any surgery is to follow all the instructions given to you by your surgeon, prior to the procedure. Inherently, this will restrict the number of chemicals in your body, in order to administer surgical treatment safely.

Most surgery will involve medicating the patient with Central Nervous System (CNS) relaxants and anesthesia. In some people, weed can decrease the effectiveness of medication used in relaxing the CNS during surgery.

When your CNS sinks into too relaxed of a state, anesthesia can be increasingly difficult to wake up from. In addition, it can cause excessive bleeding from a faster heart rate, which affects you after surgery as well.

Can I Smoke Weed After Surgery?

The deal is: smoking anything – be it weed, tobacco, or grass clippings – it changes the way in which your body functions and heals. Weed has plenty of benefits for post-op patients, but it is not smart to smoke anything for a while after surgery.

That doesn’t mean you can’t use cannabis after your surgery. Edibles, tinctures, vaping, and topicals are a different story. But, you should not smoke anything while your body is healing from surgery.

After surgery of any kind, your body needs oxygen to heal. When you smoke weed it changes the molecular structure of the oxygen you breathe, as well as lets in harmful particle contaminants. Your respiratory system acts as a gatekeeper to the particles and bacteria from the outside world which make their way into your circulatory system.

Smoke-induced contaminants can wreak havoc on a weakened immune system.

Benefits of Using Weed After Surgery

After your surgery, other than smoking, your cannabis use should depend on how the prescriptions and medications you are taking affect your physical and mental state. The biggest benefit to be had from using weed after surgery is to decrease your opioid usage.

After kids get there wisdom teeth removed, opioids are common for the post-op treatment of aches and pains. Prescription opioids are the most common gateway to drug abuse in teenagers. Weed, is in every way, less addictive than opioids, and widely reported to be comparably effective.

No matter your age, opioid abuse is a slippery slope. The effects of THC supplement opioids pain-numbing properties, without spiking the user’s dopamine and serotonin levels.

THC promotes epinephrine production in the brain which is not physically addictive, unlike dopamine and serotonin excess, produced by opioids.

When to Specifically NOT Smoke Weed After Surgery

If your surgery involves the abdomen, lungs, heart, liver, kidney, brain, stomach, mouth, nose, or sinuses – do not smoke weed after surgery. The biggest reason why not to smoke after these specific surgeries are coughing, and phlegm.

If you are a weed smoker, you know it: “you have to cough to get off”. This saying refers to the ritual of holding a weed hit in your lungs as long as possible. This often induces coughing.

The lungs’ ability to expand the capillaries when coughing enable them to absorb more THC. And, that’s all great when you are in perfect health, but not after these surgeries.

Coughing is a perfect way to tear open stitches and cause post-op internal bleeding. When you a cough, a lot of pressure is placed on the lungs, abdominal muscles, and all of the surrounding organs.

Just, have an edible and save the bong for when you fully heal.

Final Thoughts

Do yourself a favor and lay off the smoke until you are completely healed from surgery.

Do yourself another favor, and stock up on weed edibles to replace your post-op pain-killer opioids. But no matter how you not smoke, or smoke after surgery, inform your doctor so they can help you make the best choices for your health.

If you found this article useful, on if you should smoke weed after surgery, share it with friends on social media. And, check out our blog for info on cannabis in the San Francisco area. Thanks for reading!