So, awhile ago we set up a poll asking our readers if they thought that they get more high when they cough while smoking makes. It seems like 78% of us feel that coughing gets us more high, while 17% say it doesn’t, and 5% apparently have never coughed while smoking. Now, here are some things to consider which might justify some truth behind this marijuana myth.

When you smoke marijuana, the main ingredient which gets you high is the chemical THC. Good old Delta 9 Tetrahydrocannabinol. When the THC reaches approximately 301 degrees Fahrenheit it becomes active (CBD at 403 F and CBN at 415 F). This is the reaction that occurs when you light a joint or a blunt, torch a bong, or use a vaporizer. In a joint, for example, the paper burns at 451 degrees Fahrenheit which is a major them in the book Fahrenheit 451. Or in the case of a bong or a bowl where you are using a butane lighter which burns around 550 degrees Fahrenheit. So, depending on the person and the size of the apparatus you are smoking out of, everyone will take in a different amount of smoke on any given toke of the sacred herb.

When you cough, your lungs are gasping for air, its an instinct which has stuck with us from our time as reptiles millions of years ago. When you cough, your lungs expand, and certain areas of your lung are exposed to smoke that wouldn’t have been had you not coughed.

So, you might not get as high taking a hit from a joint that makes you cough as you would from a hit from a bong. But, the best way to utilize any given hit is to maximize the amount THC that you absorb. This can be easily achieved by coughing and increasing the surface area in your lungs that can absorb the THC, or by holding in the hit. We have also been looking in to what the ideal amount of time is to hold in a hit. Let us know what you think it is, by voting in this poll.

And, to vote in the coughing poll, click here.