The correct answer to this question? No one really knows, it’s complicated, and it depends. Preclinical research has found that cannabis can suppress the immune system. It does this by decreasing inflammation, which is the body’s natural response to infection.

While inflammation has a bad reputation, no human would be able to survive without it. Inflammation helps trap and isolate damaged parts of the body, preventing the spread of infection. Decreasing inflammation when it is needed can potentially worsen infection or injury.

However, sometimes the body’s inflammatory response goes awry and it becomes too inflamed for its own good. Such is the case with autoimmune disease, in which the immune system begins to attack a patient’s own body. This causes chronic inflammation, which can be detrimental to health.

Recent research has pegged chronic inflammation as a major contributor to many modern diseases, including depression, anxiety, multiple sclerosis, neurodegenerative diseases, asthma, arthritis, allergy, irritable bowel syndrome, diabetes, obesity, and more. Scientists are currently researching the ways in which anti-inflammatory tools may aid in the treatment of these diseases and others.

As a powerful anti-inflammatory, the immune suppressant qualities of cannabis may be useful for those who have health problems associated with high levels of inflammation.

Healthy individuals with normal inflammation response may not benefit from continuously consuming high levels of anti-inflammatory compounds like those in cannabis. However, it will take more research to determine once and for all whether or not cannabis consumption causes detrimental effects to the immune system in the long term.