I’m home sick from work today with a pretty bad head cold. Violent sneezing, joints aching. Nose so plugged up I couldn’t get a drip to go through with the Neti pot. So it may seem counter intuitive to want to smoke a bowl and put my sinuses through the irritants in smoke. But some relief is only to be found on the other side of discomfort. I hold a mortal fear of needles, but if curing what ails me lies in the serum, the discomfort of facing that fear/pain can be seen as but a temporary walk through fire to the sweet nepenthe beyond. So it is with smoking cannabis with a cold.

Once the irritation from the smoke passes, about 20 minutes or so, I just feel generally better. Sure, I still have a cold. But you know what? I feel all right about it. The aches in my joints have been soothed, I’m actually sneezing less for some reason (maybe I’m taking deeper, slower breaths). More than any of that, though, I feel better in my mind. I know that will help me kick this cold faster. So, was the 20 minutes of irritation worth it? Absolutely.

With all the marvelous ways we are discovering that cannabis can help us, I wouldn’t be too shocked to find that it has some curative powers against the common cold. In the mean time, however, my mind is in a better place and there is plenty of evidence that a positive mental state is one of the most important things for healing and wellness. Take two people with the same exact condition, where everything is identical except their outlook, and the person who stays positive will likely get better faster.

Hopefully one day the ludicrous restrictions on the scientific analysis of cannabis will be lifted and we can truly begin to understand the healing potential of this incredible plant. I think if you can handle the actual smoking part, cannabis can do wonders for how you feel about having a cold. Hey, you can always eat some edibles too!