Getting Creative with Cannabis: Using Cannabis To Fuel Your Creativity

Can Creativity Be Improved By Cannabis, and What Strains of Cannabis Are Best for Increasing Creativity?

The idea that cannabis can influence creativity certainly isn’t a new one. For hundreds of years, musicians, artists, writers, philosophers and other thinkers and tinkerers have claimed that cannabis and creativity are linked.  

What’s less clear is how, exactly. Is it a chicken-and-egg situation? Are creative people just more likely to enjoy cannabis? Or can cannabis improve creativity?

Cannabis and Creativity: Here’s What the Science Says

Neuroscientists have determined that creativity is associated with the brain’s frontal lobe. According to a report published in Neuropsychopharmacology in 2002, cannabis consumption increased what’s known as regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) to the frontal lobe area. A more stimulated, active frontal lobe could mean more creativity.

While scientists are still playing catchup in exploring the many potential positive aspects of cannabis after decades of focus on potential harms, this study definitely holds some intrigue. 

But how do you even measure creativity?

You do it with something called “divergent thinking,” which is regularly used by scientists as a yardstick for measuring creativity. Divergent thinking (DT) is the ability to generate creative ideas,  explore a wide variety of possible solutions to problems, and is split into four main categories: Originality, Flexibility, Fluency and Elaboration. It’s also theorized that when cannabis stimulates in the frontal lobe, it affects DT.

A Little High Goes a Long Way

According to a study from 2014, a key factor in whether cannabis can improve creativity is dosage. The study found that with low doses of THC—in this case, 5.5 milligrams—cannabis use improved several aspects of divergent thinking compared to the placebo group. 

However, when the dose was upped to 22mg, the subjects’ scores dropped significantly in every category. For anyone who’s ever overindulged and found themselves spacing out and experiencing a bad case of “couch lock,” the results of the study shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Interestingly, a study done in 2012 found that, after dividing participants into “high creative” and “low creative” groups, cannabis can improve creativity, but perhaps only if you’re not already creative. After testing participants while sober, and then again after taking cannabis, the “low creatives” were found to have gotten a noticeable boost, specifically in the Fluency category, when compared to the “high creatives.” 

So it’s possible that cannabis can be a way to jumpstart your creativity or make you more open to creative ideas and possibilities if that’s something you’re struggling with. 

The Best Cannabis Strains for Creativity

When trying to find the best cannabis strains for creativity, the first step is choosing between Sativa and Indica. Should be straightforward, right? After all, Sativa strains are known for being stimulating and energetic, while Indicas generally provide a more mellow experience, which may more likely lead to a meditative zone-out than a creative explosion. 

But it’s not that simple. No one is going to have exactly the same experience or reaction to cannabis, especially if it has a high THC content. Beyond that, everyone has their own unique creative process, and a potent Sativa like Sour Diesel that could make for an inspiring mindset in one person could end up leading to an unproductive racing, anxious mind for someone else. 

In the same vein, an Indica-dominant hybrid like Miracle Alien Cookies might leave one person relaxed to the point of nodding off, but its introspective and focused high might be just what someone else with focus issues needs to settle themselves and get creating. It’s all about finding out what makes your creative juices flow.

Get Creative With How You Shop for Cannabis

Are you looking to get inspired to paint a masterpiece? Write the next great novel? Finally make that Broadway musical with a fresh take on Martin Van Buren you’ve been telling all your friends about? Then hop over to the Veritas interactive strain guide, where you can sort through our craft strains and find ones best suited to creativity, energy, focus and more. With over 90 strains in our library, we’ve got something for everyone.