Acne and Marijuana. Does A Hit Cause A Zit?

Does marijuana cause acne?  This is a question that while not discussed in the mainstream, is popping up all over the online world as individuals (and don’t kid yourselves, these aren’t just teenagers and college students) try to find the answer to a question that is becoming an increasingly popular discussion topic in online forums.  There have been only limited studies on this topic (most of them obviously outside of the United States) but some progress has been made in answering that recurring question: does marijuana cause acne?

There are several conflicting, or slightly different, accounts of the actual effect that marijuana has on acne or skin, but general data seems to suggest that the short answer to the question does marijuana cause acne is yes, it does seem to have an effect on most people’s skin.  Now, as with all things, there are some exceptions.  There are probably people who can smoke a lot of marijuana and never have a problem, but most people involved in studies found that smoking a lot of marijuana did tend to coincide with acne breakouts on their face.

The possible reasons for this vary.  One of the findings seemed to be that women were usually affected much more often, and much more badly, then their male counterparts.  One of the possible reasons for this is because of how marijuana affects testosterone levels.  Marijuana has been shown to cause testosterone levels to go way down below normal, but then to bounce back way up.  To get the body to produce the testosterone needed to get back to normal levels, the body has to produce androgens, which in turn produce the “missing” testosterone.  This isn’t a perfect science, and often the androgens creating testosterone created too much.  The overproduction of androgens is a known cause of acne, and so that is one way that smoking marijuana can cause acne.  In females this effect is more profound because the female body is supposed to have less testosterone, and so the acne breakouts are a result of the new hormonal imbalance.

Skin irritants are also known to cause acne.  In some cases this means that the smoke from marijuana will cause a break out.  If your skin is ultra sensitive, the smoke may cause breakouts, or even being in a room heavily laden with smoke could be enough to cause a new flare up.  In this case cigarette and cigar smoke may do the same, or it may be a chemical unique to marijuana.  It would be hard to tell exactly, but if smoke comes into contact with skin that irritates easily, it will cause an acne outbreak.

Some tests when asked does marijuana cause acne will argue that it is inconclusive whether or not marijuana itself has an effect, but that the common situations around pot smoking can lead to acne.  Some tests found that when a bong was passed around, acne tended to break out around the mouth, probably because there was so much grease and oil from everyone else’s skin.  The argument also goes that there would be more junk food eaten, less vitamins, and cleanliness becomes less of an issue stoned, so that it is not the marijuana, but actually the situations that marijuana smoking tends to promote that can cause outbreaks of acne.

So does marijuana cause acne?  The general conclusion seems to be that one way or another, smoking marijuana does tend to affect most people in some way regarding acne.  Obviously the more that is smoked, the more outbreaks that tend to occur.  If you’re looking for a natural herbal remedy to acne, look away from marijuana, it will have the opposite effect.