Does Coughing Make You Higher? Breaking Down the Debate

This article was written by a member of the Mood content team. 

There’s a common belief in the world of cannabis that coughing after taking a hit from a joint or pipe can make your high more intense.

Is that true, though?

Whether you’re new to cannabis products or a seasoned vet, you’ve probably heard this one before. We’re here to help you figure out whether it’s just an old stoner’s tale or a real piece of advice for smoking cannabis more enjoyably and effectively.

Let’s take a look at the science behind how that cannabis cough can affect your experience of smoking.

Table of Contents

• Does Coughing Make You Higher? Fact vs. Fiction

• What’s Actually Happening?

• Does Holding in Smoke Get You Higher?

• What Gets You High When You Smoke Weed?

• Factors That Affect Your High

• Why Do People Cough When They Smoke Weed?

• How To Reduce Coughing While Smoking

• FAQs About Coughing and Smoking

• The Verdict

• Premium Cannabis Flower From Mood: Our Picks

Does Coughing Make You Higher? Fact vs. Fiction

Where did the idea of coughing to get higher come from in the first place?

The notion that coughing increases the effects of cannabis might have originated from the way a cough after a hit makes you feel.

For example, if you rip a bong and start coughing hard, it can make it seem like you’ve just taken a massive hit, even if there wasn’t anything special about that specific hit. This is because the physical sensation of coughing can make you feel lightheaded and a little disoriented, making the smoking experience even more intense.

Keep in mind that just because you feel like you’re getting higher when cough doesn’t mean you are. Often, this feeling is just a classic example of the placebo effect.

What’s Actually Happening?

When you cough, quite a bit happens in your body. A cough involves multiple, large, and coordinated muscle contractions to forcefully send air out of your lungs, which drops your oxygen levels, increases blood flow to your brain. Most noticeably,  it makes your airway feel uncomfortable.

Lots of coughing can temporarily cause a lack of oxygen flow to your brain, which might make you feel a bit dizzy. That sensation mimics some of the physical feelings associated with getting high or dehydrated. Don’t be fooled though, it’s just a cough.

In addition, coughing makes your heart work a little harder to send blood to your organs, which further consumes oxygen but can then slightly increase blood flow to your brain. The result of this rush of blood to your head might be a temporary feeling of euphoria, which might also make you feel like you’re getting higher.

Finally, coughing can cause and clear out phlegm from your throat, making your airways feel more sensitive and irritated. This change might make you notice the feeling of the smoke in your lungs, altering your perception of the intensity of each hit you take.

Based on this natural response to coughing, it’s easy to see why you might feel like you’re getting higher when a hit makes you cough. In reality, though, that’s probably not the case.

Does Holding in Smoke Get You Higher?

We often hear stoners share another phenomenon that we mentioned earlier: the effects of holding smoke in for longer.

The idea here is that taking a “deeper” hit can increase the amount of psychoactive compounds that reach your lungs. The complex truth, however, is that the impact of holding smoke in your lungs matters but also depends on other factors like puff flow rate, duration, and even the anatomy of your upper airways. 

According to a published pharmacokinetic modeling study, a 4-second inhale followed by a 10-second breath hold may support more efficient cannabinoid delivery to the lower lungs. Further human clinical research is needed to validate this as a general recommendation. 

The early data suggest that this protocol turns out to be a better protocol than a 1.6-second hit with an 11.4-second hold pattern they also tested. That means that hits shorter than 4 seconds or holding in smoke for longer than 10 seconds afterward won’t do much good.  This “puff protocol technique” can actually expose your deeper lungs to more cannabinoids but also increases the risk of hacking and coughing.

What Gets You High When You Smoke Weed?

The cannabis plant contains over a hundred different cannabinoids, which are naturally occurring chemical compounds that give the plant its psychoactive effects. Without cannabinoids, weed wouldn’t get you high.  And it wouldn’t be nearly as fun to smoke it.

The most abundant (and popular) cannabinoid in weed is Delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. This compound is the main psychoactive component in weed, which means it’s the one primarily responsible for getting you high.

THC and other psychoactive cannabinoids enter your lungs when you take a hit from a bong, vape, or other smoking device. From there, THC mainly binds to the CB1 receptors in your body’s brain and endocannabinoid system, producing effects like relaxation, altered perception, and, sometimes, a case of the giggles.

Factors That Affect Your High

Smoking or vaping cannabis can produce a wide range of effects that vary based on multiple factors. Here are some of the ways that your experience with cannabis might be affected by your body and the products you choose.

•  THC Content: The main determining factor behind the intensity of your high is the amount of THC in the cannabis flower you smoke. The more THC, the more powerful your high will be. Concentrates contain the highest amounts.

•  Method of Consumption: Smoking weed often has faster-onset but shorter-lived effects compared to ingesting products like edibles. This is because cannabinoids take longer for cannabis users to absorb and metabolize when eaten.

•  Your Tolerance Level: If you’re a more experienced cannabis user, it might take more THC to get you high. Prolonged cannabis use can increase your tolerance for THC, which you can mitigate by taking a tolerance break from time to time.

•  The Way You Inhale: When you take a deeper hit while smoking and hold the smoke in your lungs for the right amount of time, more THC reaches the bases of your lungs and binds to the receptors in your endocannabinoid system. The proper puff protocol technique described above may move more cannabinoids to the bases of the lungs. 

All of these factors can impact the intensity and duration of your high, and they’re worth knowing when you first start using cannabis.

Why Do People Cough When They Smoke Weed?

Coughing is a natural human response to irritation in your body’s respiratory system. Inhaling cannabis smoke or vapor can trigger this cough reflex, but that doesn’t mean it’s dangerous.

When you cough while smoking, there’s nothing to be afraid of; it’s just the way your body responds to some of the irritants in the cannabis plant. Cannabinoids and terpenes are simply perceived as spicy to the lungs since they activate similar temperature and sensation receptors as hot peppers.

However, there are some factors that can make smoking more irritating to your lungs, like:

•  The Temperature of the Smoke: Smoking a joint or standard glass pipe sends hot smoke into your lungs, which can definitely be irritating for some folks. If the temperature of your smoke is a recurring source of irritation for you, an electronically-controlled, medical-grade, dry-herb vaporizer is a better option.

  Watch: How To Use Cannabis Flower

•  The Quality of the Cannabis: When cannabis flower isn’t processed properly, it can bother your lungs and lower the quality of your high. If you've ever had a full-on coughing fit while smoking weed, you probably weren’t loading the good stuff into your joint. Improperly processed cannabis may irritate the respiratory system in sensitive individuals, making legal sourcing important. .

In addition, some stoners claim that holding smoke in their lungs for longer increases the intensity of a high. We'll talk more about this phenomenon later and see whether it holds water.

How To Reduce Coughing While Smoking

Now you know that coughing or holding smoke in your lungs past 10 seconds won’t do much to improve the quality of your high. In fact, it might make you feel pretty uncomfortable or aggravate stomach symptoms. That means the best step to take to improve your smoking experience is to eliminate coughing from the equation.

If smoking often makes you cough, we recommend giving these tips a try and seeing how you feel:

Try a Vape

An electronically-controlled, dry-herb vaporizer (medical-grade) or even a disposable, rechargeable vape are fantastic alternatives to a standard joint or pipe. Vapes heat cannabis to much lower temperatures than combustion, which can be less irritating and stop that pesky cough from showing up. For people who love to inhale, these are most popular.

Hydrate Before Your High

If your airways are dried out, you’ll be more prone to coughing while smoking. Drinking some room-temperature water is one of the best ways to take care of this issue almost instantly.

As a side note, staying hydrated while smoking or not is always smart. Plenty of fluids (and maybe some nutrient-dense food) will make your high more balanced and enjoyable.

Take Smaller Hits

If smoking seems to always make you cough, skip the massive rips. Smaller, more controlled hits can help you limit the amount of smoke that goes into your lungs at a time and reduce airway irritation. Aiming for 4-seconds is ideal, but know your limits and it’s OK to slowly work your way up.

Use a Bong or Water Pipe

Bongs and water pipes filter smoke through water, which leads to cooler, cleaner hits. The result is a much less irritating experience that many cannabis fans say is the best way to smoke. It is unclear, however, just how much THC and other whole-plant compounds are lost to the device in the filtration, water, condensation, and smoke cooling process making it vastly inefficient compared to dry-herb vaporizing.

Another option is a dab rig, which is similar to a bong but is used for vaporizing and smoking concentrates. This smoking tool can get you a powerful high and help you avoid coughing.

Watch: How To Use Cannabis Flower

FAQs About Coughing and Smoking

Q: Is it bad to cough a lot while smoking?

A: A chronic cough — one that is persistent and lingers long after you smoke, is never a good sign. We’re not here to offer you medical advice, but it’s always a good idea to contact or visit your doctor and get your respiratory system checked out if you have a persistent cough that doesn't go away for several days. Especially if you have known asthma, respiratory, or heart conditions, don't hesitate to contact local emergency health services if something doesn’t feel right.

On the other hand, a short-term cough after a hit is totally normal. Do whatever you can to make yourself comfortable, but don’t worry too much.

Q: What should I do if I can’t stop coughing after a hit?

A: If you’re having a full-fledged coughing fit after taking a hit, the first thing to do is put down the joint or pipe. Give your body some time to readjust. Take a sip of water and try to take some deep breaths. 

Q: I seriously can’t stop coughing when I smoke. What do I do?

A: If coughing is a consistent problem for you when you smoke, we recommend trying a different form of cannabis consumption: edible, oral, or spray (oromucosal).

Tinctures (ideal) and edibles are always a fantastic alternative to smoking. They’re tasty, powerful, and full of the same active compounds that make smoking so enjoyable. Plus, there’s no inhaling involved (except breathing in and out like you always do). Just watch out for added sugars and artificial ingredients, which can be easily avoided with tinctures.

Q: Is smoking weed legal?

A: Mood's hemp-derived THC products are produced in compliance with applicable federal and state regulations. Check your local laws for specifics. 

The Verdict

There’s an ongoing debate about the effects of coughing on your cannabis high, but it looks like all signs point to this myth being slowly but more complexly understood.

Coughing is just a natural reaction to cannabis consumption via smoking, and there’s no reason to avoid stopping it from happening. Drinking water, changing your smoking method, or just taking smaller hits can help you stop coughing and keep your lung health in check.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. 

References:

1. Georgakopoulou, V. E., Andreikos, D. A., Zhu, W., & Spandidos, D. A. (2025). Cannabis use and its impact on respiratory physiology and lung cancer risk: Mechanistic and epidemiological insights (Review). Biomedical Reports, 23(5), 180. 

2. Mayo Clinic. (2026). Water: How much should you drink every day? Mayo Clinic. 

3. Rezende, B., Alencar, A. K. N., de Bem, G. F., Fontes-Dantas, F. L., & Montes, G. C. (2023). Endocannabinoid System: Chemical Characteristics and Biological Activity. Pharmaceuticals, 16(2), 148. 

4. Zhao, J., Feng, Y., Tian, G., Taylor, C., & Arden, N. S. (2021). Influences of puff protocols and upper airway anatomy on cannabis pharmacokinetics: A CFPD-PK study. Computers in Biology and Medicine, 132, 104333.