You are right about the smoke, there's no benefit there... I won't argue about that. However, I will say that marijuana smoke is NOTHING compared to cigarette smoke --- one leaves me laboring on a run the next day or two and they other doesn't.
Nevertheless, here is some of that evidence for overall effects from marijuana:
ANTI-INFLAMATORY:
“Certain chemicals within marijuana have anti-inflammatory effects,†says Gregory Gerdeman, an assistant professor of biology at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, and contributing author to The Pot Book: A Complete Guide to Cannabis. “The most obvious potential benefit to an athlete is controlling inflammation and some of the aches and pains that relate to injury. If you lower inflammation, you will raise the pain threshold.â€
RUNNER'S HIGH = HIGH'S HIGH? :
“When you have runner’s high, you have feelings very similar to those you would feel if you were smoking marijuana: sedation, analgesia, mild happiness, the loss of the sensation of time and a loss of worries,†says Arne Dietrich, Ph.D., a cognitive neuroscientist and professor of psychology at the American University of Beirut, who has been studying altered states of consciousness for 15 years.
According to Dietrich, runner’s high occurs during sustained, steady physical activity when the prefrontal cortex of the brain down regulates.
“Studies show there’s a performance enhancement when this happens,†he says. “The system in the brain that runs you or plays tennis or does anything else in this flow state is simple, but efficient. The system in the prefrontal cortex is complex, but that complexity also means that it’s slow. When that system is down regulated, it enhances the other system, which is built for speed and efficiency.â€
STOMACH ISSUES:
Former professional runner Chris Barnicle is familiar with this tactic. He regularly ate marijuana-infused foods during non-running hours while a 5K/10K athlete at the University of Arkansas and University of New Mexico, and later when he was sponsored by Asics and New Balance.
He didn’t use edibles just for fun. As a freshman in college, he was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease, which caused drastic gastrointestinal distress, created intense abdominal pain, affected his ability to sleep, and wreaked havoc on his appetite. Rather than go on prescription medication, he began eating crackers laden with marijuana-infused peanut butter.
“The digestive issues immediately disappeared, and I felt like I was recovering a lot better internally,†he says. “The stress I had with school, relationships and running seemed to wither away a little bit, too
SOURCE:
http://www.runnersworld.com/newswire/is-marijuana-the-source-of-a-new-runners-high
Was the first thing that popped up... I'm sure I could find more. My main, over-arching point isn't that marijuana is some miracle drug. However, the majority of the posts have been extremely negative about the drug and I don't feel it's warranted.