Quote Originally Posted by Tmansdc
I need to know if benadryl can cause reactions to it.


And I smoke cigs sometimes.


But maybe i'm allergic to the mix, but not cannabis itself.
Benadryl wouldn't so much cause reactions as it would be likely suppress allergic reactions themselves. Benadryl is what I take for hives, which I never know why I get. It's also what I took when I smoked weed, which gave me a runny, stuffy, itchy nose and puffy, itchy eyes.

To develop an allergy, you have to have had at least one previous exposure to an allergen so your immune system has a chance to develop a sensitivity to it. It's definitely possible to be allergic to weed. I had a friend in college who was so allergic to it that he had to stop smoking entirely. He got mouth swelling, itching in his ears and up his Eustachian tubes, and an itchy throat. People can have allergic reactions of all levels, and the ones where your throat closes up and you die are the most severe. That's called "anaphylaxis," and it's fairly uncommon after inhalation of an allergen. It's more common after ingestion (swallowing), skin contact, or an injection.

Hives, at least from what I've seen, seem a lot more likely to be the result of penicillin, something like a sensitivity to your laundry detergent or bath soap, or possibly even a response to seasonal airborne allergens like pollen. This is springtime, so it's high allergy season. Once you're off the pencillin, test it yourself. Try smoking again and see if you get the same reaction. Have some Benadryl on hand to take if you do. If you don't, then that's a fairly good indication that it wasn't the weed.

This is my thing. I'm the allergy "queen" because I'm allergic to nearly every variety of pollen that occurs in nature and about 12 medicines, too. In my years as a paramedic, we dealt with allergic reactions constantly.