Researchers at Oregon State University have observed that frequent cannabis users begin each morning with cortisol levels already elevated above those of non-users — a quiet but meaningful disruption to the body's daily stress rhythm. The finding is not a condemnation but a complication: stress relief is among the most common reasons people turn to cannabis, yet the drug may gradually reshape the very biology it is meant to soothe. Science cannot yet say whether cannabis causes this pattern or whether more stress-prone individuals simply use it more often, but the question itself carries weigh