Study: Why Pot Smokers Are Skinnier

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20. Stumbled on an interesting factoid that might be related...

Medical marijuana: Hunter-gatherer users have fewer worms
June 1, 2015
By Eric Sorensen, WSU science writer

Hagen-EdVANCOUVER, Wash. – Washington State University researchers have found that the more hunter-gatherers smoke cannabis, the less they are infected by intestinal worms. The link suggests that they may unconsciously be, in effect, smoking medical marijuana.

Ed Hagen, a WSU Vancouver anthropologist, explored cannabis use among Aka foragers to see if people away from the cultural and media influences of Western civilization might use plant toxins medicinally.

“In the same way we have a taste for salt, we might have a taste for psychoactive plant toxins because these things kill parasites,” he said.

In an earlier study, Hagen found that the heavier tobacco smokers among the Aka also had fewer helminths, parasitic intestinal worms.

He cautions, however, that the studies have their limits. While nicotine has been seen killing worms in livestock, that hasn’t been directly demonstrated in humans. Cannabis kills worms in a petri dish, but researchers have not shown it killing worms in animals, Hagen said....

https://news.wsu.edu/2015/06/01/medical-marijuana-hunter-gatherer-users-have-fewer-parasites/#.VW55f2Bh2Rv