Solved: Why pot gives you the munchies

Fritos (Glane23/Wikimedia Commons)

Fritos (Glane23/Wikimedia Commons)

The recent Nature Neuroscience article “The endocannabinoid system controls food intake via olfactory processes” is fascinating.

Actually, even the abstract is about as dense as you’d think from its title. But, translated to conversational English, the upshot is: Pot gives in to the munchies through your nose, or at least it does for mice.

THC (the active ingredient in pot) increases sense of smell in mice, which makes them more hungry. Similarly, hunger increases your sense of smell, prompting you to eat.

Smell is also a big part of taste, meaning that, by heightening your sense of smell, pot also boosts taste.

How did the scientists figure this out? They got mice used to banana and almond oils, to the point where the mice stopped showing interest in the smells, reported. “Mice that were dosed with THC, however, kept on sniffing, demonstrating an enhanced sensitivity to the scents. These THC-dosed mice also ate much more chow when given the chance, showing an increased appetite.”

The researchers figured out that THC mimics cannabinoids, a chemical our brain produces as part of its system to control emotions, memory, pain sensitivity and appetite. THC had no effect on Mice engineered to lack a type of cannabinoid receptor in the odor-sensing part of their brains.

Mice that had been starved for 24 hours produced more cannabinoids, boosting their scent sensitivity and hunger. But mice engineered to lack cannabinoid receptors didn’t smell or eat more when starved.

Smithsonian noted that previous research showed THC increases the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine, boosting our pleasure from eating, and causes release of the hormone ghrelin, which stimulates hunger.

The new research has some potential practical applications, New Scientist reported. Drugs that interfere with cannabinoid signaling could treat obesity, while enhanced signalling could help people with appetite loss, such as cancer patients.

That second part, of course, is already one of the big uses of medical marijuana.

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Aubrey Cohen