Researchers see link between hunter-gatherer cannabis use, fewer parasites

VANCOUVER, 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 the 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.

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http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-06/wsu-wrs052915.php