Cannabis May Improve Night Vision
Holy Batman! Can Cannabis Help You See in the Dark? from CannabisNet on Vimeo.
Get high and you might just upgrade your level to superhero status.
Anyone who supports marijuana can easily spend hours explaining the many health benefits of the plant. It’s also really fun to get stoned, but I’ll bet you $500 that no one ever thought cannabis could actually improve night vision.
Yes, you read that right.
A recent study led by the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital revealed new data - and perhaps more reason to get lit - that helps us better understand just how powerful cannabinoids can actually be!
The study was focused on analyzing the effect of cannabinoids, also known as the active ingredient in pot, on the vision of tadpoles. The researchers used many different techniques to validate how the tiny tadpoles reacted to various visual stimuli after they were exposed to exogenous cannabinoids (artificially introduced) as well as endogenous cannabinoids (cannabinoids that are located within the body).
The researchers discovered that when the cannabinoids were activated in tadpoles, this in turn also activated the retinal ganglion cells (RGC), which transmit data on light detection to the brain from their eyes, which was contrary to their beliefs and findings from previous trials. Edward Ruthazar, Ph.D., the study’s author, said in a press release “Initially you distrust yourself when you see something that goes against widely held ideas, but we tried the experiment so many times, using diverse techniques, and it was a consistent result.”
Ruthazer, a Professor at Montreal Neurological Institute of McGill University in Canada, also added, “So then we knew we had to figure out what was going on. The first tendency is to want to ignore it. But it was such a strong effect—we knew there was something important here.”
The findings are surprising, that’s for sure, although it’s still way too early to tell if it would have the same effect on human vision.
Used By Jamaican and Moroccan Fishermen
Another intriguing study though, is the one conducted on Moroccan fishermen who were using cannabis to help improve their night vision. The study dates back to 2004, and bewildered scientists after they expected the men to lose their sense of direction after consuming copious amounts of kif, which is a combination of tobacco and marijuana. In fact, the fishermen showed no signs of being left in the dark: their navigating skillz were even better when they were stoned!
The research team reported, “They attribute their ability to see to the consumption of kif that they spend entire hours smoking before getting into their barques.”
Apparently, Jamaican fishermen also report the same phenomenon. These all suggests that there may be a compound in marijuana after all that can potentially help humankind in ways other than treating cancer and many other illnesses.
For the Morocco study, the researchers traveled to the Rif valley which is the heart of the country’s cannabis production. They took with them equipment needed to measure night vision. In the Journal of Ethnopharmacology, the research team wrote, “High-grade sifted cannabis was mixed with tobacco in a 2:1 ratio and smoked as kif by subjects employing a traditional sebsi pipe.” They invited three Moroccan volunteers who were experienced in smoking kif, and asked them to do “numerous inhalations.” The volunteers all showed significant improvements after smoking, which prodded the researchers to agree that more research needs to be conducted in this field.
While this is pretty remarkable, the benefits of cannabis for eyesight aren’t breaking news. Pot has long been recognized for its effectiveness in treating glaucoma, thus preventing blindness in the millions of people afflicted by this condition. There are several studies that show that the eyes are one of the most potent receptors of marijuana in the human body; the sheer number of pathways has amazed scientists who have conducted trials to reduce the haze on marijuana's impressive effects on our vision.
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