OK, I already expect that most of the reactions to this article will fall somewhere along the lines of, “Well, duh.”
Indeed, it’s well understood among many of us that soon after somebody partakes in a cannabis product, they’re likely going to get pretty hungry. And the “munchies” have been a playful pot reference in pop culture for longer than a lot of us have been alive.
But despite the fact that “everyone” knows this, there actually hasn’t been much research over the years that’s seriously examined this effect. And since it’s not unusual for myths that “everybody knows” to be proven wrong by research — it turns out that it’s not that dangerous to awaken a sleepwalker and sugar doesn’t make you hyper — it can still be worthwhile to dedicate research to what seems obvious.
And that’s especially true when we’re examining factors in persistent public health issues.
When they were pursuing their 2019 study, Michele Baggio and Alberto Chong were seeking to address the fact that over one-third of the American population is now considered obese.
In their resulting research , they acknowledge past research that has explored this trend’s relationship with the ubiquity of large retailers and fast food chains, as well as evidence suggesting that obesity rates tend to climb in areas with poor economic conditions.
But as a growing number of states are moving towards legalizing recreational marijuana , the research team also considered it worthwhile to examine the effect that doing so could have on obesity rates.
But while minimal research exists into the “munchies” aside from stoner tropes, they did note some neuroscience research that suggests it’s hardly a myth.
As The Chicago Tribune reported Debbie Petitpain from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics as saying, marijuana “hijacks the parts of your brain that make you seek pleasure.”
She also noted this has the effect of heightening people’s sense of smell and taste. So if somebody tells you that food tastes better when they’re high, this is likely what they’re experiencing.
To examine how this effect works on a large scale, Baggio and Chong decided to track the difference in sales of popular junk foods such as chips, ice cream, and cookies before and after states enact legalization of recreational cannabis.
As their study explains, they did this by analyzing the Nielsen Retail Scanner database that tracks purchases from convenience, drug, and larger retail stores in over 2,000 counties throughout 48 states.
By zooming in on the rates of cookie, ice cream, and chip purchases from 2006-2016, they were able to compare data from states that have and have not pursued marijuana legalization and what sales were like before and after states that changed their laws did so.
They were also able to avoid the issue of underreporting that typically arises when people are surveyed directly.
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And what they discovered was a consistent trend that saw sales of all three items rise after recreational marijuana laws were enacted.
Although they found that sales spiked the highest in the month directly after legalization comes into effect, any subsequent decrease seemed to affect chip and ice cream sales more than cookie sales.
But even after controls were applied and their data was refined, Baggio and Chong found that cannabis-friendly states saw an average monthly increase of 3.1% for ice cream sales, 4.1% for cookie sales, and 5.3% for chip sales.
Although this doesn’t bode well for existing obesity trends, the overall effect of marijuana legalization on public health remains complicated.
As Baggio and Chong found in a separate study conducted alongside Sungoh Kwon, states that enacted laws approving marijuana use for medical reasons also saw a 12.4% decrease in alcohol sales within those states’ counties.
Of course, this is essentially the tip of the iceberg when it comes to research measuring how marijuana legalization impacts social trends and forces.
h/t: Georgia State University Internation Center For Public Policy
