I’m just giving you hearsay from about 30 years ago so please take my answer as a guess. I was once told/read somewhere that the the THC was actually the plant’s natural defense against grazing animals. Its purpose is to do exactly what it does. That slightly altered state of mind that humans find enjoyable is very unwanted in other animals. Being confused and disoriented is not happy frame of reference for a prey animal.
True, but then again that seems like a self-correcting problem. I.e. those bunnies that figure out that eating hemp leads to stonination followed by a short, sharp squeak carry on, while the stoners get eaten by feral wolves. Kind of like real life :).
That being said, there are plenty of critters that get high in the wilds, be it on a seasonal (i.e. that time of the year when the summer fruit starts getting too ripe and naturally ferments) or year-long basis. Including due to human influence : some Caribbean macaques have apparently figured out that those big dumb hairless monkeys on the beach drink some *really *awesome stuff and have moved from deliberately chomping on rotting sugar cane to doing hit-and-runs on tourists with cocktails. They don’t seem the worse for it on a population basis (it’s a known fact that alcohol enhances one’s chances at mating, right ?). Although it appears they tend to move away from their hardcore boozing as they get older. Didn’t we all ?
No cite, but I thought I read about some wild pigs in Indonesia who ate wild marijuana to the extent that you could get high from eating the pork. Pigs aren’t primates, and I have also - er, heard - that eating raw marijuana did not get you high, and that it had to be smoked or cooked into brownies or otherwise heat-treated.
Years ago “the tray” got slid under the bed when the parents arrived at a friends apartment unannounced. The pooch ate a bud and was quite wobbly for a couple of hours.
The effect might be there to give the grazers the munchies to they’ll eat more and poop out seeds.
I can tell you from first hand experience on a student trip to Amsterdam that primates can indeed get VERY stoned from eating raw cannabis. Or at least the flowering part of the plant. Bit on the dry side though…
I read an article about the health benefits of eating fresh, green cannabis. Supposedly that won’t get you stoned. Most pot articles are somewhere between anecdotal and wild fantasy.
Once it’s dried & cured I think it becomes more potent, or psychoactive.
I think there are a number of doubts this hypothesis raises, making it less likely to be true. First, pot doesn’t make people disoriented or confused. Second, those are concepts that require a theory of mind in animals that we are not at all sure of. Third, cats readily eat wild catnip and appear to enjoy it, as they keep coming back to it. Fourth, many animals are found to be attracted to fermenting fruits, possibly for the change in reality that it may engender. I don’t think that theory makes sense.
I can state from personal experience that this is not the case. I once made a sandwich out of a heap of unsmokable leaves and it did its job quite well.
Marijuana has been known to make humans paranoid, usually when they have something to worry about (e.g., the Fuzz). It does not actually dull the senses, as such, it can make a person more alert, depending on the situation, so the idea that weed eaters would get selected out seems pretty questionable to me.
I can only speak from many (~45) years of experience with it and with people who were using it - it has many and admittedly varied effects on people, but I’ve never seen or heard of anyone being disoriented or confused. Perceptions may be altered, intensified, or in some ways different from normal, but there’s not the disassociation with reality that one usually associates with disorientation or confusion. Your experiences may be different.
Wait a minute. So you guys say you don’t have to smoke it? Would it have same effect if someone used it on pizza? Like or instead of oregano? Or make a salad of it. Like or instead of lettuce?