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Cannabis helps you see in the dark

Forget carrots, new research suggests that marijuana could give you night vision

A new study by Lois Miraucourt of the Montreal Neurological Institute found that smoking cannabis made the smoker's eyes more reactive to light and thus better able to make out shapes in the darkness, according to The Guardian.

Scientists treated the eye tissue of tadpoles with a cannabinoid mix (yes we said tadpoles) and noticed that the cells of the eyes reacted differently to those not treated with the cannabinoid, increasing the rate that those cells "fired" in response to bright and dim light stimuli.

Scientists put this change down to the inhibition of the protein NKCC1 and how it reacts to something called the CB1 receptor (special receptors part of what is known as the endocannabinoid system, which is in turn ties to the nervous system and immune system). "NKCC1 is a co-transporter protein that normally shuttles sodium, potassium, and chloride ions in and out of cells, and their concentrations determine the electrical properties of nerve cells.


The link between cannabis and night vision was first made twenty five years ago by M.E. West, a pharmacologist at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica, who detected that Jamaican fishermen (who had a love of smoking cannabis) displayed "an uncanny ability to see in the dark."

The study says that this type of visual enhancement enabled these weed-smoking Jamaicans to navigate treacherous areas of sea at night. The latest study supports that theory. "It was impossible to believe that anyone could navigate a boat without compass and without light in such treacherous surroundings."

West added that "the man who had taken the rum extract of cannabis had far better night vision than I had, and that a subjective effect was not responsible." Increasing amount of cannabinoid studies are currently being undertaken with the hope that it can be used to help create a variety of diseases and ailments.


This article originally appeared on www.gq.com.au

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