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Marijuana ‘Munchies’ May Be Rooted in Biology
THURSDAY, Dec. 24 (HealthDay News) — New research sheds some light on the
“munchies” — the desire that pot smokers sometimes have to eat lots of food.
THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, is similar to substances known as endocannabinoids, which are produced in the brain and body and enhance the perception of sweet foods, researchers say.
“Our taste cells may be more involved in regulating our appetites than we had previously known,” said Dr. Robert Margolskee, a molecular biologist at Monell Chemical Senses Center and co-author of a new study, in a statement. “Better understanding of the driving forces for eating and overeating could lead to interventions to stem the burgeoning rise in obesity and related diseases.”
Endocannabinoids “both act in the brain to increase appetite and also modulate taste receptors on the tongue to increase the response to sweets,” study senior author Yuzo Ninomiya, a professor of oral neuroscience at Kyushu University in Japan, said in a statement.
Medicinal marijuana offers nothing but benefits
The trial of John Wilson earlier this month highlighted the need for the New 
Jersey Legislature to pass a law legalizing the medicinal use of marijuana.
Wilson is a middle-aged Franklin (Somerset) resident who was brought to trial in Superior Court in Somerville by the state attorney general’s office on serious charges of growing marijuana on property he rented in the township. Wilson was facing 20 years in state prison on a first-degree charge of operating a drug maunufacturing facility.
Wilson was acquitted of that charge, but was found guilty of lesser charges of growing marijuana and possession of psilocybin mushrooms. He will be sentenced on Feb. 5.
February trial set in marijuana case
WINCHESTER — A Winchester father and son arrested last August after police allegedly saw
marijuana plants growing in their apartment through an open window facing Main Street have received a Feb. 10 trial date in Randolph Superior Court.
Glenn E. Younker, 51, is charged with maintaining a common nuisance, a Class D felony carrying a standard 18-month prison term, and possession of marijuana, a misdemeanor.
His son, Jeremiah J. Younker, 24, faces the same charges as his father, and is also charged with possession of a narcotic drug, a Class D felony. Authorities said they found six oxycodone pills in the younger Younker’s bedroom.
Your Oct. 16 editorial, “Medical marijuana law needs attention,” correctly identifies that we need to fine-tune Oregon’s medical marijuana law. But calling
for the Legislature to improve the law won’t make it happen. Instead we need to pass a new medical marijuana initiative.
The medical marijuana program is going through some growing pains. It is growing rapidly because marijuana is a relatively safe, effective medicine that relieves pain, nausea and many other symptoms. Over 28,000 Oregon patients have been qualified by over 3,000 doctors.
The debate over whether marijuana is medicine is over. It is high time to have a regulated system providing the medical marijuana to those patients in a safe convenient way that doesn’t cause other problems.
The original Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, passed by voters in 1998, did not create a supply system for medical marijuana. Federal law made that nearly impossible, until now.
