Hydrolife Magazine August/September 2017 [USA Edition]

heal
Shedding New Light... On the Dark:
Marijuana and Night Vision
Adding to the long list of medical uses
for cannabis, a new Canadian study
has confirmed the beneficial effects
of cannabinoids on the night vision
of tadpoles. Are humans affected in
the same way? Anecdotal evidence
in scientific literature from fishermen
in Jamaica and Morocco suggest it’s
possible. Writer Alan Ray investigates.
by Alan Ray
Happy Old Hippies
It would appear that what began as a
pipedream for hopeful hippies in the
’60s (marijuana use being beneficial to
your health) is fast becoming a medical
reality in the 21st century. Science
continues to uncover new and exciting
health benefits derived from that ol’
devil weed, marijuana.
With today’s advancements in scientific
research, reefer madness is taking on a
whole new meaning. One particularly curious
study that caught my eye, so to speak,
looks at cannabis consumption and its
ability to enhance night vision. The field
tests produced some head-cocking results.
This phenomenon was first observed
and recorded by M. E. West in the early
’90s. At the time, West was a pharmacologist
working at the University of the West
Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. He noted
that Jamaican fishermen, after smoking
cannabis or ingesting it via a crude elixir
of pot and white rum, showed a dramatic
increase in their ability to see at night.
Catch a Buzz… Catch a Fish?
West remarked that the men, after
consuming their home-brew, were easily
able to navigate the treacherous
waterways and coral reefs in their small
fishing boats in total darkness.
“It was impossible to believe that
anyone could navigate a boat without
compass and without light in such
treacherous surroundings,” West concluded,
after accompanying some of the
local fishermen on one of their nighttime
excursions. “[But] I was then convinced
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.”
Different Cultures, Same Result
As the story goes, West was told by
some of the Jamaicans that Moroccan
fishermen also reported having improved
night vision after smoking hashish.
In 2002, a research team travelled
to northern Morocco’s Rif mountains.
Here, they conducted a field experiment,
which would be published in
the Journal of Ethnopharmacology two
years later, involving four locals. These
mountain people also claimed that
smoking kif (aka, kief, which is a form
of cannabis resin) before embarking on
their nocturnal expeditions improved
their ability to see in the dark.
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