In many ways, the world of cannabis continues to operate in the realms of rumor and hearsay. This is especially true when it comes to the possible medical and health benefits of the plant. And this shouldn’t be surprising. Cannabis prohibition laws have made it very hard to conduct and compile sustained scientific research. The idea that cannabis can extend your life expectancy is one of those topics that could be legend just as easily as it could be fact. So what’s really going on? Does weed make you live longer? Here’s what research shows so far.
Cannabis and Life Expectancy
The most obvious way to tackle the question at hand—does weed make you live longer—is to go at it head-on. Interestingly, there was reportedly a study of THC completed in the late 1990s that apparently never made it into the public eye.
According to sources, the study was eventually leaked although it was never formally published. The leaked study highlighted the results of a test in which rats were given various doses of THC. At the end of the experiment, “those given THC had a clear survival advantage over the untreated controls.”
While this definitely seems like an intriguing conclusion, researchers have cautioned against reading too much into this. In particular, they said that the increased life expectancy among rats given THC could arise from a number of other factors, not just the THC in and of itself.
For example, those factors could include variables like body weight, appetite, stress or anxiety levels, and more. But one way or another, the fact remains that in this study the rats that were given steady doses of THC lived longer on average than rats that didn’t have THC.