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Comment by barbacoa | Hacker News Reader

Some argue that THC in cannabis actually works similarly because when herbivores regularly ingest it, they become lethargic and lazy, causing them struggle to survive in the world. Kinda like my roommate.

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Ibotenic acid, muscarine, psilocybin, amanitin, muscimol, THC, caffeine - these all natural pesticides target bugs primarily. Which are the biggest threat. Sort of funny how it also affects people though

I thought it wasn’t generally psychoactive until heated?

But cannabis the needs heat to convert, it’s more likely it evolved with Human influence considering the years of overlapping land races tied to our trade routes

But CBD does not need heat to convert.

I have a hypothesis that taking cannabis (and especially CBD) out of our food chain may be contributing to the increase¹ in prevalence of chronic pain.

¹ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12588185/?utm_sourc...

When was cannabis ever in the human food chain?

While not being cannabis, breast milk contains endocannabinoids.

Livestock used to eat cannabis back when it was a weed.

THC comes in a plant in the THCa form. CBD comes in CBDa form.

Both are not bioactive by default in their natural form.

All I'll say is go spend a day picking hops without gloves.

There are a large number of cannabinoids at play, some clearly (as in observably and demonstrably) are bioactive in their natural, unheated form.

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None of which is said to endorse the other theory. Just to point out that claiming heat is required is incorrect.

The farm bill makes 'hemp' anything with below 0.3% THC legal. For this reason, we have a LOT of testing on the THC content of cannabis, since it is required to sell and manufacture. As it turns out, naturally cannabis quite commonly has >0.3% THC even before heating or activation of THCa.

Any human-like animal with our receptors eating a large amount would get high as fuck, cooked or not. A ruminant eating pounds of the stuff raw, would not be that different from a human consuming an ounce of baked pot.

This was killed in the recent budget bill: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/13/congress-thc-hemp-ban.html

Both degrade into actives over time or exposure to air/sun/warmth, and then into CBN, which is itself active.

THCa in cannabis plants is unstable. It will slowly convert to THC as it dries even at room temperature.

It's a phytochemical that degrades readily in sunlight, it's likely both a UV protectant and aversive.

That's, like, your opinion, man

your last sentence reminds me of my dorm roommate in college. very standard stoner who was constantly blazing and years later i've never known a lazier dude.

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