Why do you get the munchies when you are stoned?
A study in the April 2001 issue of the journal Nature has helped us to better understand how marijuana causes users to have an increased appetite, a.k.a. “the munchies.” Molecules called endocannabinoids, marijuana like chemicals present in the hypothalamus of the human brain, bind with cannabinoid receptors in the brain and activate hunger. (The main active chemical in marijuana is THC—delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol—which is in the category of chemicals called cannabinoids.) The chemicals from marijuana bind to these same receptors and prompt those mad dashes to the fridge.