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There are plenty of people out there who would argue marijuana is a fairly harmless drug, but if you’ve ever inhaled four servings’ worth of Chex Mix and a couple of cans of Arizona in a single sitting, you know all about some of the potential dangers that come with using it.
The phenomenon dubbed “the munchies” is a very real one and has been studied by multiple people with more scientific knowledge than I’ll ever have who can confirm weed makes your body produce a hunger hormone that urges you to vacuum up every consumable item you can get your hands on.
Over the years, junk food producers have mastered the art of making their products as legally addictive as possible and marijuana users have their olfactory systems impacted in a way that makes them crave these culinary vices.
However, no one has really done a deep dive into exactly how much high people like junk food—at least until now.
According to Marijuana Moment, a couple of researchers at the University of Connecticut recently published a paper that looked at how junk food sales were impacted after states legalized marijuana for recreational use.
The team looked at retail sales in counties around the country over the course of a decade to see if people in states with legal weed make a disproportionate number of junk food purchases compared to their comparatively unstoned counterparts after new laws go into effect.
Here’s what they found:
Shortly after a state’s legal marijuana system became effective, average monthly sales of ice cream, cookies and chips jumped 3.1 percent, 4.1 percent and 5.3 percent, respectively. And that was the case even after the researchers accounted for “state- and pair-specific time trends.”
“The increase in sales starts at the time of the legislation becomes effective,” the study authors wrote. “The effect slightly decreases in the semesters thereafter for ice cream and chips, but not for cookies.”
They didn’t look at Flamin’ Hot Cheeto sales but I can only assume they were off the charts.