This summer, anthropologists at Washington State University published new researchabout medical-marijuana use in the Congo Basin. According to their report, the hunter-gatherer Aka people “are characterized by a preference for forest life, polyphonic music… and are generally peaceful and egalitarian with marked gender equity.”

They also smoke. A lot.

The odds have been plainly against marijuana legalization for decades, but the tide appears to be turning to the point where the marijuana movement may soon be able to get over its previous barriers.

At a crossroads
Two decades ago public opinion was very much against the idea of legalizing marijuana for medical or recreational purposes. A survey from Gallup in the mid-1990s pegged the public's favorable opinion on the drug at just 25%.

The more that hunter-gatherers in the Congo smoke cannabis, the less they are infected by parasitic intestinal worms, according to Washington State University (WSU) researchers who say that the tribe may unconsciously be, in effect, smoking medical marijuana.

Ed Hagen, a WSU Vancouver anthropologist, explored cannabis use among the Aka foragers to see if people away from the cultural and media influences of Western civilization might use plant toxins medicinally. "In the same way we have a taste for salt, we might have a taste for psychoactive plant toxins, because these things kill parasites," he said. Hagen's study appears in the American Journal of Human Biology.

• This is according to a study on cannabis use among the Aka foragers
• Aka offer anthropologists a window into a way of life of our ancestors
• Higher cannabis use among the Aka is linked to less intestinal worms
• They may unconsciously use medical marijuana to help fight parasites​

Just like we use medical marijuana today, cavemen smoked cannabis to stay healthy.

This is according to a new study on cannabis use among the Aka foragers, a 'pygmy' people of the Congo basin.

US researchers have found that the more the hunter-gatherers smoke cannabis, the less likely they are infected by intestinal worms.