Why Cannabis plants developed psychoactive substances?

[Charles Ferdinand]

That's it, a simple question, I'm not a regular cannabis user (tried it 6 times in my life and I'm 25),
Don't get me wrong I like but having a nervous personality I tended to use anxiolytics mostly. (Quit drugs maybe a year ago, but still struggling with generalized anxiety disorder, therapy and a psychiatrist)
So, What would be the evolutionary advantage of a Cannnabis plant to develop psychoactive substances?
I just thought of this, which is baffling me, and I couln't thing of no better place to get an answer.
Thanks in advance!
Cheers!
Charles Ferdinand.

 

[TheAzo]

Likely the fact that they are psychoactive is just a lovely coincidence. It;s my understanding that they act to help prevent the buds from drying out, and may have other purposes unrelated to their psychoactive properties.

Note also that cannabis is now artificially selected for cannabinoid content - prior to humans intervening, cannabis was not nearly as potent as modern weed is.

 

[Artificial Emotion]

It's thought it was originally evolved to protect from UV exposure given the fact that THC absorbs an unusually large amount of UV radiation. Once humans developed a symbiotic relationship with the plant, selecting the best plants for cultivation repeatedly, the trait of cannabinoid production improved to the point where today we have plants dripping with resin.

A much more interesting question is why did humans develop cannabinoid receptors.

 

[Venrak]

Possibly to encourage animals to eat the flowers and shit the seeds out around their territory?

 

[Chainer]

A much more interesting question is why did humans develop cannabinoid receptors.

plants produce compounds that stimulate receptors in our brains is because of our common ancestry [read: evolution].

When our most recent common ancestor between cannabis sativa and humans split off, we both had the machinery to produce similar compounds. Plants specialized these compounds to act as a deterrent to herbivores and insects, the other branch, where humans eventually come off of, specialized these molecules for signaling systems throughout their bodies.

The compounds although different, are similar enough that they are recognized by the human body as if it were its own internally produced endocannabinoid.

This is the same reason opioid's from plants activate the opioid receptors in our brains.


No magic, just evolution.

For more on cannabis and why it produces anything, we have a MEGA thread for that: Growing / Strain Discussion / or Info Booth