Dear Stoner: I lost a weed gummy the other day and think my python ate it. (I leave the top of his cage open sometimes, and the edible disappeared.) Did he get high?
Shelly
Dear Shelly: Was there a gummy-sized shape in the middle of your snake? Was he coiled up in the corner looking like a mix of tired and disoriented? This is information you should've shared days ago with a veterinarian, not a stoner, but I'm happy to play Captain Speculation with you and your cannaconda.
Reptiles (and most vertebrates) have cannabinoid receptors, so your snake could've gotten high if he ate something with THC. One gummy from a dispensary is typically only 10 milligrams of THC, which is still a lot for a small corn snake, but not as much for a fifty-pound python. I was disappointed to find no research on how snakes digest THC candy (or any drugs, for that matter), but given that a snake's stomach enzymes can digest an alligator, it should be able to digest sugar, gelatin and THC relatively easily — though the THC may not be absorbed
as it is in a mammal. If your snake did eat it and get high, the effects were probably pretty stressful, so you should still call a veterinarian.
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