A synthetic cannabinoid pharmaceutical called Rimonabant was briefly approved in Europe as an anti-obesity drug. Rimonabant inhibits the CB₁ receptor, reducing its activity below normal levels and blocking other compounds, like THC or anandamide, from activating it. It was taken off the market in 2008 for causing suicidal thoughts, among other psychiatric problems, which occurred when this pharmaceutical shut down cannabinoid activity in parts of the brain.

A mother’s diet while she’s pregnant is known to affect the child’s eventual food preferences. A new animal study from scientists in the U.S. and Brazil examines how a high-fat diet during pregnancy influences the offspring’s predisposition to obesity and related complications later in life, and this appears to be mediated by changes in the endocannabinoid system.