by Karen Weintraub, Special for USA TODAY Using marijuana a few times a week is enough to physically alter critical brain structures, according to a new study published Tuesday in The Journal of Neuroscience. "Just casual use appears to create changes in the brain in areas you don't want to change," said Hans Breiter, a psychiatrist and mathematician at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, who led the new study. There is actually very little research on the potential benefits and downsides of casual marijuana smoking - fewer than four times a week on average. In his study, done in collaboration with researchers at Harvard University, scientists looked at the brains of 20 relatively light marijuana users and 20 people who did not use it at all. All 40 were college students in the Boston area. The study found volume, shape and density changes in two crucial brain areas - the nucleus accumbens and the amygdala - involved with emotion and motivation and some types of mental illness. "This is a part of the brain you do not want to mess around with," Breiter said. The more marijuana the students smoked, the more their brains differed from the non-users, the study found. The brain continues to develop well into the 20s, and even into the 30s, said Breiter, who is concerned about the long-term impacts of marijuana use on the developing brain. Staci Gruber, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, who was not involved in the research, said Breiter's findings are consistent with her own, although she has focused on somewhat heavier users. "There have been a growing number of studies that suggest that marijuana use in emerging adults is associated with differences in brain structure and cognitive abilities," said Gruber, also the director of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroimaging Core at McLean Hospital outside Boston. "I'm not saying (pot smoking) is analogous to shooting heroin or cocaine, but it's also not quite the benign substance people thought it was." Responding to a study that found a decline in IQ points among people who used marijuana regularly, Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, told USA TODAY recently that people should be more aware of these potential brain impacts. "Perhaps it would be better if ... there was a little bit more recognition of that particular consequence," he said. Gregory Gerdeman, a biologist and neuropharmacologist at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla., said he has no reason to doubt the new study's findings but worries generally about marijuana research funded by federal agencies, like the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which is charged with limiting drug use. (The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health as well as the Office of National Drug Control Policy and Northwestern Medicine's Warren Wright Adolescent Center.) "If you're getting money from the drug czar's office, that money's not going to continue if you don't end up publishing something that at least supports the general story of the danger of drug abuse," Gerdeman said. He said it doesn't surprise him that heavy pot smoking might make it difficult for students to reach their intellectual potential. But still, he said, "if it were my child, even with this study, I'm more comfortable with young people having a casual marijuana habit than drinking regularly."
I was smoking an ounce a week from the start of highschool, first 3 years of highschool I scored A-B+ average, so I call made bullshit.
I smoke everyday and have no problem with learning. I've actually been doing better in college since I starting smoking everyday.
butthe facts are already out there. Not much the naysayers can do anymore. Cats outta the bag. And the snowballispicking up speed rolling down the hill.
Same here. Never smoked in high school and did pretty shitty in school. Smoked my brains out In college and graduated with a 3.6. I am just posting a artical that was posted on usa today.
I'm sorry..I just can't agree with this at all, no offense. just realized this is USA Today we're talkin about...it all makes sense now lol
Why would there be? The attitude in western society is that the clean state is the highest functioning mentally (intelligence), socially, etc. Is it wrong? Definitely not. Does that mean occasional marijuana use is the devil of society? Not even slightly.
Hahaha yeah exactly. 40 people isn't exactly representative of the whole population. This is a really shitty study. Also, the article is vague. It says people who smoked weed had "differences in brain structure and intellectual abilities." Difference =/= destruction. And when did they look at their brains? Right after they smoked? Hours later? The next day? I'm sure it matters. Oh and the study says marijuana affects parts of the brain responsible for emotions and motivation, yet they go on to say that people who smoke have lower IQs. I'm pretty sure emotions and motivation do not affect intelligence. Some of the smartest people in the world are lazy as fuck. Nice try though, USA TODAY.
As a scientist I can tell you that ALL news reports on studies are biased and, quite frankly, bullshit. You wanna know what's up? Read the ACTUAL PEER-REVIEWED study, not the news article. Living around the Chesapeake Bay, there was a peer-reviewed study that showed a SCANT decrease in a fish species in the area. There were about 20-40 (no joke) news reports from that study saying that pollutants were wiping out all of the fish in the bay. Peer-reviewed studies are checked for accuracy and present the facts without crap like the guy saying, "This is a part of the brain you don't want to mess with." What? That's not science nor is it fact. It's his opinion. I get wound pretty tight around this time of year and, you can ask my wife, this is definitely part of the brain I want to mess with! Hell, coffee fucks up your body chemistry ten times over. But, nobody wants to talk about that (probably because it's already being taxed). Sent from my gynecology office run out of my garage using Grasscity Forum.
Just replied on same topic in other thread... Look into: Cannabis (cannabinoids) research confirming neurogenesis (creation of new brain cells) Neuroprotectant Antioxidant The research is what allowed these patents to be created. Basically it soundly confirms using cannabis to treat and prevent neuro degenerative conditions including Alzheimers and dementia. New brain cells, is not a bad thing either. Look into oxidative stress and associated conditions. Science confirms cannabis is supreme option for combating and reducing/eliminating oxidative stress. That means most degenerative and age related conditions should be treating with cannabis. Even cancer and "the effects of aging" itself. Age, physically as far as deterioration is free radical damage not your Callender age. And GW pharma holds science based patent on treating brain cancer with cannabis. Originally worded to treat all cancers. if hadn't already been publicly disclosed by proponents like Rick Simpson and the entire medical community they could have nabbed it. Notice how their article/study doesn't actually confirm any demonstrable negative effects of the increased activity? "you don't want to mess with those areas!" Yet they clearly have NO SCIENTIFIC UNDERSTANDING of what is occurring or whether it is harmful or positive. It could easily be beneficial activity. More baseless propaganda. We have science, God/Jesus, mother nature and the animal kingdom on our side. They have delirious people like Kevin sabet , who probable needs treatment with cannabis. Excuse typo on mobile.
Studies. At 60 my study dissagrees. As an Electrical Engineer and daily user my fellow peers would disagree also. But only one other young man here smokes that I know of. He is 42. Sharp young man. Where is the actual study with controls etc. This was just nonsense for the masses. Sent from my SCH-S720C using Grasscity Forum mobile app
No US government financed Cannabis "study" can have any credibility, in my opinion, because the law allows federal money only be spent on "studies" that demonstrate the harm of Cannabis. That's not science. That's scientific prostitution.