CHICAGO (Reuters) - Adolescents who regularly smoke marijuana risk damaging a key brain pathway associated with language development and some predisposed to schizophrenia may contract the illness early, researchers said on Wednesday. Brain scans revealed microscopic abnormalities in a region of the brain that governs higher aspects of language and listening functions in adolescents who are heavy marijuana smokers. Similar damage to the bundle of fibers, called the arcuate fasciculus, that connect the Broca's area in the left frontal lobe and the Wernicke's area in the left temporal lobe was found in the brains of marijuana smokers and schizophrenics studied. "These findings suggest that in addition to interfering with normal brain development, heavy marijuana use in adolescents may also lead to an earlier onset of schizophrenia in individuals who are genetically predisposed to the disorder," said psychiatry professor Sanjiv Kumra of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. The researchers scanned the brains of 114 subjects, 26 of whom were selected because they were diagnosed schizophrenics. Of the schizophrenic group, 15 smoked marijuana. Another 15 subjects were nonschizophrenic adolescent male marijuana smokers who were matched against nonsmokers. It was those smokers whose scans showed abnormalities in the language and listening pathway. The brain's language pathway continues to develop during adolescence and is susceptible to neurotoxins introduced through marijuana use, the researchers said. A scanning technique called diffusion tensor imaging that detects and measures the motion of water molecules in the brain was used in the study, which was presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. The technique is not used to diagnose schizophrenia. Roughly 3 million Americans aged 12 and older use marijuana on a daily or almost daily basis, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The researchers said longer-term studies were needed to determine if the brain abnormalities observed in adolescents were permanent or not. Article here Eh, what do you think?
interesting, but i have smoked all my teenage life and seem to have no problem talking or have any schizophrenic problems
oh well who gives a shit, if you were a skitzo then you could just smoke with your imaginary buddies.
I'd like to know more about what they consider "adolescents." Under 18? Under 10? Why can't they just be specific? Anyway, I smoked for most of my teenage years, and at the same time I learned Spanish (not quite fluent, but a lot more than most people grasp through a few years of high school courses). My English was always fine...
I guess they would mean under 18, since at that age you stop growing (for the most part) unless you're a girl, in which case it's 21 (again, for the most part). However, I find it difficult believing this study when other studies seem to conflict.
I seem to remember another study indicating that smoking during the teenage years causes brain problems, but I really don't care. I know that I smoked heavily throughout my time as a teenager, and never noticed any negative side effects; not even loss of short-term memory. What matters to me most is my own experience, not some scientist's study.
What is heavy use? They make it sound so panicky but I always try and relate it to acholhol in which case if they said 12 year olds drinking a case of beer a day will cause liver problems and everyone would say "No Shit" and not drink so much. Also, I would like to know what percent of adolesents are schitzo anyway....if we are talking about .001 % population then this is way overblown.
this is interesting. Im pre-disposed to skizaphrenia *Sp and I smoke a half of mids every 3-4 days, I seem fine
Language wise, I'm leaps and bounds ahead of most of my friends who are the same age as me. I've been smoking since 13, daily since 17. I mean, I'm no poet or anything, but my vocabulary certainly hasn't been stunted by marijuana. In fact, I find that when I am blazed I write better.
Damn straight. Dude 7 out of the top 10 students in the senior class of my high school smoke pot. I'm one of them lol. And I'm definitely not schizophrenic ;]
i started becoming a weekend smoker when iw as 12 and i did it alot 13-16 and guess what launguage wise i speak spanish and catolan (the language of barcelona)
truthfully, if i was one of my teachers i would say that "some of my best students smoke pot , and some of my worst students smoke pot"
I am going to have to agree with most ppl in this thread... I was exposed to mary jane's wonderful world at the age of 14. Since then I have pretty much been a regular smoker, turning into a daily smoker at about 17. Now I can honestly say I have not experienced any negative mental effects whatsoever. All through highschool I was a straight A student, and as for language skills I can speak pretty good French, and my Spanish is not too bad either. In addition to all this, I have mostly been praised for my WRITING ability and have frequently astonished both teachers and my parents... many times I was accused of plagiarism by teachers who could not grasp that there is a student out there who is smarter than they are. So all you anti-pot bastards can stop using this one as an excuse. Smoke on people!
I know some pretty smart folks who've endulged heavily into pot since a very young age, and Im taking back with their brain . It would be interesting to know if this is true, because they would be freakin genius'. I also wonder what little pills do to our bodies. Who really knows? Our bodies should be our temples. I have more concerns about the effects to my lungs. Oh well, exercise me lungs more! Cheers!
How ironic, I was watching a morning show a couple of weeks ago and they had some alarming news to share. Having a cat, yes a cat, could give your child schizophrenia (something about their saliva). This article is just about as ridiculous as the cat 'news'. Fear, Fear, Fear, Fear. Fuck the media. DirtyPete, your name alone shows a glimmer genius!