How could cannabis alter the teenage brain?

BBC news health ^ | august 28, 2012 | james gallagher

[muawiyah]

"When a teenager smokes cannabis are they permanently damaging their brain and dulling their intellect for a lifetime?

The dangers of smoking cannabis, and the potential health benefits, have been a source of controversy for many years.

The latest study on the drug suggested heavy and prolonged cannabis smoking as a teenager resulted in a permanently lower IQ. You can read Dominic Hughes's report on the findings here.

But how could cannabis have this effect on the brain and why might teenagers be particularly susceptible?"

[James C. Bennett]

"Thousands of years" means nothing. Actual per-capita marijuana consumption and percentage usage rates matter more. Take that into account, and your implied conclusion gets inverted:

World Cannabis Consumption Rates

[JustSayNoToNannies]

Since teens report that they can get pot more easily than beer or cigarettes, it looks like the most effective way to keep pot out of teens' hands (and still-developing brains) is to legalize it for adults - so sellers have an incentive not to sell to kids (namely, the loss of their legal adult sales).

Then we can start sending adults to prison for contributing to the delinquency of minors by buying them mj.

We already send adults to prison for buying mj - whether for themselves, another adult, or a minor. Tacking on another charge would increase the disincentive marginally, while requiring proof beyond reasonable doubt not only of the purchase but of the subsequent transfer to a minor.

Wasn't the pot selling side concerned with that issue?

That's exactly the point: the pot selling side is not currently concerned with the illegality of selling to minors because the pot selling side already breaks the law by selling to anyone. This is why teens report that they can get pot more easily than beer or cigarettes. If the pot selling side could legally sell to adults, the pot selling side would have an incentive not to sell to kids (namely, the loss of their legal adult sales).

[ansel12]

No, the dominance of it, and the accumulated effect on creating the people’s culture and societies is what matters.

The very short period of Cannabis use in the west already seems to be having the predicted effect, over the last 60 years.

The west will have to get used to more socialism, and government dependency, as more and more voters are seduced and ensnared by the pot culture.

[TankerKC]

They don't seem to understand that was was called “pot” in the ‘60s, and what is called “pot” today - are two completely different animals!

I suspected as much after seeing the effects...and smelling this new stuff. What is in it now?

[I cannot think of a name]

What is in it now?

From my retired cop friend, apparently ANYTHING that the grower/seller thinks will make the buyer think it is stronger, and therefore worth more. His comment was, “it could be dosed with anything if they think it will bring more.” There is also apparently a belief that soaking the seeds in various chemicals will increase the effect and therefore the price. The long term effects of all this nonsense is tested by - nobody.

[OldEarlGray]

 

"According to my opinion, and the opinions of many defectors of my caliber, only about 15% of time, money, and manpower is spent on espionage as such. The other 85% is a slow process which we call either ideological subversion, active measures, or psychological warfare. What it basically means is: to change the perception of reality of every American that despite of the abundance of information no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interest of defending themselves, their families, their community, and their country.

 

It's a great brainwashing process which goes very slow and is divided into four basic stages.

 

The first stage being "demoralization". It takes from 15 to 20 years to demoralize a nation. Why that many years? Because this is the minimum number of years required to educate one generation of students in the country of your enemy exposed to the ideology of [their] enemy. In other words, Marxism-Leninism ideology is being pumped into the soft heads of at least 3 generation of American students without being challenged or counterbalanced by the basic values of Americanism; American patriotism.

"

--KGB Defector Yuri Bezmenov

--Soviet Subversion of the Free Press (Ideological subversion, Destabilization, CRISIS - and the KGB)

 

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2095202/posts

[1010RD]

We’ve known this for three generations. When will we take action and end government control over schools and thereby our children’s minds.

[OldEarlGray]

"When will we take action and end government control over schools and thereby our children’s minds."

Maybe when we understand and take responsibility for what our American Founders articulated when they implemented the Declaration of Independence; intent upon manifesting a Republic where "NOTHING IS MORE CERTAINLY WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF FATE THAN THAT THESE PEOPLE ARE TO BE FREE...



..ESTABLISH THE LAW FOR EDUCATING THE COMMON PEOPLE - THIS IT IS THE BUSINESS OF THE STATE TO EFFECT AND ON A GENERAL PLAN"

 

That Government of the People, by the People, for the People shall not perish from the earth....?

[WVKayaker]

...The west will have to get used to more socialism, and government dependency, as more and more voters are seduced and ensnared by the pot culture.

Yeah, that's it!

Gum't schools and Gum't cheese have nothing to do with the downhill slide of our country. AND, alcohol is gud!

Our children are going to become potheads instead of drunks, like our generation!

(you can decide where my sarcasm ends and reality begins!)

... Popular on most college campuses...