Posted on 11/23/2012 7:07:00 AM PST by lbryce
Scientists have confirmed the long-held suspicion that frequent heavy marijuana use damages the brain's memory and learning capacity.
"Our results suggest that long-term cannabis use is hazardous to white matter in the developing brain. This was especially true for those who had started in adolescence, as we know the brain is still developing during this time," Lead researcher Dr. Marc Seal, from Melbourne’s Murdoch Children's Research Institute said in a university release.
Scientists from MCRI, Melbourne University and Wollongong University compared MRI scans of the brain for 59 people who had been using marijuana for an average of 15 years to 33 healthy people who had never used the drug.
After measuring changes to the volume, strength and integrity of white matter in the brains of all participants, researchers found that long-term heavy cannabis users had disruptions in their white matter fibers.
The brain's white matter is responsible for information passed between different areas of grey matter within the nervous system, and unlike grey matter, which are the brain's thinking areas that peaks at age eight, white matter continues to develop as people age.
Seal and his team found that there was more than 80 percent reduction of white matter in the brains of users.
Additionally, researchers found that the average age of participants in the study started using cannabis when they were 16 years old, participants who started using the drug at a younger age like 10 or 11 had even more severe brain damage.
"This is the first study to demonstrate the age at which regular cannabis use begins is a key factor in determining the severity of the brain damage," Seal said, according to AAP.
He explained that marijuana interferes with naturally occurring cannabinoid receptors in the brain and by introducing external cannabinoids into a person's system it stops their white matter from maturing.
Researchers linked the significant changes in the white matter in the brain's hippocampus and commissural fibers, suggesting that long-term marijuana use may lead to memory impairment and deficits in learning and concentration ability.
"These people can have trouble learning new things and they are going to have trouble remembering things," Seal said.
"We don't know if the changes are irreversible but we do know that these changes are quite significant," he added.
Researchers said that the findings could not be explained by recreational drug and alcohol use. Researchers will monitor participants for the next two years to detect any further changes.
The latest findings add to results from previous smaller studies that showed that the brain's memory center, the hippocampus, shrunk in heavy marijuana users.
I can attest to... wait... what?
And getting a “good” education doesn't seem to help. I saw a picture here on FR of a college senior carrying a sign saying she couldn't find a job in her “feild”. Feild? Feild?$40,000 paid out for instruction and she can't spell?
Hundreds of tons of pot being smoked each year is not without effect on society.
Just don’t bogart!
LLS
TOTAL ABSORPTION
Like, wow, that 420 thing is SO damn clever, only why don't they do it at 4:20 a.m.? And 420 degrees is the temperature at which zig-zag paper ignites. And there were 420 people there, too. And next year they are going to have "421" and "422" and "423" and a whole bunch of other ones.
marijuana ,Brain Food for Liberals
Based on his pot-addled brain, obama should be removed from office for medical reasons and replaced with pot- and alcohol-addled Joe Biden.
It’s why I stick to Tequila and Wild Turkey, as it make me feel smarter, more alert, refreshed and makes me more aware when I drive. In fact, I feel wide awake in the morning, and no longer have the urge to drink coffee. Instead I just have a couple cups of Wild Turkey and I’m ready for the day! It’s good for the brain.
There is good evidence as well that emotional memories are hardest hit. The laying down of such memory traces is, of course, a key step in the process of emotional learning, ie emotional maturation, ie growing up.
This is evident in the myriad adults who began their MJ habit in their mid teens, and are emotionally stuck there decades later.
It is also the reason why, if a patient comes to me (a shrink) and wants psychotherapy/counseling, and is smoking even a little bit of MJ, I tell them they can have psychotherapy or they can have psychotherapy (emotional learning), but they cannot have both, at least not from me. For me as a doctor, it’s not not at all a legal or even a moral issue - the two are simply incompatible. Psychotherapy simply won’t work in someone using MJ. It also presents a complicating factor if I prescribe meds. In private practice, I have the luxury (at least for now) of selecting who I will and who I will not work with, and if a patient is using MJ and won’t stop, I simply refer them on.
Well, that certainly helps explain why my two uber lib brothers think and act the way they do. I put down the herb in 1971, but they’re still ‘bogarting that joint’.
Choom this!!!!
The ninth grade sounds like a good place to learn second or third grade reading. What did they learn in second or third grade?
Sex ed and why I have two mommies.
I think the “Great Election of 2012” proved this.
The picture of Obama draggin on weed should have been the GOP campaign poster - but then, that probably would have just gotten him MORE votes with the upstanding citizens we have.
In the 1930s into the 1950s the only people who smoked pot were some blacks, some Mexicans, and some jazz musicians. Pot is a 3rd world intoxicant and suitable for the 3rd world where it is natively from. You should smoke pot if you want to have a 3rd world mentality. If you want to participate in traditional European civilization that advances in science and technology then alcohol is your intoxicant plus it has a history going back to the Hebrews and the Bible. Where wine is often mentioned but (so so sad is it not?) marijuana is never.
By way of contrast, hashish smoking has been common is many Muslim cultures, helped along by the Koranic ban on alcohol
So short term infrequent use is just fine and has been found it "may" increase your IQ by 7.83%...
MaryJane will always be safer than alcohol ever was...no matter how strong it gets.
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