Smoking marijuana doesn't permanently harm the brain: study

[Lunatic Fringe]

Smoking marijuana doesn't permanently harm the brain: study

Fri Jun 27, 7:00 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Smoking marijuana does not cause long term harm to the brain, researchers from the University of California in San Diego found.

The findings, concluded from 15 different studies using well-educated young people to assess the long term impact of the drug on adults' neurocognitive abilities, will be published in the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society's July edition.

"We were interested in the question of safety from a neurological point of view" of users of marijuana over a long period of time, said Igor Gray, a professor of psychiatry who led the study.

According to the results, though marijuana causes short term harm to memory and learning -- part of the brain's selective memory functions -- it does not cause permanent brain damage.

"If there is an effect it is very small," Gray said.

The state of California approved a law in 1996 that allows physicians to prescribe cannabis for some patients. A number of US studies currently underway are examining the effects of cannabis and its use as a medicinal drug.

Some 704 frequent users of marijuana took part in the survey, as well as 500 people who had never tried it.

AFP/File Photo

[muawiyah]

If it's not MJ then it's something else that had those people foolishly elect Gray Davis.

[corkoman]

Dont tell this to Dane, he will be deeply saddened

[battlegearboat]

Bong!

[Just mythoughts]

Oh really, well one can't have too many brain cells to begin with to "USE" so they have none to spare.

The study does not address how many brain cells one starts with prior to "USING" to determine how many are left undamaged after altering those cells.

[battlegearboat]

I agree...

Just look what it did to William F. Buckley Jr.

[Lunatic Fringe]

So you think a good test to determine brain damage is to count the cells? I dont think that is how it is done.

BTW, I smoke marijuana, have done so since I was 16. And I am getting a degree in computer engineering. I dont think it is any more harmful than alcohol.

[Vermont Lt]

I havent smoked pot in 25 years....but I would in a second if it were legalized. I liked the feeling much better than downing a cool beer.

It didnt turn me into a dealer or hard core user. It just made me order pizzas and eat fritos.

[Just mythoughts]

Something to be very proud of. So you can still read and write, there is more to your brain that the ability to take information in.

There is the part of the brain that is who you really are that part that you seem to need to hide from.

[Lunatic Fringe]

The myths of marijuana users are greatly exaggerated. Just like users of alcohol, there are idiots and there are smart people. It's all in how you handle yourself when you choose to alter your mind with ANY drug. These beer guzzlers are hypocrites. I'd rather hang out with someone smoking pot than a loud obnoxious drunk.

[Lunatic Fringe]

Something to be very proud of. So you can still read and write, there is more to your brain that the ability to take information in.

You're right- there is the part that recalls information. I work for a large retailer, and manage a network of 300 computers responsible for controlling and distributing $2 billion worth of merchandise every quarter.

[muawiyah]

Truly amazing that you are getting a degree in computer science. Frankly I am astounded at your having given up, at age 16, the idea that you could be the world's foremost brain surgeon.

[Just mythoughts]

Spoke like a true addict. Anytime you choose to alter your mind you give up the ability to make honest choices.

An altered brain by any substance takes away ones ability to maintain honesty.

[battlegearboat]

Just curious...

Have you ever had you're brain altered?

[Billthedrill]

This one went 500 posts yesterday. Nothing decided then either, just a bunch of stupid sniping from folks with their minds already made up. Pity.

[Just mythoughts]

Recollection of data, taking in data, remembering data, now if that is the most that you have an awareness of what the brain is given for already shows damage.

That state of mind you go into when you "USE" helps you escape from the reality of what is going on around you. Just like a drunk who drinks to escape those things they refuse to face.

There are enough humans already on this earth who by no choice of their own do not have the ability to face reality, the earth and country needs no willing participants.

[Just mythoughts]

Now that is an interesting question.

Was given a prescription for pain that left me in a cloud, yet still felt the pain, I don't remember its long name but I refused to keep taking it.

Lies, fakes and frauds I have come in contact with have altered my brain as well, found a need to try and keep my brain aware of my surroundings.

And you?

[Lunatic Fringe]

I never try to escape reality. Your preconceptions of people who smoke are clear. You see a drug user as someone who cant hold a job, or be a productive member of society.

How is casually marijuana use any different from the casual drinker?

[Roscoe]

The state of California approved a law in 1996 that allows physicians to prescribe cannabis for some patients.

No, it didn't.

[headsonpikes]

Although it may well be true that some people smoke marijuana to escape reality, the effect of the drug is contrary to that naive expectation. Most users report an increase in attentiveness, not a 'trip'.

Opium, and its derivatives, would be a better choice for those seeking such escape. Or perhaps some of the psychedelics...I don't know.

What 'state of mind' in particular does a marijuana user go into, do you suppose? How do you think it might differ from the state of mind of a straight person, or a person who's consumed a half-bottle, or bottle, or two bottles of wine?

Or the state of mind of someone taking prescription psycho-active medication?

IMO, marijuana has a relatively mild effect compared to almost anything but a double scotch!

I think it diminishes the necessary dignity of government to have it chasing around after 'wacky tabaccy'; like a broad comic routine, the brutal but bumbling Narcs are constantly outwitted by a motley array of oddballs and scamps.

'Infra dignitatum' is the concept, I believe.

[liberallarry]

An altered brain by any substance takes away ones ability to maintain honesty.

Don't eat. Don't drink. Don't breathe.

[glorgau]

Spoke like a true addict. Anytime you choose to alter your mind you give up the ability to make honest choices.

And Winson Churchill was an alcoholic and a nicotine addict. He was never able to accomplish anything with himself!

[John H K]

I never try to escape reality. Your preconceptions of people who smoke are clear. You see a drug user as someone who cant hold a job, or be a productive member of society.

At the root of people opposed to Marijuana legalization is basically that they don't want to give the people they PERCEIVE as smoking marijuana (Communist Hippies) the satisfaction, rather than any rational arguments about the drug itself.

(Standard caveat: I've never used marijuana or any illegal substance in my entire life, and drink alcohol very irregularly.)

Can someone ruin their life with weed? Sure. If they start very young and are among the 10% or so of the population with an addictive gene. Same is true of alcohol.

But go ask any emergency room doctor what puts more people there, marijuana or alcohol...the easy answer will be alcohol...both from the effects of the drug itself, and the consequences of behavior under the influence.

Almost no one "ODs" on marijuana but people die of alcohol poisoning fairly often. And marijuana doesn't cause people to become violent and get in bar fights, etc. And certainly far more traffic accidents result from alcohol than marijuana use.

It's not just a legalization of ALL drugs vs. WOD issue; even if you're a dedicated WODer, the illegality of marijuana destroys the whole WOD.

The US government currently portrays weed as equally bad as LSD, PCP, Meth, etc. as they are all illegal. Teens have sensitive BS detectors and it's immediately obvious to them that weed isn't as bad as alcohol, which is legal. And the idea presented by government ad campaigns, that one joint instantly ruins your life, is obviously not true through the personal experience of teens. Thus you lose the ability to convey to them the brain-damaging effects of LSD, or the infinite amounts of horrible crap that happens to ALL meth users, etc.

[TAP ONLINE]

Man I knew that, like wow ah ,ah, ah , why am I posting here man? Wow i just ate 4 brownies man, wow ah ah ahhhh...

[Just mythoughts]

Quite the contrary, there are many users in the work force, far too many. Buy their products on the store shelves all the time. The altered mind has a different preception on the world around them, kinda like let it all hang out or don't you look at me.

Talk to them on the phone, we Americans are on some kinds of highs or downers, drugs of choice legal or illegal. Saw how Clintons got elected tooooooo many cooked brains.

[Just mythoughts]

An altered mind speaking, unable to think in rational terms.

[Just mythoughts]

"Users report", my point exactly, can't go based upon what a "User" reports their head is screwed up and they have no way to measure their attentiveness.

[Just mythoughts]

So you think you are better than Winston Churchill, cause what your are not an alcoholic and not a nicotine addict.

Sorta comparing vices. Interesting what potential you might have if your mind was cleared.

[headsonpikes]

Are you saying that a user of any of these drugs, including alcohol, are incapable of giving a true report of their state of mind, or that their altered state renders them incapable of judgment?

What do you make of scientific reports that essentially report the same result as 'users' report - that there is an increase in attentiveness but a decrease in short-term memory function.

This is not really rocket science, you know.

[headsonpikes]

"a user' should read 'users' in preceding post.

[Just mythoughts]

Oh excuse me didn't realize I was talking to a rocket scientist, might explain some of the problems we have had.

You got it a drunk or a pot head or any other "MIND" altering drug "USERS" legal or illegal has little to no judgment in reporting their true state of mind.

They need to be observed, tested like a lab rat to determine their functionability, all that is on a altered mind is themselves, getting and doing what they want. Its all about getting what self wants, the rest of the world and humans be damn.

Some have to work really hard to appear that things and people other than themselves are important, but you peel off the covering and what you find is a self obsessed shell in their mind altered state.

[solo gringo]

Tell me what clinton fried his brain with if not m/j.mabe he got to much fresh air for not inhaleing.

[headsonpikes]

Frankly, I don't think that a person should be 'tested like a lab rat'.

You appear to have some issues with people doing what they want to.

So you're either a 'rat-runner' or a wannabe tyrant, it seems to me.

[Just mythoughts]

L O L

So what are you afraid to find out being "tested like a lab rat", your judgment is impaired?

"issues with people doing what they want to" So like a "USER" point the finger of blame to someone other than themselve for what choices they make. Like I said before it is all about "people doing what they want to".

I speak to you what I have learned from being exposed to those who are addicted to their drug of choice. The first thing that is in their mind when they wake up and the last thing on their mind when they go to bed is self.

Like a two year old throwing a fit to get their way, many grow up never learning self-discipline. "Control-freaks" is the best term I know to describe those who do what they want, because when they can't control, they need to take their minds to their own secret little hiding place.

Actually I am neither a 'rat-runner' or a wannabe tyrant, because I know that I have no "control" over those who never grew up past the two year old mind set.

[stylin19a]

According to the results, though marijuana causes short term harm to memory and learning -- part of the brain's selective memory functions -- it does not cause permanent brain damage.

This statement puzzles me. If short-term memory and learning are harmed, wouldn't that affect long-term memory and learning retention ?

If I can't remember it now, i aint going to remember it 10 years from now...memory loss is not brain damage ?

[southernnorthcarolina]

Well, maybe there is no permanent brain damage, but it's a fact that marijuana causes short-term memory loss, and makes users tend to lose their place short-term memory loss and repeat things and garble them, and repeat their lost place short-term memory loss, and tend to garble their place.

[Lunatic Fringe]

The first thing that is in their mind when they wake up and the last thing on their mind when they go to bed is self.

LOL! As with every other CREATURE on the planet!

[Just mythoughts]

Sorry, that is not true. There are some of us who actually put other people before ourselves.

There are some of us who are not so self centered, and obsessed with self to the point that our whole life is about self.

No I am talking about the clinton mindset, it is all about self, and whomever and whatever it takes to makes self "FEEL" good then its theirs for the taking.

Because you need to escape and hide yourself in your secret dark world you have no clue about what is going on around you, nor can you because your brain is impaired. That is the issue you are impaired and don't know it or care.

[Lunatic Fringe]

Because you need to escape and hide yourself in your secret dark world you have no clue about what is going on around you, nor can you because your brain is impaired.

OMG- what have YOU been smoking? My life is perfectly normal. I work, I go out to movies, I have a girlfriend, I pay my taxes, I attend county party meetings for the GOP! I worked for the Bush campaign in 2000. I have no altered sense of the world around me. Being high on marijuana 30 minutes in my home once or twice a week does NOT make a paranoid psycho.

My secret dark world? Ha! It must be nice to have the high-powered perception that you posess and make judgements of people from behind your computer screen.

[Cathryn Crawford]

My secret dark world

You mean the dark secret world of the Libertarian movement?

[Just mythoughts]

You just keep telling your self all these things you need to hear. I'm ok, its ok, the ability to deceived onself is your strength.

Your life is as normal as you can tolerate it I don't give a rats behind who you hang out with what you do and who you do it with.

Just let someone tell you not to do it and that it is harmful and then lets see your action and reaction.

You can't even admit what your freaking mind does when you get high, because it is what you want to do and that is what you will do. So when you grow up and get the desire to maintain a clear head 24/7 find another party to hang out with. There is nothing conservative about you.

Nailed you right on behind this computer screen, you just don't have the honesty to admit it cause you will do what you want to do cause you can.

[Sparta]

You mean the dark secret world of the Libertarian movement?

Yep. The ones who want a New World Order by legalizing marijuana.

[Cathryn Crawford]

The ones who want a New World Order by legalizing marijuana.

That's all of them. All libertarians are dopers. And they want to take over the world. And...and...they cause tooth decay.

[Xenalyte]

An altered mind speaking, unable to think in rational terms.

Kind of like your posts, hard to read and grammatically incoherent? Sentence structure is your friend.

[Sparta]

Dont tell this to Dane, he will be deeply saddened

Dane once used, he turned out just fine :)

[Xenalyte]

You mean the dark secret world of the Libertarian movement?

There you go, blowing our cover again. How do you expect us to subvert the country if you keep outing us?

[Just mythoughts]

Oh see you crawl our from your cleft.

Oh want a be.

[bjcintennessee]

As I type this, I am enjoying my peach brandy, which I indulge in every night before retiring. Although I seldom drink enough to get a buzz, I find it relaxing. And though I have never tried marijuana, I have been told and have read various studies that indicate that most people who routinely smoke marijuana do so for the same reason -- because it is relaxing. 76.4% of all marijuana users do not get high on a regular basis, simply smoking enough to relax. BTW, 66.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot, so I thought I'd give it a try.

From what I have read, moderate use of marijuana is less damaging to the body (i.e., the liver) than alcohol. While marijuana in the work place should be as forbidden as alcohol, it is not the government's place to forbid the use of two, somewhat equal substances in the privacy of my home.

Further, newer tests are being developed that can determine from saliva whether drugs or alcohol were used within the past few hours, as opposed to the current tests that would read positive if marijuana was used within 8 or so days.

[Lunatic Fringe]

Considering the fact that your posts are rambles with no structure and no basis in facts, I really no reason to continue this conversation.

[Sparta]

Kind of like your posts, hard to read and grammatically incoherent? Sentence structure is your friend.

I don't know, we need a second opinion from an actual writer.