Posted on 06/03/2011 6:33:47 PM PDT by AustralianConservative
Call it the pubescent pot problem.
New research shows that adults who smoked marijuana before age 15 have significant problems with attention span, impulse control, and "executive function" - the ability to plan and carry out tasks.
How about people who took up toking later in life? The same research showed they were much less likely to have such difficulties.
For the research, scientists at the Federal University of Sao Paulo in Brazil used a stardard "card sorting" task to evaluate the cognitive ability of 104 long-term cannabis users, including 49 who had started using before age 15. On average, the early tokers had smoked pot for 10.9 years, the Daily Mail reported.
What happened? The early herb enjoyers made more mistakes than those who waited to use weed, as well as the "controls" who didn't smoke marijuana.
"We found that early-onset, but not late-onset, chronic cannabis users had deficits in their cognitive functioning," study author Dr. Maria Alice Fontes said, according to the paper. "Adolescence is a period in which the brain appears to be particularly vulnerable to the neurotoxic effects of cannabis. The brain before the age of 15 is still developing and maturing, so exposure to cannabis during this period may be more harmful."
Marijuana seems to cause both chemical and structural changes in the brain, study co-author Dr. Karen Bolla, associate professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore, told CBS News. She said rapid brain development continues until one's early twenties.
If early pot smoking really is bad for the brain, lots of Americans may be at risk for long-term cognitive difficulties.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Duuude!
Obviously, being drunk as a teenager is not a good thing. But unless you end up falling off a balcony on spring break or taking out your best friend and yourself in a horrible auto accident, you’ll probably be ok after a few years of sobriety.
I had a friend in junior high school who was one of the brightest people I knew, but as soon as we hit high school, she started smoking dope to the point where she couldn’t even go up a flight of stairs without wheezing. The effect on her brain was about the same.
It was very sad, but I doubt that it was a unique experience (back in the 70’s). People really don’t seem to be able to recover from heavy pot use.
My mom wouldn’t let me near the Thai Sticks when I was little....only the ditchweed. Thanks Mom.
Brain damage.
Yeah, serious countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia.
They are so effective in Iran that they have one of the worst heroin problems in the world.
I know there are people who “know someone” who is a bigshot CEO or all around successful guy who smokes pot daily. I’ve personally never met anyone who was big into pot as a teenager who continued using it into adulthood who amounted to very much. Same with heavy alcohol use. Maybe you could point to Willie Nelson as an example of a successful guy, but his brain is fried.
Explains why Obama is a moron!!
It’s entirely possible that most of the kids already using drugs at age 14 were never exactly winners in the first place.
Did the authors of this study bother to normalize for childhood IQ or early school performance?
budd bump
The study was of 104 chronic users; 49 of those started toking before 15. The average length of use for the pre-15 group was over 10 years. The article does not say how long the other group smoked, but if they were of the same age at the time of the study, then the earlier group would have been smoking longer. I don't think they were.
Surely long term use screws up the brain, but the conclusion that teenage use is more destructive than long-term use doesn't follow from the data provided in the article.
Who was the long-term toker, the journalist or the scientists?
“adults who smoked marijuana before age 15 have significant problems with attention span”
I don’t think that is true and the reason......oh look shiny stuff./jk
Exhibit A -Obama
Exhibit B - Abercrombie
Who woulda thung it - surius dain bramage.
hey man.. it’s me Dave... let me in man......
How about you, Australian Conservative. You claim to have studied the Constitution, but you have refused to address the issue despite being challenged to do so on multiple threads.
What say you to the Commerce Clause question?
pant load of propaganda bump
You’re living proof that marijuana smokers have an exaggerated sense of other people’s capabilities.
Who said anything about a “den of iniquity”? I do ask: Why do potheads and their enablers sound so paranoid when I mention pot studies and paranoia links? The science is clear. Incidentally, smoking and drinking are far safer than marijuana, but even three wrongs wouldn’t make a right.
If only your friends were taught about brain chemistry. They certainly weren’t scared of the law (which is half the problem).
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