Young people who smoke cannabis for years run the risk of a significant and irreversible reduction in their IQ, research suggests. The findings come from a study of around 1,000 people in New Zealand. An international team found those who started using cannabis below the age of 18 - while their brains were still developing - suffered a drop in IQ. A UK expert said the research might explain why people who use the drug often seem to under-achieve. For more than 20 years researchers have followed the lives of a group of people from Dunedin in New Zealand. They assessed them as children - before any of them had started using cannabis - and then re-interviewed them repeatedly, up to the age of 38. Having taken into account other factors such as alcohol or tobacco dependency or other drug use, as well the number of years spent in education, they found that those who persistently used cannabis - smoking it at least four times a week year after year through their teens, 20s and, in some cases, their 30s - suffered a decline in their IQ. The more that people smoked, the greater the loss in IQ. For example, researchers found that individuals who started using cannabis in adolescence and then carried on using it for years showed an average eight-point IQ decline. Stopping or reducing cannabis use failed to fully restore the lost IQ. The researchers, writing in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that: "Persistent cannabis use over 20 years was associated with neuropsychological decline, and greater decline was evident for more persistent users." "Collectively, these findings are consistent with speculation that cannabis use in adolescence, when the brain is undergoing critical development, may have neurotoxic effects." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19372456
It doesn't seem like a great study. Surely your IQ decreases with age, and other factors in your life will affect your IQ as well... Also it's only a few points, **** it... I might stop... ... Nah, **** it
What kinda question is "How many times a week do you smoke" How many grams you consume would be a much better question.
Isn't part of the problem that modern strains exaggerate the amount of THC in them? Keep it natural and weed naturally balances you out Smoke skunk for a few years and you will end up a changed person. Keep it natural, chaps
I've been smoking ****loads of skunk for the last 8 years, haven't noticed any permanent damage to my brain, feel a bit slow but mostly down to tiredness/hangovers/... Weed is boring, tried a few times to switch and it just doesn't hit the spot. Can understand why people like it, just not my thing. Problem is ****ty studies like this will AGAIN be used to fight legalisation, we're going to have to wait til some of the oldies pass away til we can talk about it, and we'll all be old by the time it happens
I'm kind of the opposite. Cannae live without a smoke but more than one day on the skunk and I'm a mess. Old-fashioned grown in a cupboard **** does me nicely You're right about the data being used to enforce prohibition. The cannabis laws in western countries are downright bizarre - the reasons behind them are even weirder when you look into it.
Whereas, the amount of boot polish, vinyl, petroleum and plastics he inhales makes him a medical marvel. Fun soapbar fact: In Spain, it's called chocolat.
We're still awaiting the fallout of the E generation - and I mean roughly 25 years ago when the scene exploded and the E's were ****in amazing. Apparently our brains are gonny turn to mush.
I packed it in in my early 20's after regularly smoking it for only a few years. Never saw the point in it and one day thought why the **** am I doing it then.
We're already reaping that, I reckon. My two flat-mates were DJs and the club lifestyle ended up following a lot of us about - spent the second half of the nineties fleeing. Loads of people I know are now really nihilistic - I think the impact of MDMA is going to be obvious, you have a finite amount of positive chemicals in your brain - getting mad wi it four times a week for a few years has got to come back and haunt ye.
