June 30th, 2003

Marijuana Doesn’t Harm Brain Functions

According to researchers at the University of California at San Diego, smoking marjuana doesn’t permanently harm brain functions. This meta-study of other studies covered 704 cannabis users and 484 nonusers.

The studies tested the mental functions of routine pot smokers, but not while they were actually high, Grant said.

The results, published in the July issue of the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, show that marijuana has only a marginally harmful long-term effect on learning and memory.

No effect at all was seen on other functions, including reaction time, attention, language, reasoning ability, and perceptual and motor skills. […]

The findings weren’t particularly surprising to me, as they anecdotally coincide with what other people have told me. In other news, a drug based on marijuana may help curb brain damage (to be clear, Dexanabinol is a synthetic drug intended to treat traumatic brain injuries).

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15 Responses to “Marijuana Doesn’t Harm Brain Functions”

  1. Charles says:

    Meanwhile, alcohol (which does indeed cause long-term damage when regularly used in amounts necessary for intoxication) is not only legal - but marketed, promoted, and taxed as a source of government revenue.

  2. Josh Malone says:

    And I was just watching Half Baked last night.

    *chuckles*

  3. Adrian says:

    Alex, what are you getting at here? You use the word “stoked,” you talk about “anecdotal evidence” from “other people” and you have freaky hippie hair. I mean, there’s only one conclusion to draw from this.

    Charles, sure it does long term damage if abused regularly. Studies however have shown 2 glasses of red wine a day to decrease chances of having a heart attack and a non-conclusive follow-up studied indicated that this was true of all alcohol.

  4. Alex says:

    Err, I don’t remember saying “stoked” :-/. In any case, I just meant that other people that I know that have used pot have told me that they don’t have side effects while they’re not high.

  5. ulysses says:

    Regular cannabis users ‘at greater risk of mental illness’

  6. rob says:

    dude. seriously use a little discretion on your topics. your boss (former boss) could draw the wrong conclusions. ROFL.

  7. Charles says:

    Yep . . .
    Well my point was, people smoke to get intoxicated. So, when you compare that to the amount of alcohol needed to become intoxicated on a regular basis, it’s much worse for you.

  8. Charles says:

    I had another point to make, but I forgot it . . .

  9. everglow says:

    does that mean each time marijuana is used … the brain just gets a little more damaged?

  10. marijuana seeds says:

    “I had another point to make, but I forgot it . . . “ajajaja

  11. Ari says:

    I’d like to address the contribution of science for resolving the controversy. Science is useless here to my opinion, and I’ll tell you why.

    In my view, cannabis Sativa (and Indica) had been made illegal because of historical reasons - which began at the first years of the 20th century. The western states of the USA started to fear the influx of Mexican-Americans.
    Later in that decade, small farmers felt bad about the large farms that used cheaper Mexican labor. Fears were in place, because jobs and welfare resources became scarce.

    Ofcourse it’s not legit to arrest mexicans just because their mexicans, so one of the “differences” that the farmers found that time was that Mexicans were marijuana smokers. The first state marijuana prohibition was established in 1915, not in the name of science, but in the name of the people wanting to keep the Mexicans out.

    Other states quickly created prohibition laws: Wyoming (1915), Texas (1919), Iowa (1923), Nevada (1923), Oregon (1923), Washington (1923), Arkansas (1923), and Nebraska (1927). These laws were targeted against the Mexican population living in America.

    Heavy propoganda agains marijuana began in order to pursuade other states to create progibition laws. False heavy advertising (and we know how much Americans love TV) made people believe Marijuana is going to make you go crazy, jump off the window, lead you to other drugs and destroy your life. The people made the government outlaw marijuana, and still today, they do believe Marijuana is the devil. Unbelievable. No science whatsoever can destroy dozens of years of heave, false advertising. And in democracy like in democracy, it’s the poeple who decide of the laws.

  12. Roland says:

    “I had another point to make, but I forgot it . . . “ :) lol.

    Well this kind of news didn’t surprising me at all. There are many wrong laws that point to some suposed “bad things” in some drugs, which are not true.

  13. team_america says:

    The United States of America is a REPUBLIC not a Democracy

  14. jess says:

    like my grandpa always said, ” anything in moderation”

    its a persons choice to use and/or abuse the weed that grows naturally from the ground.

  15. adam says:

    i would like to ask if there are any existing pills to rebuild the procentage of damage after smoking cannabis?

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