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Lead exposure in last century shrunk IQ scores of half of Americans: study

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Re: Lead exposure in last century shrunk IQ scores of half of Americans: study

#101

Post by s_dev »

legitster wrote: post #61

I have a strong worries that our current generation will have a similar huge reckoning with marijuana. We are already seeing studies that show regular marijuana use is correlated with permanent decreases in intelligence, memory loss, motivation, and mental health. And anecdotally, this seems very apparent in my peer group. And Americans are using copious amounts of the stuff right now, and younger than ever before. I…

> But the risk in 50 years of people saying "we should have known better" seems really high.

Is there any evidence this happens with alcohol and if there is what was societies response? I suspect it alcohol does similar damage and we tolerate it due to the perceived benefits.

Re: Lead exposure in last century shrunk IQ scores of half of Americans: study

#102

Post by tw3464575686 »

JPKab wrote: post #75
nynx wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sugar is at least a substance that one can choose not to eat. Lead poisoning and pollution aren’t choices.

An adult can choose to eat it or not (I'm ignoring the addictive nature of concentrated sugar), but our public health establishment has been foolishly stupid (combined with industry marketing) at making people think that fruit juice is natural or healthy. It's about as natural as cocaine is. Sure, it comes from a plant, but it gets refined and concentrated into levels that are unheard of in nature and toxic to the bo…

Gatorade ? Gatorade can't be bad. It has electrolytes!

Re: Lead exposure in last century shrunk IQ scores of half of Americans: study

#103

Post by WhompingWindows »

legitster wrote: post #61

I have a strong worries that our current generation will have a similar huge reckoning with marijuana. We are already seeing studies that show regular marijuana use is correlated with permanent decreases in intelligence, memory loss, motivation, and mental health. And anecdotally, this seems very apparent in my peer group. And Americans are using copious amounts of the stuff right now, and younger than ever before. I…

Marijuana needs to be reclassified off of Schedule I Status in the USA, so it can be more thoroughly studied. Schedule I category shouldn't include recreational drugs like marijuana, which has no overdose possibility and has limited withdrawal side-effects. This wrong classification, going back to ignorant viewpoints of the early-mid 1900's, has heavily limited our scientific understanding of marijuana's effects on health and society.

Imagine if we weren't allowed to study alcohol freely, if we had to jump through a dozen hoops to become qualified to do one of the few alcohol studies. We might not have so much knowledge about alcohol's toxic effects, and we might not have the current picture of "Marijuana is slightly healthier than alcohol" if Marijuana had been as thoroughly studied.

Re: Lead exposure in last century shrunk IQ scores of half of Americans: study

#104

Post by [deleted] »

legitster wrote: post #61

I have a strong worries that our current generation will have a similar huge reckoning with marijuana. We are already seeing studies that show regular marijuana use is correlated with permanent decreases in intelligence, memory loss, motivation, and mental health. And anecdotally, this seems very apparent in my peer group. And Americans are using copious amounts of the stuff right now, and younger than ever before. I…

[deleted]

Re: Lead exposure in last century shrunk IQ scores of half of Americans: study

#105

Post by scythe »

legitster wrote: post #61

I have a strong worries that our current generation will have a similar huge reckoning with marijuana. We are already seeing studies that show regular marijuana use is correlated with permanent decreases in intelligence, memory loss, motivation, and mental health. And anecdotally, this seems very apparent in my peer group. And Americans are using copious amounts of the stuff right now, and younger than ever before. I…

Kids aren't smoking weed when they're eight. Or four, for that matter.

Re: Lead exposure in last century shrunk IQ scores of half of Americans: study

#106

Post by jshen »

JaimeThompson wrote: post #87
legitster wrote: post #61

I have a strong worries that our current generation will have a similar huge reckoning with marijuana. We are already seeing studies that show regular marijuana use is correlated with permanent decreases in intelligence, memory loss, motivation, and mental health. And anecdotally, this seems very apparent in my peer group. And Americans are using copious amounts of the stuff right now, and younger than ever before. I…

Perhaps if the typical American was paid better and had more hope for the future then less would use such things to escape from reality.

It’s more than that. High paid people in very demanding jobs also turn to it and drinking so they can “turn off” work for a bit.

Re: Lead exposure in last century shrunk IQ scores of half of Americans: study

#107

Post by adamsmith143 »

legitster wrote: post #99
adamsmith143 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>We are already seeing studies that show regular marijuana use is correlated with permanent decreases in intelligence When used at very young ages. Important caveat. The other things you mentioned are highly speculative and I typically discount anecdotes as mostly useless.

> I typically discount anecdotes as mostly useless This is fair. I mention it because it was only in hindsight that it was so obvious how many smokers were getting emphysema and lung cancer, and that these were not actually common diseases.

Well to be fair vapes and edibles are much more common now and that would greatly reduce those kinds of risks.

Re: Lead exposure in last century shrunk IQ scores of half of Americans: study

#108

Post by fullshark »

xpe wrote: post #96
fullshark wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crime rates have fallen historically until COVID. I think it's more likely the post WW2 and post Cold War (perceived) eras were periods of irrational exuberance culturally in the west with uncommon optimism in western lead globalism and its future (What you consider civilization I take it). The last few years were a big time reality check on the collective interest in that future.

Pun intended? > western lead globalism You probably meant 'western-led globalism'.

Heh not intended but I'll claim it retroactively to save face.

Re: Lead exposure in last century shrunk IQ scores of half of Americans: study

#109

Post by ch4s3 »

gordian-mind wrote: post #43
ch4s3 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rate of violent crime nearly quadrupled between 1960 and its peak in 1991 in the US. Even with the COIVD bump, rates are comparable to the mid 60s, and aren't tracking the previous climb.

What's the big change that happened in the 60s and started this trend?

A lot of baby-boomers started reaching the prime age for committing crime all at once.

Re: Lead exposure in last century shrunk IQ scores of half of Americans: study

#110

Post by Scalestein »

woodruffw wrote: post #100
legitster wrote: post #61

I have a strong worries that our current generation will have a similar huge reckoning with marijuana. We are already seeing studies that show regular marijuana use is correlated with permanent decreases in intelligence, memory loss, motivation, and mental health. And anecdotally, this seems very apparent in my peer group. And Americans are using copious amounts of the stuff right now, and younger than ever before. I…

I agree with some of this in the abstract, but I think it's worth noting that "regular use" in academic studies of marijuana usually entails dosing lab animals with quantities that a human being couldn't physically consume, or surveying the (much smaller) population of people with psychological addictions to marijuana. OTOH, and this is anecdotal, I worry about how potent a lot of "normal" marijuana has become and ho…

I agree 100% with the potency concerns. Many of the studies showing negative impact were using standards like "10 joints a day" which was easy to dismiss as that was an unreasonable amount of weed for most people. Now with wax, tinctures and 20%+ THC strains becoming the normal it seems really easy for many people to be hitting those previously unrealistic dosages.
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