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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

#181

Post by markus_zhang »

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…

Unless it clearly provides any medium to long term benefit I guess I'm going to avoid it. Plus it is expensive. Same for alcohol amd cigarette, I avoid them as much as I can. The only thing I need is caffeine but I'm tricking myself by drinking decaffeinated most of the time. I hope one day I can remove that too.

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

#182

Post by dr_dshiv »

legitster wrote: post #140
woodruffw wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

But we still do have studies that compare cannabis users to non-users. The concern for marijuana is less about the toxicity of it as a substance, and more the psychological effects of being high.

And the psychological effects of consuming a taboo substance.

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

#183

Post by jeremyjh »

jcranberry wrote: post #167

How did they calculate IQ loss due to lead exposure specifically? https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2118631119 I don't have access and the abstract isn't very informative in terms of sample size control group etc.

It reads like they made some assumptions based on earlier research and did some math.

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

#184

Post by BlargMcLarg »

tombert wrote: post #80
softwarebeware wrote: post #10

It makes me angry to think of how wreckless the generations before millenials were. Lead's risks and damages were well-known long before 1996. And they still didn't ban it until then.

I hate that everything has to devolve into some kind of "this generation sucks" debate. Whether or not we can blame boomers does not matter , at least not until we have a time machine to go remedy stuff. The fact is that the decisions have been made, the damage is done, and we need to figure out what to do now , regardless of whose fault it is. It seems like so many of these conversations end at the "who is responsib…

I wouldn't complain if they were already unable to do anything, but many of them are actively preventing further improvements. Often due to it coming at a cost for them. Their unwillingness trickles down to other generations both in teachings and in pressuring the next generation what can and can't be done, and how to respond. Most of late gen X has also thrown in the towel, leaving the future generations to solve it themselves.

This despite the fact leaders are overwhelmingly at/past middle age, as is wealth required to make moves as an individual.

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

#186

Post by mountainriver »

tlss wrote: post #66
softwarebeware wrote: post #10

It makes me angry to think of how wreckless the generations before millenials were. Lead's risks and damages were well-known long before 1996. And they still didn't ban it until then.

Recreational marijuana and JUUL is very much a millenial/gen Z hobby, and it is being pushed with a fervor that glosses over serious studies any potential health risks. IMO weed will be in 50 years where "big tobacco" is right now.

Not a chance, maybe smoking marijuana, but not edibles. I know plenty of people that have done them their entire lives and are in great shape

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

#187

Post by chrisweekly »

survirtual wrote: post #142
WhompingWindows wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 h…

This much is clear. Scheduling MJ is extremely unwise. But I would also extend this to everything in the psychedelic / hallucinogenic category. They do no psychological harm and an increasing body of evidence indicates that they, in all likelihood, do a significant amount of mental good for responsible users. An acute example of this is a psychedelic called “DMT”. This psychedelic is nearly everywhere in nature, incl…

I was going to post something v similar about psilocybin. The war on drugs has had such awful consequences and repercussions and costs, it boggles the mind.

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

#188

Post by giobox »

dylan604 wrote: post #173
survirtual wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This much is clear. Scheduling MJ is extremely unwise. But I would also extend this to everything in the psychedelic / hallucinogenic category. They do no psychological harm and an increasing body of evidence indicates that they, in all likelihood, do a significant amount of mental good for responsible users. An acute example of this is a psychedelic called “DMT”. This psychedelic is nearly everywhere in nature, incl…

> It does no harm to a user, to third parties, nor to society, Except it opens doors in people's minds which allows them to think differently for themselves. This results in them behaving less like sheeple. Why would that ever be scary for society?

My experience is it opens the door to not thinking much at all, but your mileage may vary. Is there anything more "sheeple" like than a bunch of stoned people sitting around not motivated to do much?

Sure, not all mj users may experience it this way, but a lot do! I certainly wouldn't be arguing it opens the door to a bunch of usefully profound thinkers in society.

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

#190

Post by BakeInBeens »

serjester wrote: post #152
sandworm101 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> But the risk in 50 years of people saying "we should have known better" seems really high. Well, we are just about 100 years after alcohol was legalized. We have lots of data on how horrible it is for out bodies, how many accidents and premature deaths it causes. But I hear absolutely nobody in North America talking about curtailing alcohol in any way. (The UK medical bodies have spoken out against alcohol use in…

Anecdotally I know a good amount people that now smoke all day, every day now that we work from home. At least among the people I know, there's no stigma - they tell me it "helps them think". I don't think this is the case with alcohol without a lot of people calling you out for having a "drinking problem".

Consuming cannabis everyday all day will also results in dramatically less consequences in your life than consuming alcohol the same way. The abuse factor of cannabis is really low all things considered and gets even lower if you avoid smoking.
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