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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

#261

Post by teaearlgraycold »

zelon88 wrote: post #215
shagmin wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to [0] peak marijuana usage was in the 70s. I don't think with a smaller/more stable subset of the population partaking there's going to be many more people saying "we should have known better" than there currently are. https://www.mlive.com/resizer/G7WZuDwdu5D2eCujzIi_RYGWYkc=/7...

I wasn't there in the 70s, but from what I understand potency of the 70s wasn't nearly what it is today. I have no source for this, but I've been in countless circles with long time smokers who all correlate the same story; that modern day mids was literally the best quality Marijuana you could find in the 70s. So that's probably about 10% THC compared to 30% THC which is not uncommon today.

I don't smoke cannabis nearly as much as I used to. When I was a daily user it didn't have any intellectual effects so much as emotional ones. I would have been baseline mildly depressed and weed made it so much worse. That's not going to be a surprise to any objective observer.

When I do have it today I make sure to seek out the weakest stuff I can. It's annoying that you might just have one option below 15%. Of course edibles are a far superior option in legal states. Easy dosage and no damage to your lungs. I'd also suspect that the milder (but longer) highs are easier on the brain.

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

#262

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

#263

Post by [deleted] »

[deleted] wrote: post #262
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]

[deleted]

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

#264

Post by JaimeThompson »

somenameforme wrote: post #132
JaimeThompson wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

When saying things like this, I think you should intuitively consider the corollary of your sentence. If people are using drugs to "escape from reality" presumably because have insufficient money to do nicer things, then the implication is that people who have lots of money would use drugs at a substantially lower rate. And so this is pretty easy to test. I did a quick search for 'marijuana use by rate by income' and…

>t seems fairly easy to reject the hypothesis that people are using drugs because of a lack of money.

To most people hope doesn't mean more money, it means a better future. These are not the same.

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

#265

Post by jimbob45 »

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…

It seems like the biggest and most present problem with marijuana is that most don't understand that smoking marijuana is just as bad as smoking cigarettes[0]. Of course, that's obvious - smoking anything, even herbal theater cigarettes, are extremely bad for your health[1]. However, after years and years of the pro-marijuana lobby claiming that marijuana has no negative side effects and can't kill you, it would make sense if teens today were confused by the logical contradictions.

Until we transition over to non-smoking marijuana consumption, I don't see an easy for the anti-marijuana lobby to make any claim about marijuana that the pro lobby wouldn't be able to refute by simply pointing to the smoke as the root problem. I agree that the reckoning will come but it will come in the form of anti-smoking ads (in favor of edibles or whatever else) rather than anti-marijuana ads.

[0]https://www.lung.org/quit-smoking/smoking-facts/health-effec...

[1]https://www.everydayhealth.com/stop-smoking/herbal-and-natur...

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

#266

Post by mynameisvlad »

zelon88 wrote: post #241
dr_dshiv wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the psychological effects of consuming a taboo substance.

I started smoking pot later than a lot of my peers. All through high school I was cringy and weird and judgemental and adversarial and entitled. Then I started smoking pot. And I experimented with a ton of hard psychedelic drugs. And it absolutely took a toll on my cognitive abilities. But it had a much more profound effect on my personality. A positive effect. Especially LSD. It was like a light switch went on in my…

A lot of that could just as easily be attributed to you growing up, though. Teenagers are generally cringy, weird, judgmental, adversarial and entitled, each in their own ways.

I personally had horrible experiences on LSD, and I've seen even worse bad trips and panic attacks as a trip dad, but I know it helps quite a few of my friends figure themselves out. Which is why studies on these drugs is crucial.

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

#267

Post by [deleted] »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #38
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.

Lead still isn't banned in the US. You can go buy 100LL and burn it in your plane all day long showering it over the land below. Completely legal.

[deleted]

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

#268

Post by rootusrootus »

dqpb wrote: post #247

Be careful buying kids toys from china. Many of them contain lead. In fact, it's probably best to not buy anything from a culture of people who hate you. Also, get a lead test for your child at every checkup, not just the ones where they offer it to you. The finger prick doesn't bother them nearly as much as the vaccinations do.

> The finger prick doesn't bother them nearly as much as the vaccinations do.

On the contrary, my kids have definitely figured out the cold hard truth. Finger pricks suck much more than injections.

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

#269

Post by loeg »

phphphphp wrote: post #26
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.

We are just as dumb. Processed meat causes cancer, micro plastics are doing all sorts to us: arguably, we are dumber, because we know all about the harm that lead and cigarettes cause and yet… we haven’t applied that lesson. Do you eat meat?

We smoke less than earlier generations, actually.

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

#270

Post by mynameisvlad »

legitster wrote: post #211
arcticbull wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not actually what the study found. Further, cessation of cannabis use did not fully restore neuropsychological functioning *among adolescent-onset cannabis users*. They did not find a 6-8 point decline for folks who gave up cannabis if they started later in life. In fact they found no decline in IQ whatsoever for folks who started later in life - both when using it and after stopping. In contrast, within-perso…

I don't think my summary was unfair. I was only asked if there was evidence for persistent effects. There clearly is, even if just for adolescents. It's also important to point out that for the adult-onset group they only looked at 1 year back. This doesn't preclude the possibility that longer periods as an adult find different results.

Your summary missed a critical piece, which is that it is just for adolescents.

I don't think, even within the marijuana community, that there is any debate that marijuana use in adolescents is harmful. I regularly see /r/trees comments telling teens to stop until they're at least 18 and their brain finishes developing.

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