281–290 of 508 posts
This headline is very bad, because it sounds like the observation you would get if there were no effect.
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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.
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What's the big change that happened in the 60s and started this trend?
According to the article: Leaded gasoline consumption rose rapidly in the early 1960s and peaked in the 1970s. As a result, Reuben and his colleagues found that essentially everyone born during those two decades are all but guaranteed to have been exposed to pernicious levels of lead from car exhaust.
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From what I've read the removal of lead from gasoline is partially a factor in the sudden reduction of crime during the latter half of the 20th century, but it's not enough to explain the entire trend... which seems to be a preponderance of factors.
But then there's been a huge rise in crime. The murder rate in some cities is dramatically higher than just a few years ago. But it's not like the gas suddenly became leaded again. This makes me think that we just can't be too certain about these things.
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The IQ should be defined for the human race, in a time independent way, not for a specific nation or group. This allows us to make comparisons between different times, between different societies, etc. Otherwise, if the IQ is redefined to always follow the current mean, it can only be used to classify people between smarter than average and "dumber" than average, which is not so useful.
I'd imagine that it is nearly impossible to control for time with tests like IQ.
This won't be perfect, but, using mathematics, Id think it would be possible to know how (im)precise the comparisons would be (confidence intervals of the differences).
Also, might not work for really bright people (they'd learn how the auto generated tests get generated? They might sort of "disassemble" them and find the answers quickly?)
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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.
There is a large, large difference between 'Americans' and 'adolescents'. Vast.
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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.
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.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_the_United_States#/me...
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Kids aren't smoking weed when they're eight. Or four, for that matter.
Second-hand smoke?
For context, leaded gasoline phase-out began in 1973, based on the 1970 Clean Air Act. It was largely gone in the US by the 80s but not officially eliminated (except for General Aviation) until 1996. Other countries continued to use leaded gasoline, largely in Africa and the Middle East; the UN started an effort in 2002 to eliminate it in those places still using it. In July 2021, the last stocks of leaded gasoline (…
There's been another push to get rid of leaded gas in aviation but studies show that it's virtually undetectable in the environment.
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From what I've read the removal of lead from gasoline is partially a factor in the sudden reduction of crime during the latter half of the 20th century, but it's not enough to explain the entire trend... which seems to be a preponderance of factors.
But then there's been a huge rise in crime. The murder rate in some cities is dramatically higher than just a few years ago. But it's not like the gas suddenly became leaded again. This makes me think that we just can't be too certain about these things.
