Younger cannabis users have reduced brain function, finds largest study yet • Hacker News Board

Re: Younger cannabis users have reduced brain function, finds largest study yet

#31

Post by bsder » Thu, Jan 30, 2025, 2:26 AM UTC

legitster wrote: post #27

bearjaws wrote: post #22

This is such an obvious problem to anyone who is above the age of 25. All of my friends who were real big into weed in high school are all pretty bad at remembering things, most work dead end jobs and are generally unmotivated The ones who started the youngest are in rough shape mentally. Every single one of my friends who still lives with their parents smokes multiple times daily. Out of all of them, only one is suc…

It's quite reminiscent of how long it took people to associate smoking with emphysema and lung disease. In hindsight it seems so obvious! But building evidence for even obvious conclusions can be surprisingly hard.

> It's quite reminiscent of how long it took people to associate smoking with emphysema and lung disease.

It was obvious even back then.

The difference was that the crap you breathed in from air pollution as well as the garbage you were breathing in from working the mills and mines was likely to kill you before the bad effects of smoking kicked in.

Once we had the EPA and got rid of the other garbage, suddenly smoking actually mattered to your mortality.

Re: Younger cannabis users have reduced brain function, finds largest study yet

#32

Post by whalesalad » Thu, Jan 30, 2025, 2:26 AM UTC

This has been a known thing for decades

Re: Younger cannabis users have reduced brain function, finds largest study yet

#33

Post by grapesodaaaaa » Thu, Jan 30, 2025, 2:27 AM UTC

29athrowaway wrote: post #6

This is a well known thing. Charles Bukowski said this exact same thing in an interview about alcohol decades ago. Not every cannabis user is Carl Sagan.

Do we know if Carl Sagan used cannabis as an adolescent?

Re: Younger cannabis users have reduced brain function, finds largest study yet

#34

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jan 30, 2025, 2:28 AM UTC

grapesodaaaaa wrote: post #33

29athrowaway wrote: post #6

This is a well known thing. Charles Bukowski said this exact same thing in an interview about alcohol decades ago. Not every cannabis user is Carl Sagan.

Do we know if Carl Sagan used cannabis as an adolescent?

[deleted]

Re: Younger cannabis users have reduced brain function, finds largest study yet

#35

Post by brandly » Thu, Jan 30, 2025, 2:28 AM UTC

whalesalad wrote: post #32

This has been a known thing for decades

Source?

Re: Younger cannabis users have reduced brain function, finds largest study yet

#36

Post by kazinator » Thu, Jan 30, 2025, 2:29 AM UTC

bearjaws wrote: post #22

This is such an obvious problem to anyone who is above the age of 25. All of my friends who were real big into weed in high school are all pretty bad at remembering things, most work dead end jobs and are generally unmotivated The ones who started the youngest are in rough shape mentally. Every single one of my friends who still lives with their parents smokes multiple times daily. Out of all of them, only one is suc…

> pretty bad at remembering things, most work dead end jobs and are generally unmotivated

So, like, stoners?

Re: Younger cannabis users have reduced brain function, finds largest study yet

#37

Post by frogpelt » Thu, Jan 30, 2025, 2:30 AM UTC

JohnMakin wrote: post #24

bearjaws wrote: post #22

This is such an obvious problem to anyone who is above the age of 25. All of my friends who were real big into weed in high school are all pretty bad at remembering things, most work dead end jobs and are generally unmotivated The ones who started the youngest are in rough shape mentally. Every single one of my friends who still lives with their parents smokes multiple times daily. Out of all of them, only one is suc…

dang what about other people outside your sample size that did smoke under 18 and then became successful? what was your control group also?

If you’re looking controlled study results you could refer to the post.

If you want to provide your own anecdotal evidence to refute the parent comment, fire away.

Re: Younger cannabis users have reduced brain function, finds largest study yet

#38

Post by throwaway314155 » Thu, Jan 30, 2025, 2:31 AM UTC

bearjaws wrote: post #22

This is such an obvious problem to anyone who is above the age of 25. All of my friends who were real big into weed in high school are all pretty bad at remembering things, most work dead end jobs and are generally unmotivated The ones who started the youngest are in rough shape mentally. Every single one of my friends who still lives with their parents smokes multiple times daily. Out of all of them, only one is suc…

[flagged]

Re: Younger cannabis users have reduced brain function, finds largest study yet

#39

Post by seattle_spring » Thu, Jan 30, 2025, 2:33 AM UTC

bearjaws wrote: post #22

This is such an obvious problem to anyone who is above the age of 25. All of my friends who were real big into weed in high school are all pretty bad at remembering things, most work dead end jobs and are generally unmotivated The ones who started the youngest are in rough shape mentally. Every single one of my friends who still lives with their parents smokes multiple times daily. Out of all of them, only one is suc…

All of my friends, including myself, smoked constantly from 16 to 25. We're all now college graduates with a range of successful careers, including staff software eng (me), ER doc, and 2 lawyers.

Ironically, some of the most anti-weed people I knew growing up are either hard drug addicts now, or deeply hateful fundamentalists.

Re: Younger cannabis users have reduced brain function, finds largest study yet

#40

Post by bogwog » Thu, Jan 30, 2025, 2:33 AM UTC

bearjaws wrote: post #22

This is such an obvious problem to anyone who is above the age of 25. All of my friends who were real big into weed in high school are all pretty bad at remembering things, most work dead end jobs and are generally unmotivated The ones who started the youngest are in rough shape mentally. Every single one of my friends who still lives with their parents smokes multiple times daily. Out of all of them, only one is suc…

I didn't review the study (wouldn't even know how to do that), but I did read the article and it doesn't say anything about permanent effects. In fact, the participants were aged 22-36, so definitely past high school age.

The title makes it sound like smoking weed causes permanent brain damage, but I don't think that's what they found at all

> The researchers found that both recent and heavy lifetime cannabis use was associated with a statistically significant reduction in brain activity only during the working memory task.

So they observed reduced memory function during a memory task for people who smoked recently or were "heavy" smokers, but not in any of the other tests. Maybe the heavy smokers have permanent brain damage, but the OP at least don't mention any findings like that.