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

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

#101

Post by iforgot22 »

ziddoap wrote: post #95
iforgot22 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

D.A.R.E. was right

> In 1998, a grant from the National Institute of Justice to the University of Maryland resulted in a report to the NIJ, which among other statements, concluded that "D.A.R.E. does not work to reduce substance use." [...] The evidence suggested that, by exposing young impressionable children to drugs, the program was, in fact, encouraging and nurturing drug use. > A ten-year study was completed by Donald R. Lynam and…

Kids didn't listen to it, but it was right. It painted weed and harder drugs as pointless and dangerous, which they are.

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

#103

Post by triceratops »

readthenotes1 wrote: post #55
bsder wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 smokin…

The EPA came years after the dangers of cigarette smoking were known, and months after the ban on cigarette ads was made in the USA. Big Tobacco was really good at pushing/buying counter narratives (including but not limited to "think of all the poor tobacco farmers"). Why is marijuana considered so wonderful? Seems more like a grass roots movement ignoring the casualties along the way. https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco-su…

> Why is marijuana considered so wonderful?

It isn't considered "wonderful". It's just not worth putting people into prison over. It's still a vice, like tobacco, alcohol, or gambling.

There are also some important differences between it and cigarettes.

1. Way less actual smoking needed. Or not needed at all because edibles exist.

2. It isn't chemically addictive or habit-forming for most people.

3. There are legitimate medical applications for pain or nausea relief. Again, without smoking.

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

#104

Post by math_dandy »

dottjt wrote: post #46
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…

As someone who was once a young weed smoker, I get the sense that this is more correlation than causation. I know as many failures as I do successes from this position. Those who have been failures were going to be failures anyway irrespective of whether they smoked weed or not, as was the case for those who ended up successful. With that said, I don't deny that weed smoking at a young age would likely affect your br…

The article does not claim that smoking determines outcomes for any individual. It gives statistical evidence that outcomes (measured brain activity while performing certain tasks) for weed smokers are worse than for non-smokers __on average__, and that this pattern persists in various subpopulations determined by demographic and lifestyle factors.

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

#105

Post by amrocha »

iforgot22 wrote: post #101
ziddoap wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In 1998, a grant from the National Institute of Justice to the University of Maryland resulted in a report to the NIJ, which among other statements, concluded that "D.A.R.E. does not work to reduce substance use." [...] The evidence suggested that, by exposing young impressionable children to drugs, the program was, in fact, encouraging and nurturing drug use. > A ten-year study was completed by Donald R. Lynam and…

Kids didn't listen to it, but it was right. It painted weed and harder drugs as pointless and dangerous, which they are.

It literally encouraged drug use through exposure

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

#106

Post by Gigachad »

HPMOR wrote: post #82
Gigachad wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Maybe coffee? Creatine as well. But yeah, pretty much all the rest of them are bad for you.

Creatine is not a drug.

The definition of drug is quite wide reaching. It isn't a food, it isn't inert, has a very measurable impact on the body, and the stuff you buy in a powder is far more potent than what you'd find in food. About the same as caffeine. Just doesn't have mental effects.

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

#107

Post by fitsumbelay »

No offense to OP, but here are a couple of responses

1) Snark Number 1: "Reduced brain function? Sounds like they're chillin'"

2) Snark Number 2: "Reduced brain function? Like a relaxed human being"

3) No Snark: given the following paragraph, should any sentient human ever take posts about cannabis as anything other than provocative and unproductive fight-bait?

"The study has limitations. It was an uncontrolled, cross-sectional study, so the association seen between cannabis and brain function can’t be considered causal. And because the participants were young adults, the results can’t be generalized to other age groups. The researchers also lacked data on typical THC dose and potency, additional components such as cannabidiol (CBD), and how the cannabis was administered."

should any (rot-)content that's this heavily caveated not be auto-removed just like any SPAM would? Again, no offense to the OP or their intentions, but, come on ...

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

#108

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

amazingamazing wrote: post #16

Turns out the recreational drugs were never good for you. Is there a single recreational popular >100M user drug that’s good for most? Maybe coffee? It’s a shame there are so many with reduced brain function and IQ. Next thing will be shocking studies showing regular shroom usage is bad too, lol. It is a shame we are in a post truth society. People burying their heads in the sand.

https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/is-coffee-good-or-bad-for-your...

> “The overall evidence has been pretty convincing that coffee has been more healthful than harmful in terms of health outcomes,” said Frank Hu, chair of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

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

#109

Post by iforgot22 »

nradov wrote: post #65
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 could never understand why parents would allow able-bodied adult children to live with them (regardless of marijuana use or whatever). It's not doing them any favors. Some people need a little tough love to get launched in life. Drag them down to the Army recruiting office or something.

Because a single person doesn't need a separate house. In many countries, the default is for children to stay home until they're married. Now, if that person is like 30 and doesn't appear to be going anywhere, maybe that's a problem.

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

#110

Post by amrocha »

iforgot22 wrote: post #99
ghfhghg wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of the smartest programmers I know smoke marijuana quite regularly. I don't know if they all smoked at an earlier age but I know that 2 of them did.

I knew some top students in college who started smoking weed then and continued. They're still programmers or scientists now, which isn't surprising given their education and talent, but something's wrong every time I talk to them. They seem scatterbrained and unable to remember what either of us said a minute ago. Edit: Forgot to specify, they're in their late 20s now.

Ok, and I know programmers and scientists that used to smoke in college and are just as sharp as ever.
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