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Cannabis use produces persistent cognitive impairments: meta review

addictionjournal.org

171–180 of 568 posts

Re: Cannabis use produces persistent cognitive impairments: meta review

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All in all, such substances are not natural... But they are natural, aren't they? No less natural than the watermelon we are all eating (it might be cultivated), and I don't see anyone wanting to criminalize eating watermelon. Weed, tobacco, alcohol, coca leaves, poppy, they are all natural. Also, even if it's natural, it has nothing to do with its dangerousness, so I don't follow your argument. With regards to leg…

They are not "natural" in the sense that humans don't consume ethyl alcohol to survive, in fact it is often quite damaging to biological systems. Apart from some microbes I'm not aware of any other organisms that use alcohol as their energy source. Alcohol/thc/caffeine/nicotine (you name it) do not fall in the "natural" diet of humans. Most psychoactive substances are metabolites which plants/fungi store in them to d…

SSRI's or Benzodapines have severe side-effects, yet relying on them to survive isn't seen as disruptive to society. There may be an argument against self-medicating with Alcohol or Cannabis, but them being un-natural isn't it.

Re: Cannabis use produces persistent cognitive impairments: meta review

#173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another view, is that, except for the extremely strong willed, getting used to a serene state of mind is addicting and kind of counter productive. Perhaps, addictive is not the right word. But it seems to me (purely from a human nature perspective) its similar to obesity (Eating food is not "addictive", but there is a definite element of "craving" and inability to overcome that craving). All in all, such substances a…

Unless incredibly severe I think the consequences should not impact it’s legality. People will use it legal or not. If it’s legal you can charge taxes and spend that money on addiction prevention and treatment. Help people with addiction problems instead of putting them in jail. Addiction is often a symptom of underlying mental health problems, you don’t solve those with punishment. And that’s even disregarding the a…

Being legal adds a whole lot of marketing push and general acceptance in the population, especially young ones.

Time and again I see so many stories of young people fucking up their lives, and wasting so much of their lives trying to correct mistakes. Something which should have been guided by elders and well-wishers. But US society is neck deep into "individuality" at their own detriment.

A society that is taught from day one to be "independent" will discover that generations after generations will keep making the same mistakes. Same debt traps, same drug problems, same unhealthy choices.

Re: Cannabis use produces persistent cognitive impairments: meta review

#175
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Appeal to nature is a logical fallacy. Also, from the things we surround ourselves with. It's probably the most natural.

"Appeal to nature" isn't a logical fallacy, it just assumes some things about how things should be. You might disagree with those assumptions, but you, too, have beliefs about how things should be.

In which case it would be much more honest to say "I think this is good or bad" or "these are my values and they are not subject to debate" rather to propose that thing you like is the natural state of affairs and offer that up as if it were a proposition that you were debating. Or worse, the null-hypothesis from which some nebulous burden of proof is assumed for the opponent.

In other words, it is a dishonest strategem which relies on the other party making the logical fallacy that the natural state of affairs must be good, or that a burden of proof lies with them, instead of recognizing this as the sleight-of-hand that it is.

So I think GP was just being polite by calling it a logical fallacy :)

Re: Cannabis use produces persistent cognitive impairments: meta review

#176
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exercise and a healthy diet. I typed this in jest but instead of closing the tab I realize that yes, this is a good alternative, perhaps the best, if you can do it . Not everyone can, and typically it’s not their fault if they can’t.

I'd say it's really a time tradeoff. In my experience, the main reason to not eat healthy or exercise is because doing those things takes time, easily a LOT of time (e.g. cooking and cleanup easily account for 2-3 extra hrs/day and the numbers are similar for exercise [both active (dedicating time to it) and passive (walking around everywhere)]). In the same vein, use of psychoactive substances is probably also a tra…

Not true. There are TONS of easy and healthy recipes out there. You can also just meal prep and cook for a whole week in lne session.

Re: Cannabis use produces persistent cognitive impairments: meta review

#177

I can confirm, I have known some people who smoked Cannabis basically the whole day long for several years. They lost certain cognitive abilities, e.g. they were not really able to do calculations in their head anymore. They also got severe problems with their biorhythm by the way.

I stopped cold turkey smoking weed daily after 25 years, i can tell you from personal experience this does not apply to everybody. It also seems rather strange to take one property of their lives and use it to explain their in your eyes loss of abilities. Not doing something for a long time also has this effect, so perhaps they for many years didnt need to do calculations in their head, or use their high school frenc…

yeah I think this articles doesn’t really say much useful regarding the biological effect by chemicals in cannabis.

Re: Cannabis use produces persistent cognitive impairments: meta review

#178

Random thought: If there is a plant that can impair cognitive function, there must be a plant that can improve it.

'If there's a rock that can give you wounds, then there must be a rock that can heal you?'

Not sure that works.

People do take some naturally derived drugs to increase focus and work rate, however.

Re: Cannabis use produces persistent cognitive impairments: meta review

#179

I can confirm, I have known some people who smoked Cannabis basically the whole day long for several years. They lost certain cognitive abilities, e.g. they were not really able to do calculations in their head anymore. They also got severe problems with their biorhythm by the way.

I stopped cold turkey smoking weed daily after 25 years, i can tell you from personal experience this does not apply to everybody. It also seems rather strange to take one property of their lives and use it to explain their in your eyes loss of abilities. Not doing something for a long time also has this effect, so perhaps they for many years didnt need to do calculations in their head, or use their high school frenc…

Sounds reasonable. Most adults stop doing many calculations in their head unless they need it at their jobs and thus get worse at it. Same goes for me, btw. And I never smoked weed in my life.

It would be interesting if the people the OP talks about tried to simply retrain their abilities, which I'm sure most adults that are not used to doing these calculations anymore could.

Re: Cannabis use produces persistent cognitive impairments: meta review

#180
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is totally irrelevant in multiple different ways.

Why is it that everytime a bad story about MJ is mentioned, there are always so many people in comments doubting authenticity and relevancy? It is almost like an agenda or something

People are skeptical on any side about purely anecdotal experiences. I've posted pro-marijuana anecdotal experiences in here, but I don't expect people to take it as gospel, and frequently specifically call it out as a personal anecdote. In the past, have seen the exact sort of response your replying to directed towards me.

And that's fine, because anecdotes aren't data!

But it's just hard to separate correlation from causation here. Not all people who drink or smoke or do other drugs are depressed, but plenty of depressed people will drink or do drugs.

Plenty of people that have natural talent or skill, or who worked long enough to get to "the top of their game" get complacent even if they do not regularly engage in any of the vices we're talking about here. Arrogance and complacency are hardly unique to drinkers and smokers.

Even from an anecdotal perspective, assuming that marijuana was a contributor to the person becoming complacent, it seems unlikely that the marijuana was a strong causative factor in the suicide attempt. There are a lot of people that smoke pot regularly, and by definition, most of them are not the best person at their hobbies or professions, and they're not committing suicide. There's obviously some deeper issues in play here. (And I think it might be totally reasonable to say that people that have those deeper issues should avoid mind-altering substances)

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