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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

#71

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 have plenty of anecdotes in the other direction. Perhaps there are other factors involved.

Weed isn't going to give you a leg up in life, but it's not a guarantee that you're going to end up in a dead end job and live with your parents forever either. Painting it as such reminds me of D.A.R.E.

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

#72
post #54
post #30

"Study [..] found that the drug can reduce brain function" Causal language in news on correlational (case-control) studies should be a crime. This is a brazen misrepresentation of the results. The direction of the causal arrow (cannabis -> dumb vs dumb -> cannabis)--or if there even is a causal arrow (other factor(s) -> cannabis+dumb)--is purely editorialization and born of a severe lack of journalistic integrity.

I would be also careful on mixing the word dumb -> lower brain activity. The study focuses on brain activity. We cannot say for sure either if the lower brain activity results into dumber life choices. Brain activity in those areas == intelligence???

Maybe cannabis users become efficient like MoE models, and they don't have to activate as many neurons at each inference step :)

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

#73
post #65

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.

>I could never understand why parents would allow able-bodied adult children to live with them

Agreed, just kick your kids out onto the street and let them fend for themselves. I got mine, they can get theirs. Right?

Why don't they just go buy a house or something?

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

#74
post #54
post #30

"Study [..] found that the drug can reduce brain function" Causal language in news on correlational (case-control) studies should be a crime. This is a brazen misrepresentation of the results. The direction of the causal arrow (cannabis -> dumb vs dumb -> cannabis)--or if there even is a causal arrow (other factor(s) -> cannabis+dumb)--is purely editorialization and born of a severe lack of journalistic integrity.

I would be also careful on mixing the word dumb -> lower brain activity. The study focuses on brain activity. We cannot say for sure either if the lower brain activity results into dumber life choices. Brain activity in those areas == intelligence???

Even worse: proponents of the Neural Efficiency Hypothesis[1] might interpret the "mean brain activation" values reported in the study[2] in the exact opposite manner. :)

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neural_efficiency_hypothesis

[2]: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle...

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

#75

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…

My anecdote can beat up yours :D

As opposed to data? What data? Imagine how hard this is to study:

- can we identify groups who regularly use and don’t use - and isolate other lifestyle factors - and follow them for years of the life - and get them to accurately report data - and determine which life outcomes can be attributed to cannabis use

No study like that is going to be compelling. The anecdote is going to be just as useful in your personal life. It’s how humans learn.

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

#76

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.

Coffee isn't good either. Probably a lot less bad than weed, though. And it's always brought up, "why is X illegal but coffee isn't?"

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

#77
post #28

It's very true. Having been a heavy user for 4 years in my late teens, I do notice that my memory isn't what it used to be. I'm having to write things down all the time, including people's names and stats.

Is it possible, maybe in addition, that this is a side effect of aging, additional stress, responsibility, environmental distractions, etc?

Like for all of those physiological reasons, it’s not even a clear correlation at the individual level.

That said, there’s general scientific consensus that any mood altering substance can have an impact on cognitive function.

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

#78
post #65

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.

As an able-bodied adult child who lived with his parents for 2 years, it absolutely did me favors in that I was able to save a small down payment for a home. Some people do need tough love, and others don't. It's a case by case basis.

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

#79

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…

"only one is successful, and It's because he bought BTC in 2014 and still has around 20 of them" - I'd say that's luck and not success :)

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

#80

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…

This so much. I grew up in Oregon when it was legal for "medical" purposes. You could tell who smoked pot; they were not chill, they were dumb.
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