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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

#81

Post by LoganDark »

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…

> Out of all of them, only one is successful, and It's because he bought BTC in 2014 and still has around 20 of them.

Holy lucky. Bet just about everyone on HN would wish this were them.

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

#82

Post by HPMOR »

Gigachad wrote: post #59
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.

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

Creatine is not a drug.

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

#83

Post by SomaticPirate »

tombert wrote: post #66

I've never done any drugs outside of alcohol, and I didn't do that until I was 21 and I never really drank that much even when I did. I never smoked weed as a teenager because I had heard horror stories of people spiking illegal drugs with really horrible stuff. I have no idea if those stories were true, mostly likely they were exaggerated by law enforcement, but it worked to make me too much of a coward to try it. B…

Unironically, the superior tone likely has done you worse than a single joint.

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

#84

Post by zeofig »

claiir wrote: 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.

Glad someone said it. Unfortunately we are swimming against the tide...

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

#85

Post by amazingamazing »

iforgot22 wrote: post #76
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.

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?"

Ha. You’re right about that. Coffee can create some weird heart issues, so I think you’re right.

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

#86

Post by dkarl »

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 observe the same thing, but I think in a lot of towns and schools, like yours and mine, the kids who chose to smoke weed were the ones who saw themselves as unmotivated losers and screwups. The connection could have been a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I think there are enough places like that to skew any study that doesn't somehow control for it. It would be interesting to see if the result holds for kids who didn't see themselves that way, kids who are bright and ambitious or even just average, or if it only holds for kids who already saw themselves as underachievers before they started getting high.

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

#87

Post by acomjean »

intrasight wrote: post #42

"on average"? "in mice"? My heavily pot-smoking friends are among the most brilliant, successful people that I know. They started in their teens. But I'm 60 and so are they. Different weed? Correlation with other things that differ today?

Very very different weed.

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

#88

Post by boshalfoshal »

jeffbee wrote: post #8

Shocking nobody who has ever met one.

I seriously don't know why this is making rounds on HN as if it were some revelation.

It should be pretty obvious that messing with your brain circutry in such an overt manner leads to various unintended consequences, just like every other vice (yes even "benign" things like social media or video game addiction).

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

#89

Post by OnlineGladiator »

frogpelt wrote: post #37
JohnMakin wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Well, the vibe I'm getting from these comments is people reacting emotionally, and assuming the study concludes that smoking cannabis causes memory problems. But the article itself says:

> 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.

So even this study doesn't say it's causal, and admits to many other limitations. I agree with your point about evidence and science though, but this is hardly a smoking gun that cannabis makes you dumber.

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

#90

Post by iforgot22 »

ziddoap wrote: post #71
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 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.

D.A.R.E. was right
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