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Teenagers who smoked a lot of marijuana daily for three years responded shoddily on memory exercises and showed abnormal alterations in brain structure, according to a Northwestern Medicine study.

These abnormalities were recorded two years after the teens stopped using marijuana, possibly indicating long-term effects, and look similar to schizophrenia-related brain abnormalities.

The brains were shaped more abnormally for individuals who began marijuana use at a younger age, according to the reports, which suggest that memory regions of the brain are more susceptible to the drug at earlier ages.

It’s not your fault that you can’t remember where you put your keys. Just blame it on science and your early pot smoking days. Don’t forget about 4:20 later.

(via PBS)

11 replies on “Heavy Marijuana Use Causes Memory Issues and Abnormal Brain Structure Among Teens, Study Says”

  1. This long with Mary jane’s harmful on schizophrenics is already well documented. This is just another government sponsored bash against her. Why not broach the more interesting facts recently discovered and published to cell(dot)com showing the reason pot hinders your short term memory because it inhibits the cox-2 acidic memory converter in your brain but use of ibuprofen (advil) uninhibits it allowing you to retain your memory no matter how stoned you get. Government sponsored test on pot are usually canned when they do not prove harm, open your eyes.

  2. I read a version of this on the NHS site that explained that the target group, teenage daily marijuana users, were selected from a pool of people all receiving therapy. Select from a pool of med students and you would get different results. Is this really all the government has to justify their policy. I don’t’t think the kids are going to be impressed.

  3. If you parse this articles claims carefully you see they are saying nothing. Such terms as “heavy use”, “could lead to” and “that resemble changes” tells you what you need to know about this article. As pot becomes more discussed in public, these types of articles crack me up. It does cause short term memory loose, but didn’t we already know that? Just saying.

  4. This explains why Bill Clinton said, “I don’t recall,” over 300 times during his presidency. He even had problems remembering which woman was his wife.

  5. “The results of the current study suggest that having an increased familial morbid risk for schizophrenia may be the underlying basis for schizophrenia in cannabis users and not cannabis use by itself,”
    from Harvard: Marijuana Doesn’t Cause Schizophrenia

  6. Always distrust any article stating that research shows something causes something else. It is immensely difficult to show a true causal relationship which would mean that something always happens.

  7. The benefits of moderate use greatly outweigh the risks indicated in this one study. Just for cancer prevention alone, the level of danger from using marijuana is dwarfed by the dangerous side effects from most prescription drugs. Sources:

    Cures Brain Cancer

    http://www.nature.com/bjc/journal/v95/n2/a…

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1147921…

    http://www.jneurosci.org/content/21/17/647…

    http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/content/308/…

    http://mct.aacrjournals.org/content/10/1/9…

    Cures Mouth and Throat Cancer

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2051673…

    Cures Breast Cancer

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2085967…

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1802527…

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2191526…

    http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/content/earl…

    http://www.molecular-cancer.com/content/9/…

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2277634…

    http://www.pnas.org/content/95/14/8375.ful…

    Cures Lung Cancer

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2219838…

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2109771…

    http://www.nature.com/onc/journal/v27/n3/a…

    Cures Uterine, Testicular, and Pancreatic Cancers

    http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/cam…

    http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/…

    Cures Prostate Cancer

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1274684…

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2259496…

    Cures Colorectal Cancer

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2223174…

    Cures Ovarian Cancer

    http://www.aacrmeetingabstracts.org/cgi/co…

    Cures Blood Cancer

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1209135…

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1690859…

    http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002…

    http://molpharm.aspetjournals.org/content/…

    Cures Skin Cancer

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1251158…

    Cures Liver Cancer

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2147530…

    Cures Biliary Tract Cancer

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1991679…

    Cures Bladder Cancer

    http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/803983 (Sign-up required to view study)

    Cures Cancer in General

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1251410…

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1531389…

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1531389…

  8. Really? “Medicinal” is the term. Any chemo/narcotic/et. all. “can” cause issues. That is why MJ is “medicinal”. As a person who deals w/chronic illness and pain, I would love nothing more than to tolerate MJ over narcotic painkillers.
    MJ is one of the oldest, researched medicinal herbs for healing next to Opium in the last 1000+yrs.
    Alas, I can still go anywhere & purchase multiple forms of alcohol…. any proof. Any amount.

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