
Recreational Pot Use Harmful to Young People’s Brains? - jellyksong
http://time.com/61940/recreational-pot-use-harmful-to-young-peoples-brains/
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Xcelerate
People seem to hold very strong opinions on factual issues, which always
strikes me as odd, because the funny thing about facts is that they stay the
same despite your opinion.

A lot of people I know believe that marijuana is seriously damaging to the
brain. I also know a lot of people who believe it isn't dangerous one bit. And
I've also noticed that online (being a much more liberal environment generally
speaking), any study showing that marijuana could be a potentially damaging
substance is immediately discredited somehow (and always by people who aren't
experts in the field).

The fact is, the laws of physics have and always will continue to operate the
same way regardless of your opinion on how they should work, so it's wise to
keep an open mind toward all studies and consider the evidence yourself before
immediately embracing or discrediting an idea with little thought into why
you're doing so.

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Nursie
Meh. This one isn't really worth the bother though.

It's got a very small sample size, no accounting for correlation vs causation.
The areas of the brain that are apparently different are involved with reward-
seeking behaviour.

It seems perfectly plausible to me that pot causes some changes in the brain
as it continues to develop through young adulthood, but it's also perfectly
plausible that these differences are pre-existing and encourage drug-seeking
behaviour.

What you absolutely cannot say from this study is anything other than
'differences in brain structure have been observed'

In that respect the Time article is almost criminally ignorant from the title
onwards - "Recreational Pot Use Harmful to Young People’s Brains"

~~~
ama729
Link to the study:
[http://jn.sfn.org/press/April-16-2014-Issue/zns01614005529.p...](http://jn.sfn.org/press/April-16-2014-Issue/zns01614005529.pdf)

20 people in each group (control and MJ), 9 male and 11 female.

~~~
Nursie
That still seems a small sample size. The study itself seems to be well titled
and not make many sweeping statements. It even says towards the end that early
exposure to alcohol may even be behind some or all of the effects.

I like this analysis - [http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/study-
finds-re...](http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/study-finds-
recreational-cannabis-use-associated-abnormalities-brain)

~~~
ama729
Not disagreeing at all, I was just adding some more infos.

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argonaut
I did a review of the literature on the harmful or beneficial health effects
of marijuana several years ago and didn't find any convincing (non-marginal-
result, controlled) studies that showed marijuana had long term negative
effects on health. The literature I find is pretty weak. Not only are these
studies weak, but there are even mixed results - some (similarly unconvincing)
studies suggest marijuana has positive health effects (anticarcinogenic, etc).

This study is in line with what I found. I find it plausible (and rather
obvious) that marijuana use causes _short-term_ negative effects. I'm more
interested in the long term effects, though. I take it for granted that
marijuana use is going to have negative cognitive effects in the short term
(e.g. the next week).

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torrent-of-ions
Obvious question: how do they know that those parts of the brain were changed
by the drug? Is this yet another correlation with no evidence at all of
causation?

Also, even if the drug does change the brain, is this necessarily bad? The
implication seems to be that users have narrower horizons and enjoy fewer
things. Is this meant to be a measure of quality of life? I know plenty of
people whom I consider to have narrow horizons and it would be very easy for
my to assume that they have a lower quality of life than me because they don't
even derive any pleasure from things that I enjoy. That would be a ridiculous
assumption, though.

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bitL
I think people see what they want to see. Current Zeitgeist is pointing
towards approving use of pot for recreational purposes while ignoring all the
risks or even discrediting anyone saying the opposite. I deeply remember one
episode from my adolescence when another kid smoke a large amount of pot in
the basement and suddenly started yelling: "Dragon, I see dragon!" while
having his eyes open in an expression of fear for a few hours. From my point
of view, pot smoking is another horrible idea such as cigarette smoking - it
annoys anyone who doesn't smoke as the air quality deteriorates and damages
both active and passive participant's health. Moreover, certain parts of
population are prone to damage their brains as well as compromise their will,
instead running away to "lalaland" whenever they face any challenge. There is
a saying in Frankfurt nightclubs that you can't build a business on stoners
and some nightclubs had to close due to having their business deteriorating
due to unofficially allowing pot inside. Similar to crack cocaine in Rio de
Janeiro when the drug trafficking favelados decided not to sell it anymore as
it was killing their own customers and business. As a professional
photographer I can see what drugs are doing to my models - you have a world-
class awesome beauty with a great personality one year, and the next year a
train-wreck with horrible changes to physiology and likely involved in
escorting business. In other words, I see the movement to legalize pot as
another insanity in progress. And we think humanity is evolving...

~~~
Nursie
Personally I see the mass incarceration of people and the billions of dollars
and many lives wasted in the War on (some) Drugs as a far greater tragedy than
you getting upset about air quality and a few people making bad choices.

~~~
bitL
Yes, it's a horrible tragedy what is happening in Mexico, especially border
cities like Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana, as well as other South American or
Middle-Eastern countries due to drug trafficking. Ask people in northern
Mexico what do they think - most of them will tell you that they just want
Americans to take all the drugs and the facilities to USA and keep them away
from Mexico so that they can live normal lives and not be threatened by Zetas
and Gulf cartel gunners hijacking buses and forcing participants to fight in
gladiator-style for survival, or to dig 5000 graves of women killed by gangs
of Juarez at the outskirts of the city. Why do they have to suffer all the
consequences when some people in the US need to be "high" to feel good about
themselves? The problem is in YOU guys, not in the war on drugs.

~~~
kazagistar
You instantly focused on the uninteresting part of his argument.

It seems clear to me that harm reduction is clearly a better policy then zero
tolerance. We are not going to fix the smoking problem by banning it, just
like we aren't going to stop people from drinking by banning it.

People still smoke cigarettes. But it is better then it was, especially in the
USA. This happened with heavy regulation, heavily advertised evidence of harm,
and eventually social pressure making it "uncool" in most cases. Meanwhile,
pot has been the target of a "war" that ruined far more lives with jail time
them the drugs themselves would have, and it is more popular then ever.

Holding on to failing idealism is just stupidity.

