Young cannabis smokers run risk of lower IQ, report claims
 

First Fluoride reduces IQ, and now Cannabis. I'm sure most would prefer to have their IQ's reduced by Cannabis rather than Fluoride given the choice.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19372456

Young people who smoke cannabis run the risk of a significant and irreversible reduction in their IQ, research suggests.

The findings come from a study of around 1,000 people in New Zealand.

An international team found those who started using cannabis below the age of 18 - while their brains were still developing - suffered a drop in IQ.

A UK expert said the research might explain why people who use the drug often seem to under-achieve.

For more than 20 years researchers have followed the lives of a group of people from Dunedin in New Zealand.

They assessed them as children - before any of them had started using cannabis - and then re-interviewed them repeatedly, up to the age of 38.

Having taken into account other factors such as alcohol or tobacco dependency or other drug use, as well the number of years spent in education, they found that those who persistently used cannabis suffered a decline in their IQ.

The more that people smoked, the greater the loss in IQ.
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It is such a special study that I'm fairly confident that cannabis is safe for over-18 brains, but risky for under-18 brains?

Professor Terrie Moffitt Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London

The effect was most marked in those who started smoking cannabis as adolescents.

For example, researchers found that individuals who started using cannabis in adolescence and then carried on using it for years showed an average eight-point IQ decline.

Stopping or reducing cannabis use failed to fully restore the lost IQ.

The researchers, writing in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that: "Persistent cannabis use over 20 years was associated with neuropsychological decline, and greater decline was evident for more persistent users."

"Collectively, these findings are consistent with speculation that cannabis use in adolescence, when the brain is undergoing critical development, may have neurotoxic effects."

One member of the team, Prof Terrie Moffitt of King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry, said this study could have a significant impact on our understanding of the dangers posed by cannabis use.

"This work took an amazing scientific effort. We followed almost 1,000 participants, we tested their mental abilities as kids before they ever tried cannabis, and we tested them again 25 years later after some participants became chronic users.
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There are a lot of clinical and educational anecdotal reports that cannabis users tend to be less successful in their educational achievement, marriages and occupations?

Professor Robin Murray Instuitute of Psychiatry, King's College London

"Participants were frank about their substance abuse habits because they trust our confidentiality guarantee, and 96% of the original participants stuck with the study from 1972 to today.

"It is such a special study that I'm fairly confident that cannabis is safe for over-18 brains, but risky for under-18 brains."

Robin Murray, professor of psychiatric research, also at the King's College London Institute of Psychiatry but not involved in the study, said this was an impressive piece of research.

"The Dunedin sample is probably the most intensively studied cohort in the world and therefore the data are very good.

"Although one should never be convinced by a single study, I take the findings very seriously.

"There are a lot of clinical and educational anecdotal reports that cannabis users tend to be less successful in their educational achievement, marriages and occupations.

"It is of course part of folk-lore among young people that some heavy users of cannabis - my daughter callers them stoners - seem to gradually lose their abilities and end up achieving much less than one would have anticipated. This study provides one explanation as to why this might be the case.

"I suspect that the findings are true. If and when they are replicated then it will be very important and public education campaigns should be initiated to let people know the risks."

Yet TeenCat still makes $1K per day, so it can't be that bad

I don't think I've ever worked not stoned..
The difference is that I didn't start until college. :winkwink:

probably more a consequence of it being illegal than the weed itself where only unsavory types like me are willing to break the law to smoke some weed

that said im happy staying away from alcohol and smoking weed, wish there was a way i could vape it like a cigarette without having the burden of a giant vaporizer sitting beside me (which i do) in some sort of liquid form

one day though, one day

:thumbsup

Nobody wants their slaves on Cannabis, as Stoned Slaves don't get work done. If Cannabis really made us dumb TeenCat wouldn't be making $1K per day and the Elite would be recommending Cannabis go into our water supply and toothpaste as they like us to be dumb. (see Vaccines and Fluoride)

It's harder to control a Stone Slaved, as you can't fear-monger them with your latest pandemic or false flag terror attack

When did you start? Perhaps stoned people work smarter

Good point :thumbsup

My wife would leave me immediately if I ever touched the stuff, for her there's no difference between weed and Class A drugs

When I was 19. I'm 25 now so it can't be that bad. I really can't work long lengths of time without it and I've never noticed any difference in performance and can still type 100+ wpm stoned.

So true, they seem to like us having Alcohol, as it just makes us dumb and violent

Very interesting to hear you can type that fast when stoned. I type about 80 wpm or so, but 100+ is impressive

all the research the THC does damage young and developing minds

Oh the words don't appear on the paper - that frees them from the constriction of paper and allows them to fly...

The first sign of a lower IQ is copying and pasting irrelevant mainstream shit into an adult-oriented forum post.

Cock. Cunt. Facial. BBC. Wait a minute... that actually works :(

Shocking...

You're the same age as me :pimp

Yeah, it doesn't really affect me as much as most people.

Explains so much. LOL

Weed turns you into wehateporn and johnnyclips?

I'll never touch the stuff again.

:1orglaugh

not every day :)

and it is like with almost all other natural drugs. if you are an idiot and you took natural drug, you are just another idiot who took natural drug. if you know what are you doing and why you are doing it, the drugs may help you and show you another ways. but most of the people are doing it just to get high, so yeah i can imagine that is true :)

:thumbsup

It's overdosing on Mathematics that turns you into me (not recommended), weed turns you into TeenCat :2 cents:

Doing both turns you into me.. :upsidedow

:1orglaugh

:1orglaugh

Your wife sounds like a friggen genius. :1orglaugh

She's good with languages, unlike me

Everything in moderation,we all have our vices

As long as alcohol is legal, cannabis should be to.

Maybe if he did not smoke he would be making 2K day :2 cents:
After all article does not claim it makes you total moron, it claims that it lowers IQ.

I smokded weed wen I wuz yung and I tirned out Ok.

Let me take an IQ test after smoking all day. I guarantee I'll get at least a 140 and prove this study wrong.. :upsidedow

yes

yes
yes
yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

Just read gfy to see what happens to weed smokers

yeah and maybe if i will be snorting cocaine i would be making 5k/day

The closest I ever came to doing an illegal drug was having it blown in my face (to inhale it.... obviously)... but the people that smoke it daily are quite "IQ challenged", then again, they could have been born that way as I didn't know them prior.

If true, OP and JohnnyClips must have been high the entire time in middle and high school.

Sherlock Holmes does cocaine and he's fine.

same could be said about 'chronic' users of alcohol, hell i bet even 'chronic' users of refined sugars could have the same effects. just more propaganda.

From the below, I find this line at the end rather interesting regarding those who've had their brains damaged by alcohol (fits in with people I know)

"The individual often appears more capable than is actually the case, because existing verbal abilities are among the few faculties that are relatively unimpaired by chronic alcohol abuse."

"Structural damage to the brain resulting from chronic alcohol abuse can be observed in different ways:Results of autopsy show that patients with a history of chronic alcohol abuse have smaller, less massive, and more shrunken brains than nonalcoholic adults of the same age and gender.

The findings of brain imaging techniques, such as CT scans consistently show an association between heavy drinking and physical brain damage, even in the absence of chronic liver disease or dementia.

Brain shrinking is especially extensive in the cortex of the frontal lobe - the location of higher cognitive faculties.

The vulnerability to this frontal lobe shrinkage increases with age. After 40 some of the changes my be irreversible.

Repeated imaging of a group of alcoholics who continued drinking over a 5-year period showed progressive brain shrinkage that significantly exceeded normal age-related shrinkage. Moreover, the rate of shrinkage correlated with the amount of alcohol consumed.

The relationship between alcohol consumption and deterioration in brain structure and function is not simple. Measures such as average quantity consumed, or even total quantity consumed over a year, do not predict the ultimate extent of brain damage.

The best predictor of alcohol related impairment is: maximum quantity consumed at one time, along with the frequency of drinking that quantity. In addition to the toxic effects of frequent high levels of alcohol intake, alcohol related diseases and head injuries (due to falls, fights, motor vehicle accidents, etc.) also contribute.

Although changes in brain structure may be gradual, performance deficits appear abruptly. The individual often appears more capable than is actually the case, because existing verbal abilities are among the few faculties that are relatively unimpaired by chronic alcohol abuse."

http://www.alcohol-drug.com/neuropsych.htm