Marijuana.com

Buzzby

Long-Term Marijuana Use May Fog the Brain
Andy Coghlan | New Scientist | 03/13/2006

Long-term users of marijuana gradually become worse at learning and remembering things, a new study suggests.

“It definitely fogs your brain,” says Lambros Messinis, who led the study at the University Hospital of Patras in Greece.

Messinis and colleagues tested the mental abilities of 20 long-term users who had taken marijuana heavily – smoking at least four joints a week – for an average of 15 years. Their brains were rustier than those of 20 short-term users – who had averaged seven years of use – and 24 controls who had used the drug sporadically or not at all.

Long-term users performed worse in tests to measure memory, learning ability and the capacity to recall information. Asked to recall lists of 15 words that they had seen earlier, for example, the long-term users averaged seven, compared with nine recalled by short-term users and 12 by controls.

“Long-term users found it very difficult to learn through new information given verbally,” says Messinis. “It’s not to do with lack of attention but more the encoding process of memory.” Separate tests to probe attention span found that long-term users were able to pick up information immediately, without trouble.

Initial ability

Although the study is retrospective – that is, the subjects were not tested on their cognitive abilities before they took up marijuana – the researchers are confident that the long-term users’ abilities were not significantly different from the other groups from the beginning. They used a standard test to estimate the long-term users’ original intellectual abilities.

Messinis gave subjects the tests at least 24 hours after they had last taken the drug, to make sure they were not still under the influence. “It wasn’t while they were high,” he says.

[BuzzNote: Another study has shown that, while these effects exist, they are minimal. An earlier study showed no impairment of cognitive abilities. Finally, a 2001 study published in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry found that long-term cannabis smokers who abstained from the drug for one week "showed virtually no significant differences from control subjects (those who had smoked marijuana less than 50 times in their lives) on a battery of 10 neuropsychological tests."]

“Importantly, we don’t know if it’s reversible,” he says. To find out, he and his colleague plan to re-test the same subjects after abstinence periods of at least a month.

Nadia Solowij, at the University of Wollongong in Australia, says the new findings back previous work by her and colleagues, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2002.

“The authors appear to have used the same rigorous criteria for inclusion in their study and confirm that the duration of cannabis use progressively impacts upon cognitive functions,” she told New Scientist.

__________________

 

Dennis

The ability to forget the painful past can be a wonderful blessing. Especially when it pertains to retarded drug prohibitionists and the war on drugs.

This is news? Let me get this straight, people have to stay high 24/7 for TEN YEARS to develop marginal problems on a cognitive test. You have got to be kidding me. They should have waited at least two weeks without weed before taking the test. Heck, they probably would have done better if they lit up just before the tests.

Other drugs cause liver damage after only a few uses, I'll stick to weed. Legalize it.

nornerator

Although I question the validity of a study with such a small sample, I have to point out that they don't have to be high 24/7 for 10 years to be considered a heavy user. According to their definitions, anyone that smoked 4 or more joints a week for 15 years is a heavy user. So this category would engulf many users. Research in that area is very important because so many users fall into that category.

Passage

What the hell do they mean by "Fog the brain?" Are they just making stuff up or is there a scientific term for this?

Cassius

No, there isn't a scientific term for that. I also question the validity with such a small sample size.

__________________

{ Cassius, Your Humble Narrator }
{ Posting Guidelines | Erowid Drug Information Resource | instantfilehosting.com }

 

Buzzby

That's just the headline. They explain what they mean by it in the first line of the text. Didn't you get that far?

dedbr

that they had scientists in Greece.

'Fog the brain?' If thats what ya want to call it, fine. I've been conducting a little scientific study of my own for the last thirty five years or so, and I've come to some conclusions on my own, believe it or not.

Number 1 : Most people who smoke pot are smarter, on average, than anyone I know.

Number 2: Most studies are culturally or socially or personally biased without a double blind as a comparison for study results and comparisons.

Number 3 : I smoke and it looks like the 'fog' rolled in. Maybe thats where the title to the article came from....

I bet those hairy Greek women been spying on the Ded Bunker...

They shoulda stopped in, I coulda helped them 'forget' a few things..



Damn Hucklebuck, you mean to tell me that you don't know how smart they were before they entered the study! Why did I waste my time with this crap?

I was right...they don't have any scientists in Greece....

Ded Land

__________________
"Starry, starry night, Paint your pallet blue and gray, Look out on a summers day,
With eyes that know the darkness of my soul, Shadows on the hills, Sketch the trees and the daffodils, Catch the breeze and the winter chill, In colors in the snowy linen land......"

Vincent.... Don Mclean


Posting Guidelines!

SnowMinion

Come back with these results and maybe I will be interested...

nerphroll

"Fog" the brain? Brains were "rustier." Come on people, it's 2006.


And as for this "standard test to estimate the long-term users' original intellectual abilities." What the hell are the investigators here smoking?

__________________
HELP ME IVE BEEN DOING THIS FOR OVER 13 YEARS!!!!!!!!!!
PURIFY ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

quickie

...wait, what was the story about again???