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April 17th, 2014 | #1 |
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Casual Marijuana Use, Brain Abnormalities Linked In New Study Of Young Adults
Casual Marijuana Use, Brain Abnormalities Linked In New Study Of Young Adults A small study of casual marijuana smokers has turned up evidence of changes in the brain, a possible sign of trouble ahead, researchers say. The young adults who volunteered for the study were not dependent on pot, nor did they show any marijuana-related problems. "What we think we are seeing here is a very early indication of what becomes a problem later on with prolonged use," things like lack of focus and impaired judgment, said Dr. Hans Breiter, a study author. Longer-term studies will be needed to see if such brain changes cause any symptoms over time, said Breiter, of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Massachusetts General Hospital. Previous studies have shown mixed results in looking for brain changes from marijuana use, perhaps because of differences in the techniques used, he and others noted in Wednesday's issue of the Journal of Neurosciences. The study is among the first to focus on possible brain effects in recreational pot smokers, said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The federal agency helped pay for the work. She called the work important but preliminary. The 20 pot users in the study, ages 18 to 25, said they smoked marijuana an average of about four days a week, for an average total of about 11 joints. Half of them smoked fewer than six joints a week. Researchers scanned their brains and compared the results to those of 20 non-users who were matched for age, sex and other traits. The results showed differences in two brain areas associated with emotion and motivation — the amygdala and the nucleus accumbens. Users showed higher density than non-users, as well as differences in shape of those areas. Both differences were more pronounced in those who reported smoking more marijuana. Volkow said larger studies are needed to explore whether casual to moderate marijuana use really does cause anatomical brain changes, and if so, whether that leads to any impairment. The current work doesn't determine whether casual to moderate marijuana use is harmful to the brain, she said. Murat Yucel of Monash University in Australia, who has studied the brains of marijuana users but didn't participate in the new study, said in an email that the new results suggest "the effects of marijuana can occur much earlier than previously thought." Some of the effect may depend on a person's age when marijuana use starts, he said. Another brain researcher, Krista Lisdahl of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, said her own work has found similar results. "I think the clear message is we see brain alterations before you develop dependence," she said. Casual Marijuana Use, Brain Abnormalities Linked In New Study Of Young Adults |
July 3rd, 2014 | #2 |
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I told a man once, after he was talking about how he gets "the good stuff," that marijuana is a cancer-hazard.. tens times worse than cigarettes due to the lack of a filter. He became enraged.. prob because he sensed that I was right, and couldn't take back the years of smoking.
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July 3rd, 2014 | #3 |
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Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Crawlin' from the wreckage
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Weed is a jew plot to rob young Whites of their ambition, and their ability to think correctly.
Leave it to the niggers and the beaners. |
July 3rd, 2014 | #4 |
Switching to glide
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Actually, it's a plant.
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"When US gets nuked and NEMO is uninhabitable, I will make my way on foot to the gulf and live off red snapper and grapefruit"- Alex Linder |
July 3rd, 2014 | #5 |
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Location: Crawlin' from the wreckage
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July 3rd, 2014 | #6 |
Switching to glide
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I guess I'd make a lousy Puritan.
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"When US gets nuked and NEMO is uninhabitable, I will make my way on foot to the gulf and live off red snapper and grapefruit"- Alex Linder |
July 3rd, 2014 | #7 |
Pussy Bünd "Commander"
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: land of the Friedman, home of the Braverman
Posts: 13,329
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Hemp: America's greatest cash crop
actually more like DuPont chemical and W.R. Hearst's timber and publishing empire.
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Worse than a million megaHitlers all smushed together. |
July 6th, 2014 | #8 |
'God Belief, German Piety'
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 3,913
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I've smoked a few joints in my time. It's done me no harm whatsoever.
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"Man is not God. But he is God's birthplace. God exists and grows in man. If God does not come in man, He never comes~ Hence the German religion is the religion of high faith in man."-Alfred Rosenberg |
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