May
I've heard a lot about marijuana. Most of it has nothing to back it up, and now I've found an article that says it causes brain damage.
Is this true?
http://anatomyphysiology.suite101.com/ar…
Answer:
Those images do not show damage, they show metabolic alterations. Amen's stuff is rather shaky, and that article, is to put it bluntly, total crap. That's SPECT imaging, not structural imaging of the brain.
That stated, there's a ton of material implicating it in psychotic illness in individuals with certain genetic polymorphisms, the worsening of existing mental illness. And for god's sake, one in five substance abuse program admissions are for marijuana now. Both Peter H and John de Witt make excellent points - both that there’s a complete unwillingness of certain people and groups to acknowledge the existence of anything negative about marijuana in any way shape or form - and there certainly are negatives. The other is that it is essentially impossible to do decent research on the stuff in the US. Just flat out impossible. If you want to get any decent material these days, you generally have to look at material published in European medical journals.
Now stop spamming this link everywhere. It sucks.
Answer:
No well designed experiment has ever found any evidence that marijuana use causes brain damage. The only experiment that had such a finding was a **** poor excuse for scientific research where the most likely cause of brain damage was oxygen deprivation. The guy running it put a face mask over the mouth and nose of rhesus monkeys and pumped their lungs full of concentrated marijuana smoke for 5 minutes. Such an action is apt to cause brain damage regardless of what kind of smoke is inhaled. The poor design of this experiment has been pointed out many times and subsequent experiments have demonstrated that marijuana does not cause brain damage, yet people still cite the original junk science when speaking about the evils of pot.
Answer:
There's a lot of heat and not much light involved in the discussion. The fact is that despite marijuana's popularity and tons of anecdotal evidence, the actual science is mighty scant. In the US, there's only one supplier for marijuana for use in studies (the University of Mississippi), its plants are not the equivalent to what's generally available, and the well-structured studies that would be done if there were serious research on it as a potential useful drug are simply not happening.
Answer:
However much some individuals wish to deny it, there’s objective scientific evidence that heavy long-term use of cannabis can cause structural changes in the brain. This is in addition to the well-known association between regular cannabis use and psychotic disease.
Answer:
MJ has been known to cause short term memory loss, but it hasn't been fully proven to cause any lasting brain damage.