150+ Scientific Studies Showing the Dangers of Marijuana
Regular marijuana use in adolescence, but not adulthood, may permanently impair brain function and cognition, and may increase the risk of developing serious psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, according to a recent study from the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Researchers hope that the study, published in Neuropsychopharmacology — a publication of the journal Nature – will help to shed light on the potential long-term effects of marijuana use, particularly as lawmakers in Maryland and elsewhere contemplate legalizing the drug.
"Over the past 20 years, there has been a major controversy about the long-term effects of marijuana, with some evidence that use in adolescence could be damaging," says the study's senior author Asaf Keller, Ph.D., Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. "Previous research has shown that children who started using marijuana before the age of 16 are at greater risk of permanent cognitive deficits, and have a significantly higher incidence of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia. There likely is a genetic susceptibility, and then you add marijuana during adolescence and it becomes the trigger."
"Adolescence is the critical period during which marijuana use can be damaging," says the study's lead author, Sylvina Mullins Raver, a Ph.D. candidate in the Program in Neuroscience in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. "We wanted to identify the biological underpinnings and determine whether there is a real, permanent health risk to marijuana use."
The scientists — including co-author Sarah Paige Haughwout, a research technician in Dr. Keller's laboratory — began by examining cortical oscillations in mice. Cortical oscillations are patterns of the activity of neurons in the brain and are believed to underlie the brain's various functions. These oscillations are very abnormal in schizophrenia and in other psychiatric disorders. The scientists exposed young mice to very low doses of the active ingredient in marijuana for 20 days, and then allowed them to return to their siblings and develop normally.
"In the adult mice exposed to marijuana ingredients in adolescence, we found that cortical oscillations were grossly altered, and they exhibited impaired cognitive abilities," says Ms. Raver. "We also found impaired cognitive behavioral performance in those mice. The striking finding is that, even though the mice were exposed to very low drug doses, and only for a brief period during adolescence, their brain abnormalities persisted into adulthood."
I have said in the past that I knew two people in high school that I knew used marijuana. Doubtless there were others who hid their use better. One was nicknamed "Huggie", and on good days he had two brain cells that actually communicated with one another. The other was a boy from my Scout Troop who thought Cheech and Chong were the funniest thing, and Marijuana was a wonderful thing. He was the most cynical, grumpiest glum person I ever met (presumably his mood was elevated by the stink weed. I saw their examples and thought to myself, I can be stupid and grumpy without spending my scarce money on something to enhance that situation (A third one lived two blocks from me." He was a straight A student throughout Junior High School. According to his dad, he fried his brain on drugs. For a while he was someone else, and adopted a different name. He began to roam the streets, walking in a daze, chain smoking cigarettes. For a while he was able to be a dog walker for neighbors. To this day I don't know if he actually fried his brain. Studies like this lend credence to that idea. This also happened about the same time as Schizophrenia sets in, as you said in your book. Either could be the cause).
ReplyDeleteDude, regular marijuana use is an indicator of brain damage, whether or not it is a cause of brain damage.
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