3 ms·

alcohol and cigarettes are both much, much worse for health. And the PNAS study itself says that while they measured changes in the brain, the effect of the cha

by gr3yh47 10y ago

alcohol and cigarettes are both much, much worse for health. And the PNAS study itself says that while they measured changes in the brain, the effect of the changes is not known from the study.

IMTDb 10y ago
Limited Alcohol usage (not abuse) has actually very little permanent effects on health. Alcohol abuse of course has very damaging known effects. Cigarettes mainly affect lungs and pancreas. The increased risk of cancer is reduced to that of a never smoker after 20years. I am sure cigarettes would not pass legalization laws if they were "invented" right now. They are legal for historical reasons and many countries are actively trying to fight them by increased taxation, advertising rules etc. So basically, we are creating a new product we will have to fight in the future once we measure how dangerous it is. We are playing a game of "let's fight back thats dangerous product we legalized 150 years ago when we did not know the adverse effects of it." and at the same time : "Let's legalize that new stuff that we never really could measure the long lasting effects of. It looks fun and kids love it.". The paper says that it can't precisely measure the effect of those changes to cognitive issues. They just link marijuana with modified brains. If you belive that an altered brain function exactly like a non-altered one, this is your choice. But any sound safety principle should tell you to take care with that stuff IMO. There are tons of papers measure the cognitive issues that arise with pot usage. Here is just one, but look it up. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3221171/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3221171/
- dpark 10y ago
  > Limited Alcohol usage (not abuse) has actually very little permanent effects on health. Are you asserting that this is not true for marijuana? You believe that infrequent use is somehow definitively linked to cognitive changes despite even heavy use being poorly linked so far?
- watchme3 10y ago
  Man you've got to pull your head out of your ass. Illegal weed creates potential for a black market and uncontrolled sale to minors. It is much easier for a kid in highschool to buy weed than get beer from the store. The massive profits just from weed sale allow for sophisticated criminal rings that fuel other crimes. You talk about taxing cigarettes, do you know what s happening as a result? Contraband cigarette sales are booming. You know what i had instant access to when i was in highschool? weed and contraband cigarettes and alcohol was the hardest to find ... I wonder why. You say weed causes permanent brain damage and slows down your cognitive functions. Do you know who fucking Michael Phelps is? Ya the guy with the most Olympic gold medals who also happens to smoke weed. If you don't want to smoke, then don't, it's as simple as that but don't fuck with progress.
- soundwave106 10y ago
  Regarding cognitive issues, the meta I've personally taken away is that, yes, there is some legitimate concern for permanent cognitive issues regarding pre-adult usage of marijuana. However, for adults, my "gut feeling" (based on knowing some people who regularly consumed what I consider a modest amount of marijuana) is that if you aren't really heavy on your usage, you don't have much to worry about cognitive wise. Chronic heavy users, of course, may run into issues. Unfortunately it's difficult to conclude much beyond "gut feeling" because data wise, the studies on long term effects are all over the map. See this evidence based review --https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3037578/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3037578/ I get the impression that the data just isn't too good right now. You can look up one study, but you can then look up another with a different conclusion. Part of the problem I'm sure is that the illegal nature of marijuana makes experiments difficult to conduct, and will introduce a bias in the population researchers are working with that they have to be careful to control out. Alcohol incidentally also has significant cognitive concerns for pre-adults, while not being a real issue for moderate adult drinkers. Strictly enforced age restrictions mitigate this issue to some degree. (Prohibition of alcohol was tried for a while, but it didn't work too well.)

by gr3yh47 10y ago

alcohol and cigarettes are both much, much worse for health. And the PNAS study itself says that while they measured changes in the brain, the effect of the changes is not known from the study.

IMTDb 10y ago

Limited Alcohol usage (not abuse) has actually very little permanent effects on health. Alcohol abuse of course has very damaging known effects. Cigarettes mainly affect lungs and pancreas. The increased risk of cancer is reduced to that of a never smoker after 20years. I am sure cigarettes would not pass legalization laws if they were "invented" right now. They are legal for historical reasons and many countries are actively trying to fight them by increased taxation, advertising rules etc. So basically, we are creating a new product we will have to fight in the future once we measure how dangerous it is. We are playing a game of "let's fight back thats dangerous product we legalized 150 years ago when we did not know the adverse effects of it." and at the same time : "Let's legalize that new stuff that we never really could measure the long lasting effects of. It looks fun and kids love it.". The paper says that it can't precisely measure the effect of those changes to cognitive issues. They just link marijuana with modified brains. If you belive that an altered brain function exactly like a non-altered one, this is your choice. But any sound safety principle should tell you to take care with that stuff IMO. There are tons of papers measure the cognitive issues that arise with pot usage. Here is just one, but look it up. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3221171/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3221171/

dpark 10y ago
> Limited Alcohol usage (not abuse) has actually very little permanent effects on health. Are you asserting that this is not true for marijuana? You believe that infrequent use is somehow definitively linked to cognitive changes despite even heavy use being poorly linked so far?
watchme3 10y ago
Man you've got to pull your head out of your ass. Illegal weed creates potential for a black market and uncontrolled sale to minors. It is much easier for a kid in highschool to buy weed than get beer from the store. The massive profits just from weed sale allow for sophisticated criminal rings that fuel other crimes. You talk about taxing cigarettes, do you know what s happening as a result? Contraband cigarette sales are booming. You know what i had instant access to when i was in highschool? weed and contraband cigarettes and alcohol was the hardest to find ... I wonder why. You say weed causes permanent brain damage and slows down your cognitive functions. Do you know who fucking Michael Phelps is? Ya the guy with the most Olympic gold medals who also happens to smoke weed. If you don't want to smoke, then don't, it's as simple as that but don't fuck with progress.
soundwave106 10y ago
Regarding cognitive issues, the meta I've personally taken away is that, yes, there is some legitimate concern for permanent cognitive issues regarding pre-adult usage of marijuana. However, for adults, my "gut feeling" (based on knowing some people who regularly consumed what I consider a modest amount of marijuana) is that if you aren't really heavy on your usage, you don't have much to worry about cognitive wise. Chronic heavy users, of course, may run into issues. Unfortunately it's difficult to conclude much beyond "gut feeling" because data wise, the studies on long term effects are all over the map. See this evidence based review --https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3037578/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3037578/ I get the impression that the data just isn't too good right now. You can look up one study, but you can then look up another with a different conclusion. Part of the problem I'm sure is that the illegal nature of marijuana makes experiments difficult to conduct, and will introduce a bias in the population researchers are working with that they have to be careful to control out. Alcohol incidentally also has significant cognitive concerns for pre-adults, while not being a real issue for moderate adult drinkers. Strictly enforced age restrictions mitigate this issue to some degree. (Prohibition of alcohol was tried for a while, but it didn't work too well.)