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>Smoke too often, cut down and get sharp again. Unfortunately not. If you spend a long time smoking you'll end up permanently slower in the brain. Also, let's

>Smoke too often, cut down and get sharp again. Unfortunately not. If you spend a long time smoking you'll end up permanently slower in the brain. Also, let's not forget our friend lung cancer.

geff82 8y ago
And also let's not forget that about everyone with big psychological problems in my peer group started to smoke early on (and developed mental health problems later).
- kranner 8y ago
  That's just correlation. Maybe they started smoking early on because they had big psychological problems already.
  - mbrock 8y ago
    There might also be some risk of psychological damage when you use a criminalized substance that has anxiety as a common side effect. For example, it's easy to see how that could make you a bit reclusive. So anyone who's really concerned about the mental health of cannabis users is obliged to consider the damaging effects of its very criminality. (There are all kinds of other factors. Like cannabis use being correlated with higher trait openness, which has its own particular correlations with certain personality disorders, et cetera.)
    - toyg 8y ago
      Not to mention that such criminalized substance might well have been mishandled by criminal resellers with no regard for public health. Any time one buys a criminalised substance, it's like he was going to eat a box of unlabelled chocolate: maybe it's safe to eat, or maybe it's full of rat excrement - you don't know until it's too late.
  - geff82 8y ago
    It might "just" be a correlation but it might be heavily interconnected. If you have data proving your "just correlation", please provide them.
    - stupidbird 8y ago
      Correlation without causation is a lack of data — the burden of proof is on the claim not the questioning of it
    - kranner 8y ago
      What you have mentioned amounts to correlation only. If it's also causation, you're the one that should provide the proof.
  - amanaplanacanal 8y ago
    I suspect this is a big factor. Self-medication is a real thing. When people don't feel good, they start looking for things to make them feel better. And adolescence is a time when a lot of people don't feel good.
- cam3ham 8y ago
  lol
CuriouslyC 8y ago
I've seen research that smoking can impact the brain development of adolescents, but nothing that shows it permanently impairs the cognition of adults. Please post that research, I'd like to take a look at it. As for lung cancer, that's a straw man, vapes and edibles make that a non-issue.
- jlawson 8y ago
  >As for lung cancer, that's a straw man, vapes and edibles make that a non-issue. Isn't that kind of like saying "drunk driving is a straw man, Uber makes it a non issue"? Of course we know there's less harmful ways to consume these substances. We also know many, many people will not make use of those less harmful ways.
  - dredds 8y ago
    Again, show us the evidence that a non-tobacco-smoking average pot smoker has increased risk of lung cancer.
    - gmadsen 8y ago
      inhaling any type of smoke is bad for your lungs. Combustion of organic material releases carcinogens. That is pretty basic science. https://www.lung.org/stop-smoking/smoking-facts/marijuana-and-lung-health.html https://www.lung.org/stop-smoking/smoking-facts/marijuana-an...
      - dredds 8y ago
        ZERO mention of cancer on that page. Smoking WHILE on cancer therapy: "A number of small studies of smoked marijuana found that it can be helpful in treating nausea and vomiting from cancer chemotherapy." Anti-cancer benefits: "More recently, scientists reported that THC and other cannabinoids such as CBD slow growth and/or cause death in certain types of cancer cells growing in lab dishes. Some animal studies also suggest certain cannabinoids may slow growth and reduce spread of some forms of cancer." Source: https://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatments-and-side-effects/complementary-and-alternative-medicine/marijuana-and-cancer.html https://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatments-and-side-effects... Note: The American Cancer Society page on "marijuana and cancer" doesn't mention lung cancer at all.
dredds 8y ago
> Unfortunately not. If you spend a long time smoking you'll end up permanently slower in the brain. "permanently slower" based on what evidence? By what measure? Are you speaking from personal experience? (i stopped a few years ago after decades of smoking. Memory as sharp as it's ever been. Creative spark is lower than when i smoked. Will resume when our laws change.)
i-am-charmander 8y ago
A family member of mine basically smoked away her future, in a sense, throughout middle and high school. She wasn't always the brightest candle in the box, but the heavy marijuana use certainly didn't help. She has the cognition and mental maturity of a 14-year old, now at 30 years. Seeing how it affected her prompted me to "take a hint" and I've avoided the stuff since. That's not to say I avoid alcohol at all, however, but my family seems to handle the latter much better. Edit: this is complete anec-data - I don't have any hard-and-fast evidence of long-term impairments like I describe above. Just what I've seen.
- dsfyu404ed 8y ago
  Your anec-data is pretty common. Most people went to high-school with a couple people who have basically the same story you describe. One of the people in my class "smoked himself stupid" over the course of sophomore and junior year. He tried to clean up his act and he cut back a lot toward the end of junior year and did manage to graduate but he was certainly not the same person. Maybe those changes would have happened regardless of the pot (he smoked at least daily), maybe not. I have no idea where he is now.
- sigi45 8y ago
  Funny right? My story is different: Lots of friends in my area (it) do smoke, have good jobs, well paid.
jesseb 8y ago
> Unfortunately not. If you spend a long time smoking you'll end up permanently slower in the brain. I'm sorry, but what? You can't make claims like that without providing evidence to back it up.
- IMTDb 8y ago
  Here you go: https://www.drugabuse.gov/news-events/nida-notes/2016/09/regular-marijuana-use-associated-differences-in-brain-gray-matter-connectivity https://www.drugabuse.gov/news-events/nida-notes/2016/09/reg...
  - apsec112 8y ago
    "Permanent" implies that you'd have to look at people who did pot a while ago and then stopped. This data (and any data on current users) is consistent with the alternative hypothesis that the changes are temporary and will revert after ceasing use.
    - IMTDb 8y ago
      Long lasting effects are harder to study obviously, but here is one that confirms that there are long term consequences: https://www.nature.com/articles/npp201744 https://www.nature.com/articles/npp201744
CoryShmallager 8y ago
There are clinical trials that show the effects of cannabis consumption are reversed in adults and now recently young adults as well.

>Smoke too often, cut down and get sharp again. Unfortunately not. If you spend a long time smoking you'll end up permanently slower in the brain. Also, let's not forget our friend lung cancer.

geff82 8y ago

And also let's not forget that about everyone with big psychological problems in my peer group started to smoke early on (and developed mental health problems later).

kranner 8y ago
That's just correlation. Maybe they started smoking early on because they had big psychological problems already.
- mbrock 8y ago
  There might also be some risk of psychological damage when you use a criminalized substance that has anxiety as a common side effect. For example, it's easy to see how that could make you a bit reclusive. So anyone who's really concerned about the mental health of cannabis users is obliged to consider the damaging effects of its very criminality. (There are all kinds of other factors. Like cannabis use being correlated with higher trait openness, which has its own particular correlations with certain personality disorders, et cetera.)
  - toyg 8y ago
    Not to mention that such criminalized substance might well have been mishandled by criminal resellers with no regard for public health. Any time one buys a criminalised substance, it's like he was going to eat a box of unlabelled chocolate: maybe it's safe to eat, or maybe it's full of rat excrement - you don't know until it's too late.
- geff82 8y ago
  It might "just" be a correlation but it might be heavily interconnected. If you have data proving your "just correlation", please provide them.
  - stupidbird 8y ago
    Correlation without causation is a lack of data — the burden of proof is on the claim not the questioning of it
  - kranner 8y ago
    What you have mentioned amounts to correlation only. If it's also causation, you're the one that should provide the proof.
- amanaplanacanal 8y ago
  I suspect this is a big factor. Self-medication is a real thing. When people don't feel good, they start looking for things to make them feel better. And adolescence is a time when a lot of people don't feel good.
cam3ham 8y ago
lol

CuriouslyC 8y ago

I've seen research that smoking can impact the brain development of adolescents, but nothing that shows it permanently impairs the cognition of adults. Please post that research, I'd like to take a look at it. As for lung cancer, that's a straw man, vapes and edibles make that a non-issue.

jlawson 8y ago
>As for lung cancer, that's a straw man, vapes and edibles make that a non-issue. Isn't that kind of like saying "drunk driving is a straw man, Uber makes it a non issue"? Of course we know there's less harmful ways to consume these substances. We also know many, many people will not make use of those less harmful ways.
- dredds 8y ago
  Again, show us the evidence that a non-tobacco-smoking average pot smoker has increased risk of lung cancer.
  - gmadsen 8y ago
    inhaling any type of smoke is bad for your lungs. Combustion of organic material releases carcinogens. That is pretty basic science. https://www.lung.org/stop-smoking/smoking-facts/marijuana-and-lung-health.html https://www.lung.org/stop-smoking/smoking-facts/marijuana-an...
    - dredds 8y ago
      ZERO mention of cancer on that page. Smoking WHILE on cancer therapy: "A number of small studies of smoked marijuana found that it can be helpful in treating nausea and vomiting from cancer chemotherapy." Anti-cancer benefits: "More recently, scientists reported that THC and other cannabinoids such as CBD slow growth and/or cause death in certain types of cancer cells growing in lab dishes. Some animal studies also suggest certain cannabinoids may slow growth and reduce spread of some forms of cancer." Source: https://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatments-and-side-effects/complementary-and-alternative-medicine/marijuana-and-cancer.html https://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatments-and-side-effects... Note: The American Cancer Society page on "marijuana and cancer" doesn't mention lung cancer at all.

dredds 8y ago

> Unfortunately not. If you spend a long time smoking you'll end up permanently slower in the brain. "permanently slower" based on what evidence? By what measure? Are you speaking from personal experience? (i stopped a few years ago after decades of smoking. Memory as sharp as it's ever been. Creative spark is lower than when i smoked. Will resume when our laws change.)

i-am-charmander 8y ago

A family member of mine basically smoked away her future, in a sense, throughout middle and high school. She wasn't always the brightest candle in the box, but the heavy marijuana use certainly didn't help. She has the cognition and mental maturity of a 14-year old, now at 30 years. Seeing how it affected her prompted me to "take a hint" and I've avoided the stuff since. That's not to say I avoid alcohol at all, however, but my family seems to handle the latter much better. Edit: this is complete anec-data - I don't have any hard-and-fast evidence of long-term impairments like I describe above. Just what I've seen.

dsfyu404ed 8y ago
Your anec-data is pretty common. Most people went to high-school with a couple people who have basically the same story you describe. One of the people in my class "smoked himself stupid" over the course of sophomore and junior year. He tried to clean up his act and he cut back a lot toward the end of junior year and did manage to graduate but he was certainly not the same person. Maybe those changes would have happened regardless of the pot (he smoked at least daily), maybe not. I have no idea where he is now.
sigi45 8y ago
Funny right? My story is different: Lots of friends in my area (it) do smoke, have good jobs, well paid.

jesseb 8y ago

> Unfortunately not. If you spend a long time smoking you'll end up permanently slower in the brain. I'm sorry, but what? You can't make claims like that without providing evidence to back it up.

IMTDb 8y ago
Here you go: https://www.drugabuse.gov/news-events/nida-notes/2016/09/regular-marijuana-use-associated-differences-in-brain-gray-matter-connectivity https://www.drugabuse.gov/news-events/nida-notes/2016/09/reg...
- apsec112 8y ago
  "Permanent" implies that you'd have to look at people who did pot a while ago and then stopped. This data (and any data on current users) is consistent with the alternative hypothesis that the changes are temporary and will revert after ceasing use.
  - IMTDb 8y ago
    Long lasting effects are harder to study obviously, but here is one that confirms that there are long term consequences: https://www.nature.com/articles/npp201744 https://www.nature.com/articles/npp201744

CoryShmallager 8y ago

There are clinical trials that show the effects of cannabis consumption are reversed in adults and now recently young adults as well.