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The research that is the subject of this article[1] made the rounds a few months ago in the anti-cannabis movement. Here are some excerpts worth repeating: "Ma

The research that is the subject of this article[1] made the rounds a few months ago in the anti-cannabis movement. Here are some excerpts worth repeating: "Marijuana participants were not excluded if they had used other illegal drugs in the past" Also, in the 2nd to last paragraph (emphasis mine): "This preliminary study has several caveats. First, the sample size does not provide power to examine complex interactions such as sex differences. Because this is a cross-sectional study, causation cannot be determined, although marijuana exposure parametrically correlated with structural differences, which suggests the possibility of causation. Longitudinal studies are needed to determine whether marijuana exposure explicitly leads to the differences observed in this study." Checking out some of the players where the research money came from (National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Counterdrug Technology Assessment Center), it is no wonder the various news articles and the paper itself tried so hard to illustrate some causation. They ended up with a handful of people and some correlative results. [1] - http://jn.sfn.org/press/April-16-2014-Issue/zns01614005529.pdf http://jn.sfn.org/press/April-16-2014-Issue/zns01614005529.p...

inevitable 12y ago
So Marijuana damages the brain or is a gateway drug or both.
araes 12y ago
Its fairly apparent in the way they write and structure the article too. It starts from an assumption, "marijuana = bad". Although they honestly may not be aware of it. They make sentences like: "Marijuana use is often associated with motivation, attention, learning, and memory impairments. Previous studies exposing animals to THC show that repeated exposure to the drug causes structural changes in brain regions involved with these functions" Which implies, but doesn't actually state, that marijuana use makes you "less motivated, less attentive, unable to learn, and memory impaired" in the long term (ie, not just when smoking) and then finish with: "This study raises a strong challenge to the idea that casual marijuana use isn’t associated with bad consequences" Without actually showing "bad" in any of the results, just "change". Admittedly, anecdotal evidence of the "stoner" stereotype from most folks on the street might say that (while smoking) those are probably true. I'm all for folks knowing the risks of things they choose to ingest. But I'd rather we can choose, and most of the people smoking might also say they don't mind.
yodsanklai 12y ago
People in the anti-cannabis movement think that the slightest hint to a potential toxicity of cannabis is good enough to justify its interdiction. The concept of freedom is totally foreign to them.

inevitable 12y ago

So Marijuana damages the brain or is a gateway drug or both.

araes 12y ago

Its fairly apparent in the way they write and structure the article too. It starts from an assumption, "marijuana = bad". Although they honestly may not be aware of it. They make sentences like: "Marijuana use is often associated with motivation, attention, learning, and memory impairments. Previous studies exposing animals to THC show that repeated exposure to the drug causes structural changes in brain regions involved with these functions" Which implies, but doesn't actually state, that marijuana use makes you "less motivated, less attentive, unable to learn, and memory impaired" in the long term (ie, not just when smoking) and then finish with: "This study raises a strong challenge to the idea that casual marijuana use isn’t associated with bad consequences" Without actually showing "bad" in any of the results, just "change". Admittedly, anecdotal evidence of the "stoner" stereotype from most folks on the street might say that (while smoking) those are probably true. I'm all for folks knowing the risks of things they choose to ingest. But I'd rather we can choose, and most of the people smoking might also say they don't mind.

yodsanklai 12y ago

People in the anti-cannabis movement think that the slightest hint to a potential toxicity of cannabis is good enough to justify its interdiction. The concept of freedom is totally foreign to them.