Marijuana: Does it kill brain cells or does it affect only the lungs?

There was a lot more information in that study link that seems to lower the study value to near zero.

A sample size of only 14 with a control of 14 picked from a drug treatment program where there was others known factors including alcohol abused and in that it was a group from a drug treatment program therefore the likelihood of unknown others drugs used seem very high indeed.

Pick a few hundred marijuana smokers who are not in drug programs and compare them to non-smokers and then do a brain scan and you might had some worthwhile results that have some meaning.

See below:


In the current study, working with child psychiatrist Sanjiv Kumra, M.D., now at the University of Minnesota, Ashtari and colleagues performed imaging studies on 14 young men from a residential drug treatment center in New York State, as well as 14 age-matched healthy controls. All the study subjects were males, with an average age of 19. The researchers performed the imaging studies at Long Island Jewish Medical Center.

The 14 subjects from the drug treatment center all had a history of heavy cannabis use during adolescence. On average, they had smoked marijuana from age 13 till age 18 or 19, and reported smoking nearly 6 marijuana joints daily in the final year before they stopped using the drug.

Ashtari added that the findings are preliminary. Among other limitations of the study, such as a small sample size, five of the 14 subjects with heavy cannabis use also had a history of alcohol abuse, which may have contributed an effect. Also, it is possible that the brain abnormalities may have predisposed the subjects to drug dependence, rather than drug usage causing the brain abnormalities.

It depends on how you define 'pothead.' If it's people who are addicted to the point where they need it to function, I would look at them as no different then Alcoholics or other addicted types.

Dj is right- most people are dumbasses to begin with, and pot certainly doesn't help.

Cycloptichorn

No more than drowning a person who has already drowned. I said there was a chance. You will have to learn to distinguish between chance and certainity.

You are asking for information that I have already included. As for beer bellies, they are just as related to low testosterone and poor exercise as they are to beer. One beer a day will not give you a beer belly. Perhaps you are unaware of the history of beer ? It was a way for the average person to drink water without getting cholera and other water borne diseases. It goes back to the Sumerians, Egyptians, Celts and Germans.
This is comparable to smoking cigarettes through a bong. Dont change the goal posts.

A lot of MaryJ smokers also smoke cigarettes so it is difficult to prove. But the contents of the smoke has similar cancer causing and circulation prevention properties for both. You smoke enough of either and you can lose a limb to gangrene.

You were advocating a healthier lifestyle to your friends. There is no wrong in that.

We went through the same thing for cigarettes. People who smoked said they knew of a person who smoked every day of their lives and they never got cancer, but lived to their 80's. A closer analysis of anecedotal evidence shows they had one cigarette after dinner. They certainly didnt smoke 1 or 2 packets a day. Remember when the morning break was called smoko ? This was because people would stop work for a smoke. They might also have one after lunch and after dinner. Now they leave work every 15 mins for a 10 min smoke. Not the same thing.

Everyone who smokes MaryJ will argue there is nothing wrong with it. This is a complete revelation to me. The only thing in the world that is not harmful is MaryJ ??? Why ?? How ?? Because people live in denial. Alcohol is harmful. Having one drink a day causes harm, it is just that it does good also but puts you at long term risk of other possible diseases.

I have close friends who have smoked maryJ for 30 years. I will say, remember when this happened ? And they have no memory. Increasingly, they are conspiracy theorists and are developing some real whacko ideas, which I know from their previous opinions they would never have believed when they were younger. In your late 40's is too young to be losing your mind, whether it is due to alcohol or MaryJ.

As a sideline, hard drug users have either given up drugs or are dead by the age of 30. Drinking beer leads to spirits. Smoking maryJ leads to harder drug use.

NONSENSE for both claims.

Living leads to dying.

Ask drinkers if they started with beer or went straight to metho.

Ask cocain or heroin users if they started on maryJ.

Correct. And hard drug use leads to prostitution, theft and murder. What part does soft drug use play in a person who ends up on hard drugs ?

Damn, there's a lot of idiocy in this thread

Cycloptichorn

The problem is that you start off your methodology with a massive selection bias.

You are certainly right in seeing that as a possibility...it should always be considered. If it is your opinion that is the problem here, then I would ask you to say why you think I am biased.

Criticism without contribution...what do you call that ?

I call it 'not Lowering myself.'

Have fun pontificating about things which you know nothing about... got better stuff to do on a beautiful Friday afternoon.

Cycloptichorn

I didn't say you were biased (although you may be). I said your methodology is biased.

You can't work backward from people who are already addicted.

We are truly blessed that you are not lowering yourself.

That is the only option if you want to find the cause of the addiction. It does no good to study people who arent addicted. We are not allowed to addict people. How would you suggest it be done ?

And everyone start with mother milk also that does not mean that there is a cause and effect!!!!

I drinks mixed drinks when I drink and I never been a beer drinker as I do not like beer on the whole.

There is no need for such steps and there is no indication that I am aware of that a large percent of Marijuana smokers go on to hard drugs or that you need to be a smoker to go on to hard drugs.

If Marijuana did not exist there would still be the same level of hard drug used in this society in my opinion.

Wow, that is PERFECT. Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you so much Sozobe!

There was another study in the sidebar of that one (when you click on the link) that was similar.

Bill did make good points about sample size etc., it's not a slam-dunk. But it's some actual science.