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+--- Thread: Smoking cannabis significantly impairs vision but many users are unaware of it (/thread-10154.html)
Smoking cannabis significantly impairs vision but many users are unaware of it - C C - Apr 14, 2021
https://canal.ugr.es/uncategorized/smoking-cannabis-significantly-impairs-vision-but-many-users-are-unaware-of-it/
RELEASE: A study carried out by the University of Granada indicates that smoking cannabis significantly alters key visual functions, such as visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, three-dimensional vision (stereopsis), the ability to focus, and glare sensitivity. Yet, more than 90% of users believe that using cannabis has no effect on their vision, or only a slight effect
A group of researchers from the Department of Optics of the University of Granada (UGR) has studied the effects of smoking cannabis on various visual parameters compared to the effect that the users themselves perceive the drug to have on their vision.
This study, led by Carolina Ortiz Herrera and Rosario González Anera, has been published in the journal Scientific Reports. Its main author, Sonia Ortiz Peregrina, explains that cannabis use is on the rise despite being an illegal drug. According to the national Survey on Alcohol, Drugs and Other Addictions in Spain 2019–2020, cannabis use nationally has increased since 2011, with 37% of Spanish adults having used this drug at some time. Approximately 10% consumed it in the last year.
In this study, which had the approval of the Human Research Ethics Committee of the UGR (ref. 921/CCEIH/2019), an exhaustive visual trial was conducted on 31 cannabis users, both when they had not consumed any substance in advance and also when they were under the effect of the drug. The researchers also studied the participants’ perception of the visual effects of having consumed this drug.
The results showed that, following consumption, visual aspects such as visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, three-dimensional vision (stereopsis), the ability to focus, and glare sensitivity significantly worsened. Despite this, not all subjects reported a worsening of their vision after smoking cannabis. Indeed, 30% reported that their vision had not suffered at all, while 65% responded that it had worsened only slightly. The authors note that the visual parameter that could be most strongly linked to users’ perception of the visual effect is contrast sensitivity.
The study found a negative effect on all of the visual parameters evaluated, with the effect of cannabis on some of the parameters being analysed for the first time in this research. These results, together with the lack of awareness that the participants presented about the visual impairment caused by smoking cannabis, indicate the need to carry out awareness-raising campaigns, as this visual deterioration can pose a danger when performing everyday tasks.
RE: Smoking cannabis significantly impairs vision but many users are unaware of it - Syne - Apr 14, 2021
(Apr 14, 2021 07:06 AM)C C Wrote: ...and glare sensitivity.
The sunglasses aren't just to hide the red eyes.
RE: Smoking cannabis significantly impairs vision but many users are unaware of it - Zinjanthropos - Apr 14, 2021
Last summer I got behind this car at a stop sign. This car was so full of smoke that I couldn't see anybody in it. Followed it until car stopped in a small town where 4 guys got out, acting real weird. Just another way pot affects eyesight. I couldn't see them but somehow the driver managed to get to where he was going. Later on I came back the same way and those 4 guys were still in same area, stoned out of their minds and stepping into oncoming traffic, real crazy like. Don't know if they survived the day but they probably drove home.