Frequent cannabis use by young people linked to decline in IQ (stat analysis)

[C C]

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-01-f...inked.html

INTRO: A study has found that adolescents who frequently use cannabis may experience a decline in Intelligence Quotient (IQ) over time. The findings of the research provide further insight into the harmful neurological and cognitive effects of frequent cannabis use on young people. [...] The research involved systematic review and statistical analysis on seven longitudinal studies involving 808 young people who used cannabis at least weekly for a minimum of 6 months and 5308 young people who did not use cannabis...(MORE)

[stryder]

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-01-f...inked.html

INTRO: A study has found that adolescents who frequently use cannabis may experience a decline in Intelligence Quotient (IQ) over time. The findings of the research provide further insight into the harmful neurological and cognitive effects of frequent cannabis use on young people. [...] The research involved systematic review and statistical analysis on seven longitudinal studies involving 808 young people who used cannabis at least weekly for a minimum of 6 months and 5308 young people who did not use cannabis...(MORE)

One of the main things that occurs when a person is "stoned" is their mind will wonder off and think about things. If they are sat in a College or University listening to a professor, that professor might put forwards some analogy to try and explain something. It might be a simple analogy, and it might be only something that was suppose to be considered for the five minutes the topic in question is considered. A "stoned" mind might well linger on the initial analogy, and perhaps extrapolate further lost in a near dream like cloud. Meanwhile the class goes ahead.... at least until the professor spots the abscent minded youth "wandering & wondering" and then drops a "Pop quiz" question in reference to what was being discussed. With which the youth responds something from half an hour hence. (a topic that when stale half an hour before)

From that perspective a person might seem slow, incapable of putting the study together into something that quantify as using their Intelligence. However their mind through wondering had likely taken a number of cul-de-sacs and U-bends on a voyage of discovery or absolute sidetracks. The problem is most of the time such discoveries are limited to comedic envisionments, because of how being high effects a persons well being. (Think of it a bit like a Matt Groening sketch with Homer Simpson having a thought bubble of monkeys looking for flees when something important is actually being asked or considered in the world around him)

The human brain as a neural network according to Igor Alexsander's Neural Networking books is a built on "Tangent Adaptivity". A thought process isn't actually a single pathway, but a network of interwoven signals that dart back and forth. This is further complexed by chemistry such as dopamine and seratonin, the more dopamine in the brain the more receptors in the brain are trigger and more "tangents" occur. Those tangents of course aid and abet a person being sidetracked by a dreamlike deluge, which in turn means they are preoccupied and less likely to pay attention to the worlf around them. (One of the reasons some drugs are seen as leaving people open to suggestion.)

Furthermore slightly inline with the topic. Smoke is toxic, and toxicity is no good for cells in general. It can be questioned as to what amount of damage is surpassed when such toxicity finds itself effecting brain tissue when it's in the blood brain barrier. So you've a mix of people tangenting because of high dopamine merged with actual physical damage to the brain caused by smokes toxicity.

[Zinjanthropos]

I don't know if I can measure IQ based on how many times I hear the words whoa, dude and like, in one sentence. Addition of these words in the sentence will extend the time it takes to make a point. Did it fool the experimenters?

[Yazata]

INTRO: A study has found that adolescents who frequently use cannabis may experience a decline in Intelligence Quotient (IQ) over time.

Uhhh... what?? Whoa, dude!

The findings of the research provide further insight into the harmful neurological and cognitive effects of frequent cannabis use on young people.

I used to smoke dope pretty heavily, pretty much every day.

Then when I stopped doing that, I gradually started to feel this strange high. It was a feeling of acuteness, of crystal clarity. And only gradually did I realize that was what not being stoned felt like.

But it wasn't all positive when I stopped smoking dope. I've always been socially withdrawn... except when I was smoking dope. The only time in my life when I was really outgoing and social was that period in my life.

And I was never interested in music until I smoked dope, and I lost my interest in music when I stopped. I was more into the visual arts in those days too, though I have retained quite a bit of that.

... reading what I just wrote makes it sound like the difference between CP Snow's "two cultures", the humanities people and the hard science people. The humanities people, the touchy-feely, arty, people-people might naturally have nervous systems that behave as if they were a little stoned, or at least experiencing the hang-over of being stoned.

[Ostronomos]

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-01-f...inked.html

INTRO: A study has found that adolescents who frequently use cannabis may experience a decline in Intelligence Quotient (IQ) over time. The findings of the research provide further insight into the harmful neurological and cognitive effects of frequent cannabis use on young people. [...] The research involved systematic review and statistical analysis on seven longitudinal studies involving 808 young people who used cannabis at least weekly for a minimum of 6 months and 5308 young people who did not use cannabis...(MORE)

It's the same with anything. Frequent use of anything can have harmful neurological and cognitive effects. I don't do it often so I have nothing to worry about. Nice try.

[Zinjanthropos]

Ostro.... Once the damage is done, how is afflicted going to know? Too late.

[Syne]

I used to smoke dope pretty heavily, pretty much every day.

Then when I stopped doing that, I gradually started to feel this strange high. It was a feeling of acuteness, of crystal clarity. And only gradually did I realize that was what not being stoned felt like.

I can relate to that. I use to tell people that I use to smoke so much that being sober became the novelty. I quit for like two weeks and realized that I'd regularly get irritable when I ran out, like a smoker without their nicotine. I smoked one more time after that two weeks and realized how much it dulled my mind. I was done after that.

But it wasn't all positive when I stopped smoking dope. I've always been socially withdrawn... except when I was smoking dope. The only time in my life when I was really outgoing and social was that period in my life.

And I was never interested in music until I smoked dope, and I lost my interest in music when I stopped. I was more into the visual arts in those days too, though I have retained quite a bit of that.

Aside from being a moody teen, I was never really socially withdrawn, but pot did make me even more social, if only to buy and have company smoking. I consider that an artificial socializing. I also got more into music, although LSD also had something to do with that. I'm still into music, and I've always been an artist.

... reading what I just wrote makes it sound like the difference between CP Snow's "two cultures", the humanities people and the hard science people. The humanities people, the touchy-feely, arty, people-people might naturally have nervous systems that behave as if they were a little stoned, or at least experiencing the hang-over of being stoned.

I guess I've always been pretty equally right/left-brained, so to speak. But yeah, I would agree that the overly social, extroverted, and arty people do tend to be mentally duller or less acute. Extroverts get their natural "high" from action and interaction, while the more introvert get theirs from contemplation. Pot seems to hijack these, to the detriment of both.

[Ostronomos]

Pot has performance enhancing effects on my unique genetic code.

[Syne]

Pot has performance enhancing effects on my unique genetic code.

You're suffering from delusions of grandeur, and the drugs aren't helping. Every post you make here is either you doing copypasta of crackpots or literally demonstrating your self-delusions. Quit the drugs, get out in the real world, and find some real life friends.

[Zinjanthropos]

get out in the real world, and find some real life friends.

This is the problem, he thinks he's not in one and none of us are.