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InvisibleCitizen X
Buzz Killinton
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Registered: 01/19/14
Posts: 7,853
Loc: Djibouti
NORML Responds To Latest Media Frenzy Over Pot and ‘Brain Damage’ Fears
    #19872653 - 04/20/14 07:17 AM (9 years, 11 months ago)

The mainstream media launched into a reefer mad frenzy this week after researchers from Harvard University in Boston and Northwestern University in Chicago published the results of a neuroimaging study assessing the brains of a small cohort of regular marijuana smokers and non-users. The brain scans identified various differences between the two groups in three aspects of brain morphometry: gray matter density, volume, and shape. These differences triggered dozens of high-profile media outlets to lose their collective minds. Here’s a sampling:

CNN: Casual marijuana use may damage your brain

Financial Post: Study proves occasional marijuana use is mind altering

Time: Recreational pot use harmful to young people’s brains

International Business Times: Casual Marijuana Smoking at Young Age May Cause Irreparable Brain Damage – Even at One Joint Per Week

UK Telegraph: Smoking cannabis will change you. That’s not a ‘risk’, it’s a certainty

Yet despite the sensationalist headlines, the study itself was hardly newsworthy. Decades of research pertaining to the potential residual adverse effects of cannabis on brain cognition have failed to support the notion that marijuana poses any sort of permanent brain deficits. And as I write today on Alternet.org, this study similarly failed to report any sort of real-world adverse consequences associated with cannabis use:

Why the Media’s Fear-Mongering on Marijuana Effects on the Brain Is Faulty
via Alternet.org

[excerpt] Using high–resolution MRI imaging, scientists identified specific changes in particular regions of the brain that they inferred were likely due to marijuana exposure. (Since researchers only performed a single MRI session, they could not say definitively whether these changes were, in fact, caused by cannabis or whether they existed prior to subjects’ use of the plant.) Notably, however, these changes did not appear to be associated with any overt adverse effects in subjects’ actual cognition or behavior. (Separate studies assessing youth use of legal intoxicants, such as nicotine and alcohol, have also been associated with documented changes in brain structure. Ditto for caffeine intake in preclinical models. These findings have received far less media attention.)

Both the cases (20 marijuana users) and controls (20 nonusers) in the study were recruited from local universities, undermining the notion that the alleged ‘brain damaged potheads’ were any more academically challenged than their non-using peers. Further, as summarized by HealthDay: “Psychiatric interviews revealed that the pot smokers did not meet criteria for drug dependence. For example, marijuana use did not interfere with their studies, work or other activities, and they had not needed to increase the amount they used to get the same high.”

In other words, case subjects and controls appeared to function similarly in their professional and academic endeavors.

You can read the full text of my response here.

Fortunately, my critique of this latest paper — and in particular the mainstream media’s sensationalist and erroneous coverage of its findings — is far from the only one.

http://blog.norml.org/2014/04/18/norml-responds-to-latest-media-frenzy-over-pot-and-brain-damage-fears/


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Offlinetheonlysun81
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Registered: 05/11/12
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Re: NORML Responds To Latest Media Frenzy Over Pot and ‘Brain Damage’ Fears [Re: Citizen X] * 3
    #19872700 - 04/20/14 07:58 AM (9 years, 11 months ago)

I don't think anyone is denying that marijuana alters your brain. I think that is why people use it.


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Invisibletealeaf
Just Touch It
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Registered: 09/21/06
Posts: 2,907
Re: NORML Responds To Latest Media Frenzy Over Pot and ‘Brain Damage’ Fears [Re: theonlysun81] * 1
    #19872893 - 04/20/14 08:29 AM (9 years, 11 months ago)

If the Government is telling my not to do it because it will change my brain, well FUCK your conformity and pass it over

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OfflineHygrocybe
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Re: NORML Responds To Latest Media Frenzy Over Pot and ‘Brain Damage’ Fears [Re: tealeaf] * 1
    #19875278 - 04/20/14 07:03 PM (9 years, 11 months ago)

Dr. Sanja Gupta should call out whoever was responsible for that CNN headline. The study did not find that marijuana caused brain damage, it found a higher density of brain matter in certain areas of the users. Cab drivers have differences in their brains, it's a consequence of their cognitive habits. :dontspillme:

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InvisibleEdibleStereos
Healthy Body, Sick Mind
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Registered: 01/02/13
Posts: 4,899
Loc: South Africa
Re: NORML Responds To Latest Media Frenzy Over Pot and ‘Brain Damage’ Fears [Re: theonlysun81] * 1
    #19877345 - 04/21/14 10:29 AM (9 years, 11 months ago)

Quote:

theonlysun81 said:
I don't think anyone is denying that marijuana alters your brain. I think that is why people use it.



....

There is a HUGE difference between altering consciousness and altering the brain.

Your statement is just as ignorant as the media's interpretation of this study.

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Offlinedjmaloney_aries
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Registered: 02/21/14
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Re: NORML Responds To Latest Media Frenzy Over Pot and ‘Brain Damage’ Fears [Re: Citizen X] * 1
    #19877545 - 04/21/14 11:32 AM (9 years, 11 months ago)

I guess if I had not smoked all that weed, I would have gotten my PHD, and Doctorate instead of 2 bachelors degrees. *shrug...

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Offlinedwnlw2slw
METANOIA


Registered: 12/20/13
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Re: NORML Responds To Latest Media Frenzy Over Pot and ‘Brain Damage’ Fears [Re: Citizen X] * 1
    #19880856 - 04/21/14 10:56 PM (9 years, 11 months ago)

Quote:

Citizen X said:Further, as summarized by HealthDay: “Psychiatric interviews revealed that the pot smokers did not meet criteria for drug dependence. For example, marijuana use did not interfere with their studies, work or other activities, and they had not needed to increase the amount they used to get the same high.”



I'm 31, love weed, and about 5 years ago started craving less for no apparent reason. I still love it but just crave less, whereas in my mid 20's I wanted to be super-blazed all the time.

Why do I crave less? Idk, but not because my opinion of it has changed, just a natural inclination...maybe I get high more easily, lol.


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"Music is liquid architecture; architecture is frozen music." -Johann Wolfgang Goethe

"Slow is the experience of all deep fountains: long have they to wait until they know what has fallen into their depths." -Nietzsche

My avatar is called "Inner Sanctum" by Luke Brown.

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OfflineReal cool guy
Stranger

Registered: 04/17/14
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Last seen: 9 years, 10 months
Did you even read the study?? [Re: dwnlw2slw]
    #19884770 - 04/22/14 07:21 PM (9 years, 11 months ago)

Your comments are misleading.  In a nut shell the study found grey matter in the brain to be denser in recreational users then none users.  It concludes with the study was not conclusive and further research is needed. I fact the study didn't go into any detail as to what dense grey matter could mean.... I think you smoked a big fat one before going online. Admit it!?

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Offlinedwnlw2slw
METANOIA


Registered: 12/20/13
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Last seen: 11 months, 5 days
Re: Did you even read the study?? [Re: Real cool guy]
    #19895107 - 04/24/14 07:54 PM (9 years, 11 months ago)

Quote:

Real cool guy said:
Your comments are misleading.  In a nut shell the study found grey matter in the brain to be denser in recreational users then none users.  It concludes with the study was not conclusive and further research is needed. I fact the study didn't go into any detail as to what dense grey matter could mean.... I think you smoked a big fat one before going online. Admit it!?



Who's comments are misleading? Who is going off on a limb about how conclusive the results are and how the article says that no more research is needed?

I'm just wondering what about who's comments are misleading since you're accusing them of being too high to sort that out.

It could not have been mine; I was merely offering a little tidbit about my experience with my regular dose of weed decreasing over the years.


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"Music is liquid architecture; architecture is frozen music." -Johann Wolfgang Goethe

"Slow is the experience of all deep fountains: long have they to wait until they know what has fallen into their depths." -Nietzsche

My avatar is called "Inner Sanctum" by Luke Brown.

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OfflineReal cool guy
Stranger

Registered: 04/17/14
Posts: 6
Last seen: 9 years, 10 months
Re: Did you even read the study?? [Re: dwnlw2slw]
    #19895247 - 04/24/14 08:24 PM (9 years, 11 months ago)

Sorry, I'm still trying to figure out how to use this site.

The NORML guy/gal is misleading.

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OfflineHygrocybe
Walkin Wonderland
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Registered: 06/06/09
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Re: Did you even read the study?? [Re: Real cool guy]
    #19895417 - 04/24/14 09:07 PM (9 years, 11 months ago)

https://liorpachter.wordpress.com/2014/04/17/does-researching-casual-marijuana-use-cause-brain-abnormalities/

A Berkeley professor has found a number of damning flaws in this research.

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Offlinedwnlw2slw
METANOIA


Registered: 12/20/13
Posts: 432
Last seen: 11 months, 5 days
Re: Did you even read the study?? [Re: Hygrocybe]
    #19900213 - 04/25/14 07:48 PM (9 years, 10 months ago)

Quote:

Hygrocybe said:
https://liorpachter.wordpress.com/2014/04/17/does-researching-casual-marijuana-use-cause-brain-abnormalities/

A Berkeley professor has found a number of damning flaws in this research.



Amazingly good find Hygrocybe. This article goes above my head more often than not. I can't believe this professor would go this in-depth and care so much and he says he's never smoked. Mr. Lior Prachter is that Impossibly Noble scientist we all hear about. We need more like him on our side!


--------------------
"Music is liquid architecture; architecture is frozen music." -Johann Wolfgang Goethe

"Slow is the experience of all deep fountains: long have they to wait until they know what has fallen into their depths." -Nietzsche

My avatar is called "Inner Sanctum" by Luke Brown.

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