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Pirate_Patrick
Stranger

Registered: 04/20/05
Posts: 342
Last seen: 17 years, 1 month
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Marijuana again tied to memory problems
#5397902 - 03/14/06 06:01 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Link
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who regularly smoke marijuana may find their memories growing hazy over time, a study published Monday suggests.
In a study of long-term and shorter-term marijuana users, researchers in Greece found that both groups performed more poorly on tests of memory, attention and other cognitive abilities than a comparison group who'd only occasionally used the drug.
Long-term users - who'd smoked four or more joints per week for at least 10 years - showed the greatest deficits.
The findings, published in the journal Neurology, add to the conflicting body of research on the effects of marijuana on the brain. While many studies have suggested that long-time pot smoking dulls memory, attention span and mental acuity, some have found no large differences in these skills between marijuana users and non-users.
One recent analysis of 15 studies found only minor effects on memory among long-time pot users, and no clear effect on attention, language, reasoning and a number of other cognitive functions.
One problem is that it's difficult for studies such as the current one to establish a definite cause-and-effect relationship between marijuana and intellectual deficits, Dr. Lambros Messinis, the study's lead author, told Reuters Health.
Though the researchers accounted for a number of variables -- like education, use of other drugs and the presence of clinical depression -- it's tough to control for all the factors that could make heavy marijuana users different from other people, according to Messinis.
Still, he and his colleagues say, their findings are in line with certain past studies linking heavy, long-term pot smoking to "subtle" deficits in intellectual abilities.
The study included 40 marijuana users ages 17 to 49 who were in a drug abuse treatment program; all had used the drug frequently for at least five years, but half -- those considered long-term users -- had smoked for 10 years or more. They were compared with 24 adults the same age who had used pot no more than 20 times in their lives.
Overall, both long- and shorter-term marijuana users performed more poorly on tests of memory, attention and mental-processing speed. The proportion of study participants deemed "impaired," according to the researchers, was highest in the long-term group and lowest in the comparison group.
Long-time pot users showed the greatest problems on tests where they were asked to learn and remember a series of words. They were "significantly" below the published norms for these tests, according to Messinis and his colleagues.
It's not yet clear whether the intellectual deficits linked to marijuana are lasting, Messinis said, but research "generally supports" the notion that these problems are reversible after longer periods of abstinence. People in his study were required to have been abstinent only for the 24 hours before taking the tests.
Another unknown, according to Messinis, is whether marijuana use at a young age may affect the brain differently than use during adulthood. Knowledge in this area, he said, is still "poor."
SOURCE: Neurology, March 14, 2006.
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chodamunky
Cheers!

Registered: 02/28/02
Posts: 2,030
Loc: sailing the seas of chees...
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Re: Marijuana again tied to memory problems [Re: Pirate_Patrick]
#5398648 - 03/14/06 11:06 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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I was gonna respond this post but now i forgot what i was gonna say
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OneMoreRobot3021


Registered: 06/06/03
Posts: 61,024
Loc: the sky
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Re: Marijuana again tied to memory problems [Re: chodamunky]
#5398660 - 03/14/06 11:09 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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-------------------- Acid doesn't give you truths; it builds machines that push the envelope of perception. Whatever revelations came to me then have dissolved like skywriting. All I really know is that those few years saddled me with a faith in the redemptive potential of the imagination which, however flat, stale and unprofitable the world seems to me now, I cannot for the life of me shake. -Erik Davis
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beavis190
(.Y.)'s


Registered: 01/25/06
Posts: 432
Loc: lost in my head
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Re: Marijuana again tied to memory problems [Re: OneMoreRobot3021]
#5400815 - 03/14/06 07:56 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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well i bet if they smoked weed for 10yrs they probably did some other drug in between...and i bet they got a bunch of really smart people to take the tests against the druggies to make them look bad
--------------------
Confucius Says ... Man who put cock in Peanut Butter jar is Fucking Nuts. Man with tool in woman mouth May not necessarily be dentist. Schoolboy who play with schoolgirl during wrong period, get caught red-handed. He who fish in other's hole often catch crabs. Man who go to sleep with itchy butt, wake with smelly fingers... Man young when he snatches kisses, old when he kisses snatches.
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spores
haploid


Registered: 02/18/99
Posts: 2,486
Loc: Washington
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Re: Marijuana again tied to memory problems [Re: beavis190]
#5401067 - 03/14/06 09:11 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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hrmm, i think they may have found evidence that people who go to/get sent to drug abuse treatment programs to quit marijuana are generally not the sharpest tools in the shed...

DH
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shafty
fungus is urfriend

Registered: 05/06/05
Posts: 78
Last seen: 16 years, 4 months
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Re: Marijuana again tied to memory problems [Re: spores]
#5401508 - 03/14/06 10:56 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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i agree to all of the above^^. but i will say that i've been a consistent smoker, not everyday but at least three times a week, and at times i feel a little slow or forgetful after a good binge or no breaks for awhile. i don't think they're wrong for saying that marijuana does impair you for a little while. i wouldn't say permanently, as i do notice my head to clear considerably after a couple week break. but i gotta admit, i'm kinda stoned right now so to hell with them. let them brood and i'll just mind my business and smoke illegally.
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dblaney
Human Being

Registered: 10/03/04
Posts: 7,894
Loc: Here & Now
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Re: Marijuana again tied to memory problems [Re: Pirate_Patrick]
#5402682 - 03/15/06 09:34 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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The study included 40 marijuana users ages 17 to 49 who were in a drug abuse treatment program; all had used the drug frequently for at least five years, but half -- those considered long-term users -- had smoked for 10 years or more. They were compared with 24 adults the same age who had used pot no more than 20 times in their lives.
My goodness this study is incredibly biased! The sample of long term users is small, but more importantly, NOT RANDOM! The sample of 24 adults is too small to be statistically significant and leaves a lot of room for bias.
This survey is, not surprisingly, poorly conducted. Any conclusions drawn from this study are extremely weak and biased, and should under no circumstances be considered representative of the total population. This is elementary statistics, the author/s should be fucking ashamed.
-------------------- "What is in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of human suffering?" "Belief is a beautiful armor But makes for the heaviest sword" - John Mayer Making the noise "penicillin" is no substitute for actually taking penicillin. "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." -Abraham Lincoln
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Sinthetic
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Re: Marijuana again tied to memory problems [Re: dblaney]
#5402777 - 03/15/06 10:12 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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That's how most studies on marijuana are conducted. Remember that the people who fund these studies want it to be illegal.
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SirFrancisBacon
Frog


Registered: 03/14/05
Posts: 283
Loc: low earth orbit
Last seen: 1 year, 7 months
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Re: Marijuana again tied to memory problems [Re: shafty]
#5420884 - 03/19/06 11:39 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
shafty said: let them brood and i'll just mind my business and smoke illegally.
ha. i love it.
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wilshire
free radical


Registered: 05/11/05
Posts: 2,421
Loc: SE PA
Last seen: 14 years, 3 days
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Re: Marijuana again tied to memory problems [Re: Pirate_Patrick]
#5428737 - 03/22/06 05:45 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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is this news?
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