Long-term effects of Cannabis | Hacker News Reader

Long-term effects of Cannabis

pnas.org

16 pointsakg26 comments

Full text PDF http://ernstchan.com.nyud.net/fefe/src/1346163651220.pdf

Actual title is "Persistent cannabis users show neuropsychological decline from childhood to midlife".

Realistically, whats the chance you can get a statistically significant result in the very hostile environment that surrounds cannabis use from such a very broad study?

They couldn't closely control the purity, variety or frequency of cannabis use. They obviously can't control for social stigma.

I guess this is just my general displeasure at articles fishing for correlations in a sea of bad data, longing for that resolving barrier of "statistical significance".

Normally I would agree with you, but the controls you are calling for are unrealistic. While I'm no expert in the field, this is clearly not the first study to suggest long-term cognitive decline in adolescent-onset users, and any evidence that can support previous findings, albeit very small, is important to consider.

I think the authors are correct in stating that there is a popular and naive belief among adolescents that cannabis is safe - especially in moderation - and the evidence to date does nothing but refute that. Hell, in this study they found a statistically significant IQ drop (over the course of 20 years) for adolescent-onset users that only smoked 14 days out of the year on average (the median, to be precise). Even if they do put forth incomplete or questionable conclusions, teens should be exposed to more of these findings and be allowed to think for themselves. They certainly should not have to endure the inane public service announcements that merely reinforce the belief that marijuana is not actually "that bad."

There is an even more popular and naive belief that drinking alcohol is safe. With the current social conventions and legislation the consumption of this solvent is pervasive and deemed acceptable, while other drugs which are objectively less harmful are criminalized ferociously. It has to be said that all this is a rather arbitrary state of affairs.

This definitely echoes my own observations. Due to various circumstances, in my life I have so far been thoroughly exposed to numerous, unconnected groups of drug users – all of which were smoking weed more or less regularly, and almost all of which were losers. I am very happy to find out about this study, and I hope it receives an adequate exposure.

Sounds like you've never met a graphic designer.

Or a programmer.

or a successful entrepreneur

But you don't know how much more successful they could be without smoking pot regularly.

thanks, I didn't want to say it myself :)

You probably have met more pot smokers than you realize. Not everyone goes around advertising it.

Let's see who funded the study: (* added for emphasis) "This research received support from UK Medical Research Council Grants G0100527 and MR/K00381X/1, US National Institute on Aging Grant AG032282, US National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH077874, and US National Institute on Drug Abuse* Grant P30 DA023026. Additional support was provided by the Jacobs Foundation."

I agree adolescents probably shouldn't partake, but for adults, there's far worse things.

The content is behind a pay wall

Welcome to the wonderful world of publicly funded science publication!

can anyone name one figure who had an important contribution to mankind, and smoked weed?

Carl Sagan

Thanks, I didn't know

Hunter S. Thompson

Great idea for a tumblog!

Richard Feynman.

Richard Branson

Ted Turner

Ben Goertzel

Steve Jobs?

Bill Hicks

Lincoln, Gandhi, anyone who has ever made good music.

So wait, let me get this straight. Using cannabis irregularly means that I will lose about one IQ point by the time I hit middle age? If there was ever a reason to smoke up!

6 IQ points is a bigger deal, but for any of the other groups, the effects are certainly fairly minor..

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