Legalise cannabis?

[davieG]

BBC

Young people who smoke cannabis run the risk of a significant and irreversible reduction in their IQ, research suggests.

The findings come from a study of around 1,000 people in New Zealand.

An international team found those who started using cannabis below the age of 18 - while their brains were still developing - suffered a drop in IQ.

A UK expert said the research might explain why people who use the drug often seem to under-achieve.

For more than 20 years researchers have followed the lives of a group of people from Dunedin in New Zealand.

They assessed them as children - before any of them had started using cannabis - and then re-interviewed them repeatedly, up to the age of 38.

Having taken into account other factors such as alcohol or tobacco dependency or other drug use, as well the number of years spent in education, they found that those who persistently used cannabis suffered a decline in their IQ.

The more that people smoked, the greater the loss in IQ.

The effect was most marked in those who started smoking cannabis as adolescents.

For example, researchers found that individuals who started using cannabis in adolescence and then carried on using it for years showed an average eight-point IQ decline.

Stopping or reducing cannabis use failed to fully restore the lost IQ.

The researchers, writing in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that: "Persistent cannabis use over 20 years was associated with neuropsychological decline, and greater decline was evident for more persistent users."

"Collectively, these findings are consistent with speculation that cannabis use in adolescence, when the brain is undergoing critical development, may have neurotoxic effects."

One member of the team, Prof Terrie Moffitt of King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry, said this study could have a significant impact on our understanding of the dangers posed by cannabis use.

"This work took an amazing scientific effort. We followed almost 1,000 participants, we tested their mental abilities as kids before they ever tried cannabis, and we tested them again 25 years later after some participants became chronic users.

"Participants were frank about their substance abuse habits because they trust our confidentiality guarantee, and 96% of the original participants stuck with the study from 1972 to today.

"It is such a special study that I'm fairly confident that cannabis is safe for over-18 brains, but risky for under-18 brains."

Robin Murray, professor of psychiatric research, also at the King's College London Institute of Psychiatry but not involved in the study, said this was an impressive piece of research.

"The Dunedin sample is probably the most intensively studied cohort in the world and therefore the data are very good.

"Although one should never be convinced by a single study, I take the findings very seriously.

"There are a lot of clinical and educational anecdotal reports that cannabis users tend to be less successful in their educational achievement, marriages and occupations.

"It is of course part of folk-lore among young people that some heavy users of cannabis - my daughter callers them stoners - seem to gradually lose their abilities and end up achieving much less than one would have anticipated. This study provides one explanation as to why this might be the case.

"I suspect that the findings are true. If and when they are replicated then it will be very important and public education campaigns should be initiated to let people know the risks."

[SOCCERROO FOX]

Not suprised by this as over the summer, i went to a house were 6 kiwis all smoking joints like george best smashed pints and they were all dumb arses.

[ozleicester]

Not suprised by this as over the summer, i went to a house were 6 kiwis all smoking joints like george best smashed pints and they were all dumb arses.

To be fair... they are kiwi's, im not sure how you even measure their IQ in the first place

[purpleronnie]

To be fair... they are kiwi's, im not sure how you even measure their IQ in the first place

with his fingers?

[Steven]

This study merely confirms that legalising and regulating is the best way forward.

[davieG]

This study merely confirms that legalising and regulating is the best way forward.

...and taxing.

[Captain...]

This study merely confirms that legalising and regulating is the best way forward.

Does it though? How many more young people will smoke weed if it is legal to buy, and their big brother can get it for them. When you are 14-17 then trying drink and cigarettes is enough because it is restricted yet commonplace, most people don't get into weed until a bit later because they are happy with the buzz off drink and fags, if weed is just as available then it all young people will try it, like nearly all young kids now will have tried a cigarette and had a few drinks by the time they are 14/15.

You tell someone they are too young for something they will want it more, if it's illegal and they don't see it regularly on the street or on TV then they won't.

[MooseBreath]

Since it has been effectively decriminalised usage has gone down. It will probably go down further if fully legalised.

[Captain...]

Since it has been effectively decriminalised usage has gone down. It will probably go down further if fully legalised.

But this is not about the number of users, it is the impact on younger users, I've not seen the stats but I would imagine that cannabis use is still just as high in the under 20s demographic, which is where the damage in the study is caused.

[Heskey2011]

Legalise and tax the shit out of.

No worse than alcohol for causing antisocial behaviour or disorders that would plague the NHS and the Treasury coffers could certainly do with the massive boost a tax on this would give.

i was reading a piece in i think it was high times saying that if Spain was to legalise ganja and tax it their deficit would be wiped out in 6 years.

The main problem is that it can be grown at home by anyone with access to sun and water and it would replace the anti depressant pharma market in the US which is a multi billion doller industry.

[Daggers]

I've not seen the stats

Me neither - but it certainly goes some way to explaining the diabolical level of posting on here recently.

[Captain...]

i was reading a piece in i think it was high times saying that if Spain was to legalise ganja and tax it their deficit would be wiped out in 6 years.

The main problem is that it can be grown at home by anyone with access to sun and water and it would replace the anti depressant pharma market in the US which is a multi billion doller industry.

In Spain it is also not really illegal to grow your own, for personal use you know, when I first moved out there we opened up the window and could see this huge plant growing in the sunlight on our neighbour's balcony.

If they did legalise it and tax it, it would help, but people would still be able to grow their own and in Valencian conditions it is perfect for a bit of horticulture, so I think it may be a bit misleading that stat, based on consumption rather than sales.

Edited 28 August 2012 by Captain Shrapnel

[MooseBreath]

Me neither - but it certainly goes some way to explaining the diabolical level of posting on here recently.

Too many posts? Not enough posts? Or are you talking about the 'standard', not the 'level'? Idiot.

[MooseBreath]

But this is not about the number of users, it is the impact on younger users, I've not seen the stats but I would imagine that cannabis use is still just as high in the under 20s demographic, which is where the damage in the study is caused.

Dunno. The stats were for adult users. If anything I would have thought younger people would be the one's to use it less if it were legalised. Without the rebellious excitement of doing something illegal I doubt many kids would be interested in what is a pretty dull drug.

[lavrentis]

[Daggers]

Too many posts? Not enough posts? Or are you talking about the 'standard', not the 'level'? Idiot.

No, I mean level.

Idiot.

[MooseBreath]

No, I mean level.

Idiot.

If you learned to admit when you're wrong I guarantee your life will get at least 10% better. Plonker.

Edited 28 August 2012 by MooseBreath

[Daggers]

If you learned to admit when you're wrong I guarantee your life will get at least 10% better. Plonker.

English just doesn't appear to be your thing.

[MooseBreath]

English just doesn't appear to be your thing.

Get off my back you hypocrite. Shame on you.

[AoWW]

If you learned to admit when you're wrong I guarantee your life will get at least 10% better. Plonker.

But there was nothing wrong with Daggers using the word 'level'. I don't really get what point you're trying to make.

[MooseBreath]

But there was nothing wrong with Daggers using the word 'level'. I don't really get what point you're trying to make.

He said level when what he meant was standard. The use of level was entirely inappropriate.

[Daggers]

But there was nothing wrong with Daggers using the word 'level'. I don't really get what point you're trying to make.

His point, evidently, is that he has scant knowledge of the English language.

I suspect he has abused cannabis for too long.

[AoWW]

He said level when what he meant was standard. The use of level was entirely inappropriate.

Er, no, it wasn't.

[OzFox]

Spent a lot of time in Holland in my teens where I met a lot of people who smoked on daily basis. You could hardly have a conversation with some of them, as they appeared to be in the early stages of psychosis. Others were well on the way to being brain dead.

God knows what state they're in now. It certainly put me off the stuff.

[Bob Weasel Fox]

Many people see Cannabis as a harmless drug

i once knew a lad, well bloke, who had smoked cannabis everyday for around 20 years and when he had a row with his missus he would throw a paving slab through her car window out of temper. Cannabis chills you out? Does it fook