Cannabis may shrink brain, scientists report

Really? There's nothing better to be studying? Here's some other studies that prove otherwise...

Marijuana Promotes Neuron Growth
http://www.medpot.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=27460
Marijuana May Spur New Brain Cells
http://www.treatingyourself.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=5921

*Cannabinoids promote embryonic and adult hippocampus neurogenesis
http://www.jci.org/cgi/content/full/115/11/3104

After i read this i was concerned but then i did the math and I've only been smoking 4 joints a day for the past 10 years. SO IM FINE!

I would like to do the same study only replace the 5 joints a day with a real drug like cocaine. Hmmm i wonder what the results would be. If anything this study just shows how marijuana isn't all that destructive.

Cure for Bipolar? (except for the whole memory thing, but who really uses it anymore?)

did i just write a response???? i cant remember

legalize it already is right!!! good question why dont they shift it to alcahol wich is a poison like cocaine, heroin, tylonal, and so on I agree if it was a poison to the human body it would fight it like the other things listed and get rid of it asap but this is an opinon of a pot head and we are classifid as druggies and dont know what we are talkling about and yet we may have built, fixed, plumb, electrifie,or painted your house, mowed your lawn, policed your town, took your money at the bank, opertated any motorvehicle, unlike beer all while on marij huh and its a poison? and yet alcohol is legal and marij aint huh makes me want to lite one up and think about it somemore

More ironclad steel-bar logic from our aussie partners in prohibition.
What about the long term brain effects of tobacco, alcohol, or SSRI medications?
Where are the controls in this experiment?

PLEASE!!!!if i drank everyday for 10 years i wouldnt be able to pull myself out of the pool of vomit i slept in or change my piss soaked pants....i think the munchies would do much more damage.i develop more mental problems frustrated i cant smoke bud that looks like that picture.OH MY GOD!!!!...that looks good.

gourgeos is what it is. Mary Jane bless me!

I Love the plant as well. It was beautifully designed by higher power! And, it can be consumed naturally, in its natural state unlike booze. Pot, grass, marijuana, weed, whatever you want to call it, its good. And, I LOVE the smell of it in its plant existence or when its burning. Weed also fosters PEACE! Have you ever heard of a pot smoking person (void of alcohol) getting violent? It's the alcohol guzzling politicians that start wars. If all politicians all over the world smoked weed, this world would be a Peaceful world, caring about the other person, wanting to be friends with everyone. Alcohol has proved, beyond a reasonable doubt, that it causes premature death. AND, causes people to get violent. The Beatles were right on when they chanted in their song "Everybody smoke dope, everybody smoke dope..." I must also say, the medicinal benefits of weed are overwhelmingly positive. And, the byproducts like rope, clothing, oil, fuel, and much more can have a major positive impact on our world economy. And again, it would make this world a peaceful world. Yup, the Beatles were way ahead of the times!

This study looks like it is really small scale, I'm not so sure if i trust this. To tell the truth though, to much of anything isn't good for you, these people were smoking 5 joints a day for 10 years.....thats a lot. How about they do the same study but next time make it a little more realistic.

Moderation is key.

Miracle drug... Yes.

I don't usually say things like this but OMG, that plant was BEAUTIFUL!

Your short term memory is only affected during intoxication, and the peak only lasts for about 1-2 hours after you smoke it. Since marijuana is not a poison to the human body (unlike alcohol), it can stay in our systems for up to 30 days. Now put two and two together.

what do the studies on alcoholism say?

Ok so basically after reading most of the posts. Some people still believe its a miracle drug, saving and preserving thousands of lives today. While others are still in their cloud of distrust. Well, I have only this to say to you nay sayers....
Did you know you could get cancer from looking at this screen??????!!!!!!
And do you know whats going to keep all the cancer cells from eating away at your brain and limbs causing you to be a paraplegic? Good old Mary Jane. Be grateful now or she wont be around help later.

Everything's bad for you, didn't you know? Oxygen causes cancer, get over it.
The thing about ganja, right, is that it's not just one drug. Every single female seedling could turn out to have a novel effect or property due to genetic variation.
The difference between strains derived from differing continents is amazing - any plant breeder can tell you this.
So talking about 'what cannabis does' is bullshit unless you define what you mean by 'cannabis', narrowing it down to a particular strain and its ratio of active ingredients.
Remember even sister seedlings can (and will) be different to each other in flavour and effect.

Is it really that important every time something about weed comes up. Its like kids laughing in health class over penis and vagina. Stop getting so excited about this crap. I'm over it.

5 a day? Damn. I was thinking like once or twice a month when/if I try it. Also you've got to keep in mind the smoking part of it. Smoking ANYTHING is bad for you, cigarettes are just the worst. Inhaling paper in gaseous form five times a day probably would shrink my brain. I think they should also conduct studies that don't involve joints, maybe bongs for example.

pointing to something worse does help put things in perspective. I bet that if there is brainshrinkage caused by heavy use of weed that it is not anywhere near as bad as that caused by heavy use of alcohol.

My point was that this is not really a good study. I know something about medical research and this study was really too small and narrow to be conclusive. how do we know that these heavy weed smokers were not also drinkers or users of other substances?

i don't need to make weed seem good, it is good. it saves lives and encourages harmony between individuals. i don't care if you believe that, it doesn't really matter. if you don't want to smoke, don't. just stop telling everyone else it is bad based on inadequate research.

Spoonie, Amen brother!

J_Jammer, you were the person I was talking about in my first comment. Haha.

You can take our lives, but you will never take our reefer!

Pointing to something worse doesn't make the something you're defending less bad or more good.

mafioso, i am also from texas and my joints are about your size, i was merely trying to average for people who may not have access to plentiful amounts like we do being so close to the border (thank you my mexican brothers)

I agree, the study was put out as a tool for parents to make stupid arguments to their children about why not to smoke and for the government to have something with which to respond to actual scientifically-based studies. it's like LSD changes your chromosomes. not true but parents still say it.

My joints are about 2 to 3 grams each (everything really is bigger in Texas). I smoke because it relaxes me, helps my mind be more open to noticing things that are beneficial for my design ideas and shirt designs, and it also helps me tolerate ignorant people (there are tons where I live).

The fact that people who normally make the most retarded comments on Current are against it, makes me want to smoke even more. Haha. I won't mention any names, but just look at those who were against it, and pick out the most annoying & retarded comments and you'll know who I'm talking about. Haha.

And I agree w/Spoonieday. You don't want to kill the effects of the ganj, and smoking it that much daily, you would'nt be able to even enjoy the high. This study's goal was obviously, "let's use numbers that will finally make an impact on the studies about the effects of marijuana since all the other studies proved nothing".

the girl

I agree with you 100%. I know plenty of smokers and hardly any smoke more than one (joint) a day. To smoke 5 a day for 10 years, of course that will cause some type of damage. The average user, or even slight heavy user does not smoke that often. Thats not to say that some don't smoke 5 or more, but the average certainly does not. Smoke marijauna is like most vices, in moderation it can be controlled and enjoyed to its fullest.

Peter Tosh say: Legalize it, and we did. Now I smoke two joints, before I smoke two joints and then I smoke two joints again. But I don't hear songs about the FDA poisoning human beings, the govenmental control over health care nor the stench of "bum-dumping" from hospitals, when you have no way to pay for your hospital stay. Where's my bong!

a joint is probably anywhere from .5 of a gram to 1.5 grams.... just my best guess. but probably not of really high grade stuff, who could smoke that much. i have smoked this much by myself in a day but not too many days in a row, because you just get really bored with it. it becomes un-fun.

I'm a pothead getting offended because people think that 5 joints is some huge amount...what size joint? between how many people? what grade of weed? was it really a joint every time or bong/blunt/whatever? I'm smoking my one-hitter right now and i smoke more than 5 of them a day... sooo what amounts to a joint, exactly? I don't know and i'm not sure if that study does either.

The typical cannibis user certainly isn't smoking five joints a day.

This study means nothing to a occasional or recreational smoker- and just like anything else - when you abuse something (5 joints a day!) there will be consequences.

stoners of current, stop freaking out! this study was based on 31 individuals. if you are worried about being stupid, save up and get a vaporizer. this gets rid of most of the harmful chemicals synthesized by burning the plant material.

medical patients might smoke that much, for the pain. they don't care if their brain shrinks because chances are they have some horrible illness and brain shrinkage is the least of their worries.

also, they did not say whether they screened for other drug use. Are these people solely pot-smokers or are there a myriad of drugs involved?

I smoke, alot because of fibromyalgia and a dislike of opiate medication, i've been in college three years and made only one B in that time. Marijuana, like alcohol or any other drug, affects each user in a unique way. If it makes you dumb and you don't like that, don't smoke.

you could take basically any substance imaginable, and if you used enough of it you could find negative effects. i can't imagine anyone using that much marijuana. if you drank 15 pepsi's every day you could probably find links to cancer, obesity, diabetes, and a multitude of other negative effects. does that mean we should outlaw pepsi?

I guess where they got that phrase "Pea Brain"

Alright, I guess I'll go grab my bottle of oxycontin and become a medically-sanctioned junkie.

come on!
I mean I'm sure if you had five cups of coffee a day
or 5 shots of vodka everyday or 5 cigarettes every day their would be adverse effects equivalent to that of 5 joints a day. The article has a typical cultural bias to the illegal drug that is relatively harmless.

whew finally a cure for my oversized brain

5 joints a day is just an overwhelming amount. I know alot of people who smoke alot of marijuana, and some of them are signifigantly less intelligent, remeber less and are more moody.

Some are more intelligent and insightful than the people I know who have never smoked in their life.

It depends on the person, it depends on the product, it depends on if the person cares about themselves, their world and their friends and family.

that is why, I think, marijuana is so tricky. results vary. Although I am not a marijuana fanatic, I get annoyed with those who abuse it to the point of making the whole culture around it seem like a threat...

as long as people put it after what is really important, there isn't a problem.

but there are some people out there who put it first...and they are the ones who ruin it for everyone else...because they're stupid and were probably unintelligent before starting to smoke anyways...

5 Joints a day! Is that necessary. I wouldn't be able to tie my shoes after smoking 5 joints. No wonder the participants lost gray matter.

I would say if you abuse any substance, be it pot, alcohol, Pepsi, or water, you're going to have trouble later in life.

Lol! All the stoners feel like they're being attacked by this article.

I still think that cannabis is not the pressing matter in drug culture.
I think the more important things the government should be researching is how to prevent the harder drugs from spreading.
But as usual this is probably more tricky than it sounds so by sticking to researching cannabis they can make you think its more dangerous than it really is, which is really what they are doing with this amazing 5 joint a day statistic.
Now i smoke the buddhah but never have known anyone to smoke that much on their own on a daily basis for a year.

This is just more disinformation to be used in dishonest fashion by those who want to keep the herb illegal. They would be the law enforcement, medical, and criminal elements.

Marijuana actually stimulates and grows brain cells not at all like alcohol which does the reverse.

Who smokes five fatties a day? I have rolled and lit up more than five myself but they were passed around a circle. Can't imagine smoking them by myself. After thirty years of close relations with Indica and Sativa I can attest to the health giving aspects physical, emotional, spiritual and psychological.

what a person does on their own free time is theirs to spend in which ever way they like, including something that simply grows from underground..

How about alcohol? How about prescriptions drugs? How about any illegal drug?
What separates the human animal from the other animals? Having the ability to think on how to conquer other animals and drugs.......

Total Bullshit , this amounts to nothing more then more "Reefer Madness"

j_jammer: What if the good feeling is a side-effect of the health-benefits? :)

I just want to point out the 60s, we have a lot of people still alive that smoked in that era. It was the folks who danced with LSD and Cocaine that didn't survive.

Plus, cannabis has been proven to shrink lung cancer tumors in a 10-year study. Wonder drug? In moderation, yes ...

Jammer "But as far as I can tell we're too early to figure who is really right. Once the generation that uses it more frequently gets older and the damage (if any) is noticeable then there will be strong evidence that will still be ignored."

It has been around forever. People have used it forever. Don't you think this brain shrinkage would have been apparent long before now? Hell there would be people without a brain left over from the sixties if that were true. You don't need to increase the dosage to get the desired effect either. That is for a addictive drug that builds up a tolerance. That is not the case for marijuana. It is not addictive and if you ingest it you are going to get high. Plus it doesn't damage your liver.

The amount of marijuana consumed in this study, is staggering. A normal user, who uses for medical or even recreational use, is not smoking 5 joints a day. it seems like they had to increase the dosage so much so they could get the results they wanted.

oh yeah, no, it was a defence of the pot itself actually. To me who don't know the effects first-hand, it sounds like abuse, like alcoholism, to smoke 5 or more a day. Why would you need to smoke 5 a day, every day?

Ok so... smoking pot affects short term memory... we all know that... and its a fact... I smoke, and yes, my short term memory is effected. But that doesn't mean i dont get any stimu-fucking-lation to my brain. Accually, i am more versed on alot of current events(and much more) then people I know who don't smoke. People fail to realise that mary J has been used for THOUSANDS of years by humans( and eaten by animals for who knows how long ). Get off Pots back, leagalize it already, wanna fight a bad drug? fight alcohol(I drink too)

waaaait Wait wait wait.

5 joints a day!? Or more??
I've never had a puff in my life, but if you're wasting your life smoking 5 a day, you're not getting any stimu-fucking-lation to your brain. Of course it shrinks!

I completely agree, middle_east, it is a beautiful plant. I love the smell of it. I don't have to smoke it. But I hope that if it gets legalized, that they market a freshener that smells like some nice purple kush.

All science aside, that is a beautiful plant. And you know it.

I don't think anyone who smokes will ever believe that there is damage to the brain no matter who says it. It's beneficial for them not to believe it because they can live in a delusion and still smoke.

OR

they are absolutely right and know what they are stating that there's no damage.

But as far as I can tell we're too early to figure who is really right. Once the generation that uses it more frequently gets older and the damage (if any) is noticeable then there will be strong evidence that will still be ignored.

It's like those that smoke are in some sort of religion. No matter what you state they'll always believe.

Bull Crap. They can find some jerk to say anything. I don't smoke it but I know people that have for years and this is propaganda.

I know great people who smoke and I know stupid annoying people who smoke. I think smoking MJ is stupid, but it's not my decision and according to what is known about it moderation is the key.

This study is interesting but it won't stop those that smoke. They'll do it anyway because they think they're impervious to whatever damage smoking can and will do.