Alert to Pot-Heads!!

[Bronco]

Heavy Pot Use Lowers IQ

Negative Effect Not Seen with Light Marijuana Use By Jennifer Warner

April 2, 2002 -- Smoking five or more marijuana joints a week can make you feel stupid -- really. A new study shows heavy marijuana use can actually lower your IQ (intelligence quotient).

Researchers say it's one of the first studies to look at the long-term effects of marijuana on intelligence. Although the immediate, mind-numbing effects of marijuana are well known, it's been difficult to study the long-term effects on users because researchers often don't have a starting point before marijuana use began on which to base their measurements.

In this study, which appears in the April 2 issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, researchers compared the IQ scores of 70 participants before they started smoking pot (aged 9-12) with their current scores at age 17-20. Among heavy users who currently smoked more than five joints a week, IQ scores dropped by an average of 4.1 points.

Researchers say that drop might seem minor, but it's about the same degree of IQ reduction found among children who were exposed to an average of three drinks a day in the womb. And it's more than the decline found in children exposed to cocaine in the womb or to low levels of lead as infants.

But among light users (fewer than five joints a week), researchers found gains in IQ scores of about 5.8 points. Former users and non-users also had slight increases in their scores -- of 3.5 and 2.6, respectively.

The study authors say these finding have several limitations and should be interpreted with caution. The size of the study was small and did not look at the length of marijuana use. The young age of the participants may have also tempered some of the potential long-term effects of the drug.

Researchers say that marijuana has grown in popularity among youth in the last four years, so more study is needed to fully understand the consequences of both current and previous marijuana use.

[sobo]

quote:

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Originally posted by Bronco:

...Researchers say that marijuana has grown in popularity among youth in the last four years, so more study is needed to fully understand the consequences of both current and previous marijuana use.

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hmmmmmmmmm... more study is needed. Sounds like a call to action, guys. Smoke 'em if you got 'em!

[Dru]

The study also found that even heavy marijuana users (5 or more joints per week) totally regained all their lost IQ if they smoked no joints at all for a period of a few weeks.

[Country_Jake]

The only reson it would make you supid is if you got stoned and did nothing stimulating... wich a lot of stoners do... If you kill brain cells and then don't re-grow or re-attach your dendrites to them, you will obviously lose IQ... but that just comes down to a lazzyness factor and not so much on the useage of the herbs... It's just like drinking... you get drunk (kill some brain cells), come home dich your coat, keys, walet, and what ever else, before going to bed... in the morning you search for your shit for hours because your just that much dumber and you can't remember where you put them... In the case of young people smokin' pot, they are usually stoned wile at school, or wile learning how to do something new, and then the next day forget, because they where stoned at the time... I don't know anybody that hasn't smoked pot at one point in their lives!!!

[specialed]

Well atleast its not addictive. I've been smoking for eight years and I'm not addicted.

[b-rock]

I heard about a British study recently that indicated smoking pot was equivelant to moderate to light exercise (guessing increased heart rate?). Time for some training anyone?

[Country_Jake]

b-rock could have some thing here, when I was at the peak of my in take level, I was really in active, pysicly, not mentaly... but yet I stayed oproximently the same weight, and blood pressure as when I was heavy into my CC sprots, or even now when I'm pretty active...

[mmcmurra]

quote:

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Originally posted by Bronco:

Researchers say that drop might seem minor, but it's about the same degree of IQ reduction found among children who were exposed to an average of three drinks a day in the womb. And it's more than the decline found in children exposed to cocaine in the womb or to low levels of lead as infants.

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Wow! And just how do they measure IQ of the infants before drug abuse to calculate the IQ reduction? "Okay, ma'am, on the sonogram you can see the infant is holding up four fingers, when asked to add 2 + 2. Now drink!"

[glen]

It is interesting how quickly we bash on the quality of the anecdotal science of the effects of climbing on cliff ecosystems (see other post) but how quick we are to quote snippets of other studies that tell us what we want to hear wiht regard to our own habits. Am I correct in noting a double standard here?

As to pot making you smarter, that's a hard sell. The only substance that has been clinically shown to make people have increased mental capability is caffeine and that has also been shown to decrease the amount of information that is transferred from short to long term memory (now, where did I put my coffee mug again? Dammit!).

If you choose to smoke, do it because you enjoy the effects, not because you think it will make you smarter (if you even believe IQ tests are worth anything to begin with). There may be something to be said for habing seen the world from a different perspective though.

Well, reading back over this, I'm sure to see some pretty good amounts of spray/flaming...

[rbw1966]

Marijuana Linked to Sitting Around and Getting High The National Institute of Health released the results of a controversial new study today, one that links the drug marijuana to sitting around and getting high. The study, a comprehensive five-year survey of drug use among Americans, also suggests a possible connection between marijuana and getting baked off your ass. Aside from its uses in making cloth, providing life-saving medicine and constructing rope, the cannabis plant has also been found to get you stoned off your ass. "We have found that where there's marijuana," explained Institute spokesperson Roger Krell, "there's also a good chance of finding stoners on a couch passing around a bong." Krell added that in such situations, "There is also a strong likelihood of finding incense, a TV, and some chips, usually Ruffles."

Krell would neither confirm nor deny the alleged link between marijuana and Pink Floyd's The Wall. He would confirm, however, that the album rules. "There is some seriously fucked-up shit on that album," he said. "Especially side two. Mother do you think they'll drop the bomb..."

Marijuana, or "pot," as it is called on the street, is a harmless drug that helps you relax and feel mellow. Its only known side-effects are occasional uncontrollable laughter and mild hunger, or "the munchies."

Not everyone agrees with the survey's findings. "Getting high is the least of marijuana's uses," said Matt Henner, President of Hemp For Victory and a total pothead. "The ancient Egyptians used hemp to build the pyramids. In the 1930s, the WPA used it to construct bridges and dams. Today it is used for medicine and as a non-polluting alternative to gasoline." Henner then admitted he was "wasted beyond belief."

According to experts, drug use among 15-24 year olds is cool. "That's really the cool age to do drugs," said U.S. Drug Czar Bertrand Seaver. "When you're young, that's the thing to do. In fact, studies show that teenagers who smoke pot are far more likely to be accepted by the in-crowd."

While drug use among young people is cool, experts say older people who still do drugs are losers. "A young person who does drugs is healthy and normal," said Harvard sociologist Beth Henterpen. "But if a guy's like 45, and he's still getting high, it's like, 'Get a life!'"

Marijuana also has been proven to have the wonderful side-effect of enhanced sexual sensations, enabling some users to achieve transcendental states of erotic bliss. The study found that this link, however, was severely limited in many subjects because they had, due to sitting around all the time, never actually met members of the opposite sex. "But if they did," said Krell, "then it'd be amazing."

So far, the study has met with formal protest by only two groups. The Alabama-based Center for the Christian Family, claimed the findings to be terribly inaccurate, noting marijuana's ability to "make users think they can fly and jump out of buildings, like on Quincy, as well as its tendency to induce demon possession, homicidal rampages, and homosexuality."

Another group to object to the study was California rapping group Cypress Hill. "Marijuana's not linked to sitting around, man... It's linked to cruising the Barrio with a 40 and a 12 gauge, blowing pendejos away," said group member DJ Muggs. "Hand onna pump, puffin' on a blunt... la la la la laaaaaaaaaaa..."

Courtesy of The Onion.

[Country_Jake]

nice post rob...

[Zenolith]

hey, i bash all science equally (especially canadian science). so, ask a psychology professor what they think of an IQ test anyway. as for me, pot will make me drop my ski pole in a deep creek and briefly consider a tyrolean off of rob's bumper to go get it and then decide to circumscise dick's ridge instead. wait [puff] that came out wrong.. heh heh.

[Paul_detrick]

If you smoke a lot, you might become smart enough, to be a Ice climber, like Fred says you don't have to be smart to climb, in fact it hurts.

For the sake of spray, I have killed more brain cells than should be aloud and walk around, that don't make it kool. Today I choose not to kill anymore, but it's kool if you do, how else are we going to get more ice climbers.

[johnny]

Was that a real study or what? There are so many holes in the methods/ideas presented that the whole thing could be used for mosquito mesh.

I was a bonafide wake-n-bake for a good 8 years and only stopped smoking to actually finish college. I always felt a couple feet left of center when I was getting high all the time. It was great till I tried to work out hydrology equations and study organic chemistry..... The effects are definately short term, they are reversible if you back off for a while. And the enhanced sexual experience part is oh so very true!!!!!!

They don't call it dope for nothing.......

[schlangeschmecker]

quote:

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Originally posted by johnny:

And the enhanced sexual experience part is oh so very true!!!!!!

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Ya, keep it in your Lederhosen already, OK buddy? Und by de vay, how do you spark that bowl und milk your vorm at ze same time, huh?

[RURP]

This is RURP:

Once again, Schlangelieber, you make a horse's ass out of yourself with your pretensions of being Germanic. It is pitiful! Stop pulling at your aftskin and come up with some other manner of discourse. RURP has spoken.P.S. You sound like a Big Wall Lightweight!

[allthumbs]

rurp does donkeydick

[schlangeschmecker]

Herr RURP,

I began to thinking you haf disappeared, ya? I dink your big vall spray is, how does von say, now only a big vall dribble, now dat you no longer haf Schlangeschmecker to haul you up difficult nailing pitches (und keeep you warm in your portalege). Remember? Vee used to refer to such as a hanging Palais de Amour. Anyvay, ya, I miss you alzo. Und, sometimes I vunder, doss Herr RURP still desire to be fed a few links from der Sausagemeister, Herr Schlangeschmecker?

Tschuss.

[Dechristo]

Still pertinent & puerilely funny.