Posted on 02/11/2015 3:15:57 PM PST by Mount Athos
A study more than thirty years in the making found that smoking marijuana permanently lowers intelligence, or IQ. Frequent pot smokers (even those who had given up marijuana) tended to have deficits in memory, concentration, and overall IQ. The reduction in IQ for those who smoked pot heavily prior to age 18 was most pronounced: an average of eight points. An eight point reduction in IQ is enough to have a significant, negative impact upon your life. To put it into context, consider that individuals with an IQ of 110 have an average net worth of $71,000 and individuals with an IQ of 120 have an average net worth of $128,000.
Whats significant about this research is that it was a longitudinal study: researchers followed and tested subjects from birth through to age 38, noting when and how frequently they picked up habits like drug use. Previous studies scrutinized marijuana use at a single point in time, which failed to eliminate the possibility that people with lower IQs are more likely to smoke pot. The longitudinal research provided a baseline IQ score for all subjects, which revealed changes in IQ scores as they picked up new habits, such as smoking pot.
By following subjects for decades, the researchers were able to measure the lasting effects of adolescent marijuana use (even after subjects gave up smoking pot). These effects last because the teenage brain is still developing at a rapid pace; myriad new pathways for thinking are formed during this period while others are weeded out. When teenagers expose their brains to a damaging substance like marijuana, the effects arent just drastic
theyre permanently etched into the brain. The reduction in IQ from smoking marijuana regularly was much greater for those who started smoking as teenagers
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
I’ll throw this out there...
Maybe people are more inclined to smoke pot if they have a lower IQ (?), smart people stay away. Would you not get the same statistics - people who used pot a lot since youth have a lower IQ?
What about 4 times two nights a week?
I work 7 days a week,.....I guess I'm "null and void".
LOL. I was wondering if anybody would catch that. I dont feel as bad about my younger days filled with partying when I say it that way.
Dave’s not Here!
No, I am talking about the 24/7 porno perverts like the ones we read about raping and such. Schoolteachers and that sort of thing.
The extant evidence base draws on casecontrol studies of recruited cannabis users and comparison subjects.
So the "Participants were members of the Dunedin Study, a prospective study of a birth cohort of 1,037 individuals followed from birth (1972/1973) to age 38 y."...were the comparison subjects, not the actual cannabis users.
The rest of "the study" should be just as entertaining.
Oh, BTW...Edited by Michael I. Posner, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, and approved July 30, 2012 (received for review April 23, 2012)
Why did it take 3 years for Forbes to write this article?
Accumulating evidence suggests that long-term, heavy cannabis use may cause enduring neuropsychological impairment...
Oh yeah, keep those stereotypical comments coming WODdies.
....and makes them better Democrats.
Those damn models!
Nope. But it will reduce opportunities for it.
So why the hoopla?
Not your problem. Protect your kids.
Only one, my wife.
And she’s just fine.
Except for marrying me, of course.
She does mention that there are parts of her life she only vaguely remembers. That might be related to pot use.
But if pot use reduces IQ, I’d hate to see what she would have been like without it. She operates around genius level now.
This explains the ‘quality’ of the arguments in favor of pot legalization.
Then you said..doing anything to excess....you become null and void..And that's where I said I work 7 days a week...and must be null and void. : )
Um, it is called “dope” for a reason...
It is almost like having a couple few beers.
So it wouldn’t change anything, you just want drugs legalized.
I have had the same experience. I use pot a lot in high school. In my early twenties I gave it up, at my girlfriend's insistence (I really wanted to keep her and we soon married). Around ten years after leaving high school I noticed my friends who still smoked pot were going no where in careers and life, and didn't care. I had moved on to six-figure salaries and they were still doing simple delivery or other minimum wage jobs. Plus they looked haggard and old. They lost the incentive to better themselves.
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