Study Shows Heavy Adolescent Pot Use Permanently Lowers IQ

Forbes ^ | 2/10/2015 | Travis Bradberry

[fuzzylogic]

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?

[Osage Orange]

Once a week...once every 3 days..?

What about 4 times two nights a week?

I work 7 days a week,.....I guess I'm "null and void".

[barmag25]

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.

[Big Red Badger]

Dave’s not Here!

[eastforker]

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.

[philman_36]

At the very beginning of the study (paragraph 3) is this...

The extant evidence base draws on case–control 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.

[OrangeHoof]

....and makes them better Democrats.

[philman_36]

Oh my...Results showed that associations between persistent cannabis dependence and all four WAIS-IV indexes could be equated without a resultant deterioration in model fit (Δχ2 = 2.13, df = 3, P = 0.55), which suggests that impairment was not statistically significantly different across neuropsychological domains.

Those damn models!

[Little Ray]

Nope. But it will reduce opportunities for it.

[philman_36]

Oh my...The study’s results must be interpreted in the context of its limitations. First, although we were able to rule out a set of plausible alternative explanations for the association between persistent cannabis use and neuropsychological functioning, such as premorbid neuropsychological deficit and hard-drug and alcohol dependence among persistent cannabis users, our data cannot definitively attest to whether this association is causal.

So why the hoopla?

[Little Ray]

Not your problem. Protect your kids.

[A Cyrenian]

[Little Ray]

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.

[gogeo]

This explains the ‘quality’ of the arguments in favor of pot legalization.

[Osage Orange]

Well...you said...Sex Act.

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. : )

[piytar]

Um, it is called “dope” for a reason...

[dforest]

It is almost like having a couple few beers.

[ansel12]

So it wouldn’t change anything, you just want drugs legalized.

[Steve_Seattle]

"Studies show that drug laws lead to wrong doors being kicked in, pets and innocent people being shot, property being stolen under color of law, and prison beds being filled with non-violent offenders."

It doesn't have to be that way. There are such things as priorities and common sense. Back when homosexual behavior was illegal in most places, actual arrests of homosexuals for such behavior were rare, and usually confined to situations when that behavior took place in public. The police typically weren't going door-to-door seeking out homosexuals.

Enforcement of anti-marijuana laws could be something like that, posing just enough threat to discourage widespread or flagrant use without threatening civil liberties, due process, or wasting billions of dollars.

[roadcat]

When I run in to them from time to time they look 10 years older than the rest of us and just not the kind of people you can have a conversation with.

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.