Cannabis smoking 'permanently lowers IQ'

The Telegraph ^ | 8:00PM BST 27 Jul 2012 | By Stephen Adams, Medical Correspondent

[DannyTN]

Teenagers who regularly smoke cannabis are putting themselves at risk of permanently damaging their intelligence, according to a landmark study.

[Just another Joe]

Uh..premis?

Sue me. I'm not a touch typist, I didn't get the 'e'.

[Just another Joe]

I did read the article.

I'm still not sure I agree with their conclusion that damage is permanent.

Is it possible? Maybe.

But on the basis of their study, I don't think they can conclusively say that damage, if any, is permanent.

Just reading the article I can pick out inconsistencies that make me wonder if the study was all that great.

If it's not just lousy writing by the author of the article.

[tacticalogic]

I’ve been wondering what effect other drugs have on developing minds, if marijuana can cause an 8 point drop in IQ. Eight points is a lot, when some of these kids are in double digits to begin with.

I think inhalants (eg "huffing" paint) may be the worst in terms of brain damage. There's been some comments with regards to comparison of alcohol and marijuana mostly implying that this proves marijuana is more dangerous than alcohol, but to say that you'd need to compare these results to the results from a group of people who started drinking alcohol regularly as adolescents, basically getting drunk at least 4 days a week, every week for many years.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

Sounds like you live in a community with dogsh*t parents.

Are you a conservative? Do you feel like the government should step in and govern like parents should govern their children?

I swear to God, I don't understand self-styled conservatives who feel that government should step in and intervene at such a diminutive threshold - the threshold they would apply to the parent-child relationship. Ours is a system of laws devised to govern ADULTS, not children.

If you feel like you need government to be your babysitter, I'm questioning your status as a conservative here on this forum.

[DannyTN]

Bipolar though has soared. And there is active debate about whether Schitzo and bipolar are the same illness.

[JustSayNoToNannies]

"But here's the conundrum: while marijuana went from being a secret shared by a small community of hepcats and beatniks in the 1940s and '50s to a rite of passage for some 70% of youth by the turn of the century, rates of schizophrenia in the U.S. have remained flat, or possibly declined. For as long as it has been tracked, schizophrenia has been found to affect about 1% of the population." (http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2005559,00.html)

Bipolar though has soared. And there is active debate about whether Schitzo and bipolar are the same illness.

The fact that one has "soared" and the other remained flat would strongly suggest that they are not the same illness. And any correlation between marijuana use and bipolar disorder can as well be explained by a common cause that predisposes one to both marijuana use (perhaps in a misguided attempt to self-medicate) and to later bipolar disorder.

[DannyTN]

"perhaps in a misguided attempt to self-medicate"

The way more alcohol eases a hangover?

[JustSayNoToNannies]

The way alcohol temporarily masks other problems, including psychological problems.