Yes there is some concern for impaired brain development in adolescences who are ‘heavy’ cannabis users. HEAVY USE! Heavy use of any psychoactive substance during adolescence causes impairment of brain development and the same is true of a host of non-psychactive substances. The last link you provided is not a medical study but a theory and uses the terms “may”, “possibly”, “further studies should”.
There are other anti-cannabis studies that have been used that had no data and still others proven to be a pact of lies.
The medical studies of the medical uses of cannabis which is completely non-toxic are in the thousands. The Israeli’s are years ahead of the rest of the world in the use of medical cannabis and the success of the treatments in their health care system are utterly amazing. Educate yourself!
Some peoples brains are not fully developed till age 25 that is not a figure that can be used universally for brain development.
Here is why I bring up alcohol. Millions dead from the use of! Over a dozen deadly diseases because of alcohol use. Alcohol is chemically addictive unlike cannabis. The violence, abuse, property destruction and murders caused by those under the influence of alcohol is known by all. Who doesn’t know someone who died from alcohol use...or someone who was harmed or killed by someone intoxicated by alcohol? We all do! Add to that the billions of dollars wasted in health care and criminal justice system and other areas of society from alcohol use. Yet there is a double standard by people like you who won’t address the alcohol problem and yet attribute unsubstantiated problems with cannabis use. Why? None of those problems or costs are caused by cannabis use! But we have spent close to 100 billion dollars making people criminals for smoking a plant.
Do you want to prohibit alcohol and make those who consume alcohol criminals? How about answering the question?
Some studies have indicated that the brain damage occurs with sporadic (once per week) use, and that the effects are durable, with impairments in initiative and ambition being still present two years after last use.
That last link is most certainly a medical study, and uses the language of researchers worldwide. In ALL studies, the data is always presented as fact, and the interpretation of the data is presented with terms of uncertainty to indicate the fact that other interpretations of data are possible, or that further study might reveal factors not considered in the present study. Study authors make the best interpretation possible with the data, but it is impossible to get ALL of the facts and consider EVERY alternative in the course of a single study. Unfortunately, that particular study is behind a paywall--what I linked is only an abstract, meaning that it is a very short summary of the full study. In the full study, the authors probably develop several alternative explanations for the data before settling on the one they consider most likely, that was included in the abstract.
There are other anti-cannabis studies that have been used that had no data and still others proven to be a pact of lies.
Where do you get that information? From NORML? NORML has a vested interest in misrepresenting studies; I wouldn't put much credibility in any of its claims.
If anything, I have seen some pro-legalization authors manage to publish articles in the medical literature that downplay the long-term effects of marijuana use. But when I come across an article like that, that stands out because its conclusions are so different from the majority of articles, I look at author affiliation--if the authors work at some pro-drug liberalization organization (like NORML), then their conclusions are highly suspect. Often, the pro-drug liberalization articles in the medical literature are not studies at all, but opinion pieces, where any included data was cherry-picked from real studies.
The medical studies of the medical uses of cannabis which is completely non-toxic are in the thousands. The Israeli’s are years ahead of the rest of the world in the use of medical cannabis and the success of the treatments in their health care system are utterly amazing. Educate yourself!
I *do* educate myself, by reading the medical literature (which is all I do, every day). I have yet to see ANY studies that establish medical benefits of marijuana use. It isn't for lack of looking; the studies just aren't there. Which tells me that there are NOT studies that actually support "medical marijuana" use (not that they aren't being done, but that they do not have results that verify medical uses of marijuana). If there are, in fact, chemicals in marijuana that could have therapeutic use, then they need to be extracted from the marijuana and tested separately, in a controlled manner--just like any other drug of natural origin (which make up a large part of our pharmaceutical inventory).
Some peoples brains are not fully developed till age 25 that is not a figure that can be used universally for brain development.
Actually, humans do not mature at vastly different rates. There is probably some variation around that number, but the age of 25 has been pretty well established as when the brain finally stops developing. Other body systems mature at different rates--a friend told me that the immune system continues to develop until around age 18, for example.
Here is why I bring up alcohol.
Once again, you keep bringing up orange sherbet when I am trying to talk about apples. The characteristics of marijuana use and its effects on the developing brain must be talked about within that context--the mechanisms of alcohol's effects on the body are completely irrelevant to that discussion. I think that alcohol is a favorite diversion of pro-marijuana use activists--every time the harmful effects of marijuana come up, they just yell "But alcohol!!!!" as if that is at all informative about the deleterious effects of marijuana. It isn't. If there is another thread about the effects of alcohol, and I have something to say about it, I will do so in THAT thread.