Slashdot Mirror
Cannabinoids Induce Brain Cell Growth?
Harlan writes "The Globe and Mail is reporting that researchers at the University of Saskatchewan are claiming that high doses of cannabinoids have induced new brain cell growth in the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for learning and memory, in rat subjects. There are some interesting potential implications in regards to high doses of cannabinoids found in substances like marijuana."
I mean, have you seen the complexity of some of those home-made bongs?
There's some serious brain power gone into engineering those bastards.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
This is just my observation but when a persons health fails in old age, a key factor seems to be failure in the nervous system. I had a great aunt who lived five years after a stroke. Her body went downhill because her brain wasn't running the show properly.
So I think treatments which can help revive the brain can also help other systems in the body.
And it is the only organ which can not be replaced in some way by machinery.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
I always suspected... uhm, what were we talking about again?
Noise Is Music Podcast.
You might grow more brain cells, but all of these new cells will be dedicated to designing more complicated bongs and imagining conspiracies to unravel, so the net functional gain is minimal.
Same thing we do every night, Pinky - get baked and munch out.
Lost: Sig, white with black letters. No collar. Reward if found!
Maybe skipping class to go smoke pot isn't such a waste of time after all...
Now that my kids have read this we can argue about, "But DAD, Slashdot says!"
My ZooLoo
Certainly that can't be in a form of inhaling. However why is that this picture is on the news? http://images.theglobeandmail.com/archives/RTGAM/i mages/20051014/wxcanna1014/1014joints.jpg
Sounds like someone just got too excited to hear the news, lite up that pipe and start posting news with whatever picture taken from pot party he/she attended.
That just proves pot smoking kills more brain cells than promotes them. I rather eat fish than inject myself with 100 times more potent form of THC into my body on daily basis, thank you very much.
"Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."
It, like, alters your mind! Wohoa!
dnuof eruc rof aixelsid
The team injected laboratory rats with a synthetic substance called HU-210, which is similar, but 100 times as potent as THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), the compound responsible for giving marijuana users a high.
..or better yet, how do I make it?
Clearly my dealer has been lying to me. He swore there was nothing stronger than his stuff. Where do I get HU-210?
bite my glorious golden ass.
US Congress will make sure this is the case. Drugs may not harm the Canadians but they do harm American people.
The authors are far more cautious in their interpretation than some of the /. readers...but then this is not that much of a surprise.
PDF (a few MBs) http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid= 1253627&blobtype=pdf
Why are rats attending a hippocampus in the first place?
This article was posted 13 minutes too late.
The mentioned research used 'canaboids', which is a group of componds resembling those found in cannabis(THC). It was already known that the brain uses neurotransmitters that are in the form of canaboids and it contains several types of receptor for it, just like opiates have human equivalents in the form of endorfines.
But similar results done with THC (Tetra Hydro Cannabinol), the main compound in hash and weed have found no evidence for this cellgrowth stimulation. So let's not jump for joy yet. One experiment/paper does not mean it has been accepted as scientific fact yet.
Besides, you can be sure that with such a hot subject and the way research is financed/politiced there will be more research 'debunking' this even if it turns out to be true after all.
This space is intentionally staring blankly at you
If you're just going to talk, pass that over here.
If you read TFA you'd have read that the original publication is due to be released in JCI, a peer reviwed journal that is quite high impact. Not Nature or Science, but not the Ulan Bator Journal of Basket Weaving Medicine either.
Actual paper can be found here.
Got this 2 weird dudes @ my university, they smoke weed(in high doses) all day long. They take Advanced Math and Graphics Programming and do it exeptionally well.
So there sure is some truth in this article(research).
fast as fast can be. you'll never catch me.
What a surprise to click on Slashdot and see news about cannabinoids - I feel like I'm reading my own site ...
... shortcut url http://cann.com/
t ml
I operate CANNABIS.COM
Some informative pages to check out:
Lots of cannabis Research information *with sources listed*
http://www.cannabis.com/research/
TR-446 Toxicology and Carcinogenesis Studies of 1-Trans-Delta9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (CAS No. 1972-08-3) in F344 Rats and B6C3F1 Mice (Gavage Studies)
http://www.cannabis.com/research/tr446study.shtml
(mirror of the study published by the U.S. National Toxicity Program)
Cannabis News
http://www.cannabisnews.com/
And finally, Erowid's Cannabis Vault...
http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis.sh
Ron Bennett
Words of wisdom seen in someone's sig on another forum I frequent...
"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, wine in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!"
This space unintentionally left blank.
Will you shut up and pass the twinkies?
Yeah I know, in Soviet Russia communism was first tested on humans before being tested on rats.
Fuck it all up by leaving a sig that suggests you enjoy alcohol abuse but justify it as medication. I have a lot of friends who have had marijuana problems but by the later stages of their lives they've left it behind. But anyone Ive ever known with alcohol problems struggles with it their whole lives until their liver pickles itself.
Two tears in a bucket. Motherfuck it.
they're getting free weed there!
where I live head-shops are called smart-shops and sell mild magic-mushrooms and all manner of mostly piss-weak hallucinogens and rubbish like gurana power. in coffe shops you buy grass and hash off a weed-cart which is a menu, not a trolley. in cafes you can buy coffee, although most coffee-shops do sell coffee as well as weed and hash and space-cake. some even sell alcohol too. very few sell food. I am not sure why someone doesn't just set up a cafe that sells grass, hash and serves good food, beer, wine, cocktails. they could get rid of all the rubbish stereotyped bob-marley parephenalia too in my humble opinion.
I used to have a better sig than this, but I got tired of it
i noticed the point of the alcohol-enduced-sig, and wanted to comment, but you beat me to it ... i've never known anyone to get high and oh, say, beat their wife, or wreck head-on at 90mph racing down roads, or even really do much of ANYTHING. the "party isn't over for hippies" ... but i do know a multiple-sclerosis patient or two that enjoy a good toke, and, and my-chemo-therapy-buddy, he likes it too ... not that i'm AGAINST alcohol in any real way/shape/form, but the evils associated therein are far more harmful to yourself, your family, your life, and everyone around you (especially when operating a motor vehicle) ... i'd rather there be 100 stoners driving 35mph in a 60, scared out of their minds, than a single red-neck drunk on jack daniels showing you exactly how manuverable his F-350 is.
you can't have everything, where would you put it?
While we're all thinking ... think of how many cannabis users could have done so much more if it wasn't for that pesky arrest record, jail time, etc.
The penalties are what create much of the problems, not cannabis itself.
Ron
My guess is that you tend to hang out around a lot of losers then. Your dataset is flawed.
While we're at it with the anonymous confessions I feel the need to chime in.
Several years ago I met a man in his early 50's, proper, intelligent, well employed and whatnot. After a good many beers he confided to me that he had been smoking weed since his early 20's, and that his son actually didn't know about it until he had turned 18, when he boldly proclaimed to his father that he had tried smoking and was prepared to stand up for it. Good laugh that.
Anyways, this got me thinking. I had smoked some in College and figured what the hell, if he can do it then I can. This was at the point when I was starting out my professional career, 7 years ago. Since then I've made a rocket career, earned the respect of my colleagues, cultivated my social network and smoked kg's of weed.
Nowadays I cut it back due to lung cancer risks, but I still very much appreciate the toke when I come home in the evening, which allows me to completely let go of all the issues at work and actually spend my spare time regenerating.
So what's the point to all this ranting? I'm not advocating here, and I definately don't think that large doses of stimulative drugs such as THC would be good for the general masses, however I don't think that of alcohol either. No, I rather think that the negative aspects of Cannabis come from the social interpretation of it, in a way creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I don't believe grass has any worse effect than any other freely available substance (cigarettes, alcohol).
God forbid someone smoke a joint to take the edge off. A lot of people on Paxil and similar drugs would probably benefit from a little grass. The difference is that the long-term effects of grass are well understood. Who knows what they'll find out about other antidepressants and anxiety medications in 10 or 20 years, and take about dulling the brain.
Around my way, it seems everyone is on one of them. I'm not talking about people who can't leave their house or want to kill themselves, I'm talking about people lacking a little direction or a tad bit too much angst.
The fact that grass is in the same class as heroin is ridiculous.
I'm going to rant here as this is something that really pisses me off.
When my mother was dying of cancer, they were trying to keep weight on her. Instead of giving her grass which would have some other beneficial effects, they gave her some drug they give to AIDS patients. I can't recall it's name, but I do recall that it was $300USD for a small jug and that the warning on it stated that the method of action was not known and that long term use could cause cancer. What the fuck?
My brother also got cancer around the same time. Diagnosed two weeks apart actually, no family history of it either, just one big kick in the balls from life, but I digress...
My brother was on about as much pain medication as you could be on without it killing you. His cancer was everywhere and I mean everywhere. They misdiagnosed for a long time. They figure it was spreading for at least 5 years.
He had a pump installed under his skin that constantly pumped painkillers into him, plus a heavy regimen of Oxycontin (100+mg) all day long and some other assorted painkillers. For him, the gave him a THC compound to keep his appetite up. It didn't' work.
On the other hand, when he started smoking tons of grass, it helped him tremendously. It helped him keep fighting, made him feel better and helped keep the anxiety at bay.
Horrible enough to be in constant agony, but imagine you're mother going through the same thing, watching her die and seeing your own horrible end.
My point is to anyone who thinks that grass is evil, is that grass isn't anyworse than anything else that's legal . It's almost certainly better than anything manufactured to play with your brain chemistry and it has lot's of positive effects and the fact that it's illegal, particularry for medical use is a friggin crime.
-William Shatner can be neither created nor destroyed.
In my experience, I've found marijuana to be a miracle when it comes to writing/debugging code. If I find I'm driving myself nuts, I'll take a break and a few hits - suddenly, that little problem I couldn't figure out before might as well be waving at me.
Nearly every single large medical study of marijuana has had its funding denied, or its license for the controlled substance denied, or any of dozens of other reasons to keep the study mummied in red tape. If people are working so hard to hide something then the most logical answer is probably the opposite. In this case: marijuana has little or no effect on anything, all negative social perceptions are due to years of wrongful regulation, all ill effects are circumstantial correlations, and the only reason for the continued illegality is the complete inability to admit that the government has ever made a mistake. PR and ego--no different than telling your manager he's wrong.
fast as fast can be. you'll never catch me.
Stoners with Munchies + Food = Profit.
I'm surprised they don't sell food.
currently at university, i have a project where i have to draw 60 pages worth of stuff in 10 days. i find that being stoned, i can draw much, much better from my imagination. i can concentrate harder, and understand the medium a lot better than when i am sober. My drawings suck when i'm sober, but on weed, they are usually somewhat good.
The only problem with smoking weed for this project, is i tend to just space out and do other stuff instead. so i'm quite a bit behind, but the stuff i've done while stoned is far more interesting than the crap i've done while sober.
i've also noticed that since i started smoking weed, i've gotten alot better at writing songs and playing guitar.
tis a good drug.
sudo killall humans
"Drifting through life" is not a sure effect of prolonged regular marijuana use. Maybe it was for you because that's what you wanted to do. Maybe you don't want to do that anymore. That's you. That's not enough to justify law or the enormous campaign of pure and utter crap that's come out of the (taxpayer funded) government and several organziations of questionable scientific rigor.
fast as fast can be. you'll never catch me.
This one phrase out to put his mind into action.
Man brewed alcohol, God created marijuana. Who're you going to trust, Mr. President?
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
When you have to struggle to remember what you and your bong bud have just been talking about, it makes sense that you'd have to exercise your brain's memory regions. Smoking pot is like walking with leg weights -- it's harder to do when you have them on, but when they come off you're stronger for the extra effort you exerted.
What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
And if the stuff were legal (and therefore cheaper), you wouldn't NEED to inhale like that to milk every last bit of THC from each hit.
Hell, you wouldn't need to SMOKE the stuff in the first place. Eating it gets you high, too. But you need to use a lot more of it than you would smoke. So economics tend to dictate the most harmful route of ingetsion...
Remember "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"? Help make it a reality again! http://soylentnews.org
You're profiling stoners as those down and out people who are always having problems in life. 1) There are plenty of non-users who fit this social perception, 2) You don't see any good stoners because it's socially unacceptable to admit to using marijuana. Nearly 40% of people will admit in a closed study to using marijuana on a regular basis (at least once/month). I never admitted, even to a private study, to smoking cigarettes until I was 18.
It could really be America's most ridiculous secret.
fast as fast can be. you'll never catch me.
Your brain learns both by creating connections and by deleting them. If you create to many new connections you can't thnk straight. Everything gets too connected and you can't resolve your thoughts. You have to prune nodes to be able to think effciently and to focus.
Thus your comment is right on.
Clearly the only solultion is to first smoke loads of weed to build up your brains connecitons, and then huff gasoline to prune them back to a useful level. Then you will be a super genius.
Worked for me.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
There was an interview on Friday evening on the CBC show As it happens with Jamie Van Cleemput, one of the scientists on the team. There is a link on this page http://www.cbc.ca/insite/AS_IT_HAPPENS_TORONTO/200 5/10/14.html to an audio file that contains the interview http://cbc.ca/asithappens/media/dailyshow/2005-10- 14-aih1.ram
It doesn't matter whatever medicinal uses it has. If it were shown to regrow hair, prolong erections, and cure prostate cancer, it would still be treated as an evil drug. The pharmaceutical companies would find the key curative ingredients and find aritficial derivative that could be patented. Drug companies do not want people to have a wonderdrug they can grow in their own backyard. It's bad for business. Furthermore, from the conservative politician viewpoint, it would be especially bad for the War on Drugs if they were smaked in the face with all the lies about weed they have been perpetuating for decades.
The road to decriminalization of marijuana requires a fundamental shift in the prevailing attitudes of society. Showing that it's mostly harmless won't do it. Showing that it actually has upsides won't do it. Millions of people peacably demonstrating won't do it. I doubt even a group of huge corporations forming political action committees could do it -- big tobacco is already on the run, so how the hell do you expect that people promoting another kind of smoke could get very far today?
Fun with Anagarams! LADS HOST, SHALT DOS. HAS DOLTS. AD SLOTHS, HATS SOLD. ASS HO, LTD.
I find it weird that people think that pot is bad. No, really. Because people don't seem to have a problem with alcohol, which is more destructive to your body and more likely to cause depression and/or physical aggression.
Many of the same people don't have a problem with pharmaceutical antidepressants, when they increase the incidence of suicide. Oh, and homicide. And if you try and quit them, you might have seizures. But it's OK, because the people we're paying to kill people so we can drive our H2s tell us it's OK.
Many of the same people think there's no problem with coffee, which I would say is about as destructive as pot. Coffee also has many positive effects, as does marijuana.
Marijuana has a tendency to make me give in to what my body is asking for, I've noticed. Sometimes that means I overeat, but then again, I used to overeat all the time before I started smoking. Usually it means after I've been running around all week stressing out, I relax, with no excuses. If I'm repressing energy, when I smoke I start expressing it, with no excuses.
It's illegal for no good reason, and the only reason prohibition of marijuana works where prohibition of alcohol didn't is that potheads aren't violent like alcoholics.
Oh, and what's the deal with those people torturing their kids--crushing their fingers, beating them, etc.--who are only getting like 10 years? Carrying one hit of acid in GA gets you 15 years firm. Hmmm.... I'll take the drug user over the child torture artist. Really. Why don't all you start your own tribe somewhere?
Please stop stalking me, bro.
What makes you think everyone who uses cannabis medically smokes it? Allow me to destroy some stereotypes here. Cannabis can be taken the following ways:
Tincture
Baked into foods (no pun intended)
Vaporized (my method of ingestion, no pyrolytic compounds since it's not burning it.)
Cannabis has also been made into various oils and lotions for putting directly on the skin. There is even discussion that it was used in the traditional hebrew annointing oil.
-Myke
Ever heard of a vaporizer?
It heats the herbs of your choice, to a point that releases the medicinal compounds, without creating pyrolytic compounds.
A very affordable Vaporizer can purchased here I have one and am VERY happy with it.
-Myke
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_issues_and_the _effects_of_cannabis#Smoking/
But the bumbling ineptitude and stupidity of the typical stoner campaigner is a damning indictment of the negative effects of marijuana.
I think it has a lot to do with the fact that one side has high-powered rifles and amphetamines and is fighting a WAR AGAINST A PLANT by shooting the people who like the plant, and the other side just likes the stupid plant. Also, does it not seem weird to you that one might be put in a cage with murderers for smoking pot? It seems kind of harsh.
If the government would stop shooting people for carrying plants around with them, then the druglords wouldn't be in business. And I could get my pot from someone who wasn't a criminal, and my life would be safer, but people would rather make money off the loss of liberty of the largely peaceful masses than have them be safe.
Please stop stalking me, bro.
It seems that all the intelligent people I've met understand the the War on Drugs is a total snipe hunt.
w ho-index.htm
3 /jan/16/514528463.html?Marijuana%20Group:%20Feds%2 0Broke%20Law
As long as their is demand, there will be a market.
The fundemental question seems to be:
Is the government trying to punish marijuana smokers or educate them?
More than 60% of all drug incarcerations are for non-violent possesion of marijuana.
As a rational individual, it seems obvioius that their current tactics only succeed in punishing marijuana smokers. Actual use of marijuana is at the same levels or higher than it has ever been so as a preventive, prohibition has most definitely failed. The supply of marijuana is greater than ever and the potency is higher too. The DEA says this to scare the uninformed. They attempt to create the analogy that stronger means greater threat. In reality, stronger means that pot heads have to consume less marijuana to get high. So in reality, higher potency means healthier pot smokers. Who do you believe the DEA with their vested interest in maintaining the status quo or an independent organization of scientists and medical researchers, the esteemed World Health Organization. http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/general/
If anything prohibition has made the problem worse. Prohibition tends to create a black market which opens the door for large scale criminal organizations. Examples of these are the Mafia ( very small organization until their massive growth thanks to alcohol prohibition), the Latin & South American drug cartels in the '80's, and of course the DEA.
http://www.prohibitioncosts.org/
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-157.html
In fact the only voices that seem to be raised against the legalization of marijuana are those of the DEA and the penal system. That's only natural, without them maintaining their lies, their free ride is over. Even the politicians are afraid of the power of the DEA. Apparently the DEA thinks they don't have to obey the Constitution.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/200
http://www.leap.cc/ is a really interesting website put together by former Law Enforcement Officers that have seen that the Drug Laws cause more harm than good.
My more people that know the truth, the better our society becomes.
Just because you like being sober doesn't mean you have to hate those that want to smoke pot.
The United States is still a free country, right?
Laugh at my ignorance while I learn Rails - a Real ne
Well let's start with Fried et. al., who concluded that ongoing heavy use of marijuana has a signficant negative impact on IQ.
And then we can in fact see the short term memory impairment,
Heyser, C.J.; Hampson, R.E.; and Deadwyler, S.A. Effects of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol on delayed match to sample performance in rats: Alterations in short-term memory associated with changes in task-specific firing of hippocampal cells. Journal of Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics 264(1):294-307, 1993.
And let's not pretend that smoking marijuana isn't going to have a negative effects on the lungs,
Tashkin, D.P. Pulmonary complications of smoked substance abuse. West J Med 152:525-530, 1990., and
Sarafian, T.A.; Magallanes, J.A.; Shau, H.; Tashkin, D.; and Roth, M.D. Oxidative stress produced by marijuana smoke. An adverse effect enhanced by cannabinoids. Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol 20(6):1286-1293, 1999.
Or the immune system
Srivastava, M.D.; Srivastava, B.I.; and Brouhard, B. Delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol alter cytokine production by human immune cells. Immunopharmacology 40(3):179-185, 1998.
Marijuana capable of producing psychotic symptoms? Yes.
Fergusson, David M., John Horwood & Elizabeth M. Ridder, "Tests of Causal Linkages Between Cannabis Use and Psychotic Symptoms," Addiction, Vol. 100, No. 3, March 2005, p. 363.
The original poster was talking about chronic use, implying ongoing, so let's also examine the effects of current intoxication: Learning and memory are in fact impaired by cannabis:
Grant, Igor, et al.,(2003) "Non-Acute (Residual) Neurocognitive Effects Of Cannabis Use: A Meta-Analytic Study," Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society. Cambridge University Press, 9, p. 685.
Long term permanent damage? Absolutely, but only to the lungs.
Negative impacts on the brain during ongoing use? Absolutely.
Maybe you ought to be familiar with the research yourself before attacking other people? This is just a tiny fraction of all the research conducted. A simple 5 second google search would have turned up all you needed to know to not look like the jackass you do now.
And, is our world really that much better, societally, than the late 1800s? Back then, cocaine was in Coca-Cola, pot was legal, heroin was used medically, and nobody was in jail for altering their own mind.
Sure, you could say that today is much more dangerous because we have cars all over the place, but that doesn't mean that I am any more a danger sitting in my apartment getting stoned and watching the Matrix (or just sufferring from glaucoma). Sure, if I get behind the wheel and am impaired in any shape or form, stop me from killing someone (this includes being sleepy, distracted thinking about a fight with the spouse, talking on the cell phone (for that matter, talking to other passengers!), reading billboards, singing along with the radio, etc.).
The key is that there is a scale of impairment, and it should be testable; there exist video games that test impairment which should be used in dangerous work environments, because "drug testing" just shows that I had a great weekend, 3 weeks ago; it doesn't show whether I am currently able to perform the tasks I am responsible for. Pilots and drivers (bus/taxi, etc.) should be impairment tested every time they show up to work.
But even this is going to end fairly soon: I remember reading an article on here a week or so ago which said that self-driving cars are about 10 years off.
As you said, eliminate the penalties and the bulk of the problem goes away. The tax money that was being spent on apprehension and incarceration can be much better spent on treatment and medical attention. And it will certainly help the economy, because a multi-billion dollar industry will spring up literally overnight, and start paying taxes.
I can see Frito-Lay giving out pot coupons: "buy 2 bags of chips, get a mariajuana cigarette for free!"
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
Well let's start with Fried et. al. [www.cmaj.ca], who concluded that ongoing heavy use of marijuana has a signficant negative impact on IQ.
(I think I can afford a few IQ points, better a little dimmer and a lot happier than a little brighter but a lot more misrable...)
And then we can in fact see the short term memory impairment,
Heyser, C.J.; Hampson, R.E.; and Deadwyler, S.A. Effects of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol on delayed match to sample performance in rats: Alterations in short-term memory associated with changes in task-specific firing of hippocampal cells. Journal of Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics 264(1):294-307, 1993.
(The research is not conclusive. We are not rats.)
And let's not pretend that smoking marijuana isn't going to have a negative effects on the lungs,
Tashkin, D.P. Pulmonary complications of smoked substance abuse. West J Med 152:525-530, 1990., and
Sarafian, T.A.; Magallanes, J.A.; Shau, H.; Tashkin, D.; and Roth, M.D. Oxidative stress produced by marijuana smoke. An adverse effect enhanced by cannabinoids. Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol 20(6):1286-1293, 1999.
(controlled vaporization reduces the carcinegens to nil. Smoking is bad for you, no question about that, no matter what you smoke.)
Or the immune system
Srivastava, M.D.; Srivastava, B.I.; and Brouhard, B. Delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol alter cytokine production by human immune cells. Immunopharmacology 40(3):179-185, 1998.
(The research is also not conclusive. Also just about all research sponsored by the USA federal government has to be bent toward proving cannabis harmful. SO just about any research from the USA is politically tainted by its ideological war...pawn that you are you parrot it.
Marijuana capable of producing psychotic symptoms? Yes.
Fergusson, David M., John Horwood & Elizabeth M. Ridder, "Tests of Causal Linkages Between Cannabis Use and Psychotic Symptoms," Addiction, Vol. 100, No. 3, March 2005, p. 363.
(In already vulnerable persons. The threshold for 'psychosis' is very low... Evangelicals are a more psychotic sometimes...)
The original poster was talking about chronic use, implying ongoing, so let's also examine the effects of current intoxication: Learning and memory are in fact impaired by cannabis:
Grant, Igor, et al.,(2003) "Non-Acute (Residual) Neurocognitive Effects Of Cannabis Use: A Meta-Analytic Study," Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society. Cambridge University Press, 9, p. 685.
Long term permanent damage? Absolutely, but only to the lungs.
(I support legalising cannabis and even I wouldnt make that sweeping generalization. It is likely you are correct however.)
Negative impacts on the brain during ongoing use? Absolutely.
(Define negative impact? Obviously millions feel its acceptable.)
Maybe you ought to be familiar with the research yourself before attacking other people? This is just a tiny fraction of all the research conducted. A simple 5 second google search would have turned up all you needed to know to not look like the jackass you do now.
(Maybe if the state arbitrarily named you a criminal for burning some plant matter, you would be defensive when people parrot the drug war lies?)
A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both. Dwight D. Eisenhower
From the conclusion of your first article:
Current marijuana use had a negative effect on global IQ score only in subjects who smoked 5 or more joints per week. A negative effect was not observed among subjects who had previously been heavy users but were no longer using the substance. We conclude that marijuana does not have a long-term negative impact on global intelligence. [emphasis added]
As for the hyperbole of your other claims, let's dispose of them by referring to the most-widely used medical textbook in the world, The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy entry on marijuana:
Critics of marijuana cite much scientific data regarding adverse effects, but most of the claims regarding severe biologic impact are unsubstantiated, even among relatively heavy users and in areas intensively investigated, such as immunologic and reproductive function. However, high-dose smokers of marijuana develop pulmonary symptoms (episodes of acute bronchitis, wheezing, coughing, and increased phlegm), and pulmonary function may be altered. This is manifested by large airway changes of unknown significance. Even daily smokers do not develop obstructive airway disease. Pulmonary carcinoma has not been reported in persons who smoke only marijuana, possibly because less smoke is inhaled than during cigarette smoking. However, biopsies of bronchial tissue sometimes show precancerous changes, so carcinoma may occur. In a few case-control studies, some tests detected diminished cognitive function in small samples of long-term high-dose users; this finding awaits confirmation. Studies in newborns have not found evidence of fetal harm due to maternal use of cannabis. Decreased fetal weight has been reported, but when all factors (eg, maternal alcohol and tobacco use) are accounted for, the effect on fetal weight disappears. delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol is secreted in breast milk. Although no harm to breastfed babies has been shown, breastfeeding mothers, like pregnant women, are advised to avoid using cannabis. [emphasis added]
Btw, I am not sure why you have to call the poster you are responding to names. Seems like your arguments should be able to stand on their own.
I work in the video game industry (for a big company I shall not name...its not EA) and something about our industry is extremely great. The fact that a huge percentage of us (people who create the games, and well the people who play the games) smoke pot. I don't understand why it's such a big deal. Smoking was one of the things that kept me sane working 70-80 hour work weeks and 15 hour days during crunch. I smoked before work and drove through LA traffic (anyone who lives near or around LA knows how crappy it is). I did this for about 7 months straight of just smoking 4 to 10 to 15 times a day and it didnt have an affect on me. Infact I am in my home town right now with out any and I havent had a withdrawl once. No cravings or anything like that. The thing about pot is that is not physically addicting to people is physiologically addicting to people. People love it so much they want more of it, just like sex or anything else. Smoking tobacco and drinking alcohol is far worse for your health and your stability than smoking cheeba. I really really want to make a "Truth" ad about smoking marijuana. I want it to be posted all over the internet and all over tv. The truth that marijuana isnt as bad as eating at McDonalds or KFC. Too bad pot isn't legalized because it would be safer and free up some jail space. That wont happen because a lot of pharmaceutical companies would prolly be out of business. What needs to change is the overall view that marijuana is bad. The media has those anti-drug ads against marijuana. I think we need pro-marijuana ads. America believes what they see and hear on TV (its sad). Just about everything we see and here stems from about 10 major corporations. Sony, AOL/Timewarner, news corp, Disney, the list goes on. If anything is going to change here, we actually need to start doing crap about it, imho.
Although you don't mention it, the first link shows only a minor 4.1 pt decrease and only for heavy current users. Moderate and former users showed an increase greater than non-users - 5.8 and 3.5 vs 2.6 pts, respectively.
Inhaling smoke of any kind is, of course, not good for your lungs. There are other admittedly less popular means of administration.
It does appear that marijuana may cause immune system depression, but the extent and ways in which it does so is still being researched. This article explores the counter-viewpoints. Another study has shown a decrease in tumor resistance with injected THC in rats, but I'm not sure of the doses. It should be noted as well that in some people, like MS patients, a supressed immune system can be a good thing.
Although psychotic symptoms can be produced by Cannabis consumption, it's certainly not typical. Just as some people have severe reactions to peanuts, some may have psychotic reactions to Cannabis. However, due mainly to heavy restrictions on studies, we still don't know much about endocannabinoids' role in the nervous system and the actions of various cannabinoids. This study suggests that endocannabinoids may actually prevent psychosis; since smoking Cannabis would cause stimulation of endocannabinoid receptors, cannabinoids may be useful in preventing psychosis. Or, it might further reduce your body's production of endocannabinoids and lead to greater psychotic effects when you quit smoking. Or something else, it's hard to say at this point. Research is still being done, however, and I certainly wouldn't suggest getting high to get rid of psychotic symptoms - in fact, I would actively advise against it.
I can't read your memory and learning study, so I can't really comment on it. Cannabinoids certainly have been shown to impair memory and learning in various degrees under different circumstances, but their role - believed to be effected in the hippocampus - may, as this article (the one the post is on) may have positive effects as well.
Conclusion: Cannabis is not a panacea. It should come as no surprise to anyone that there are both good and bad sides to Cannabis - as with all medicine, as with everything. It's absurd to pretend that there are no negative effects, but it's also absurd to pretend like we have all the answers. We have to keep researching, and we have to make sure the government allows needed research. That being said, overall, cannabis has relatively few and insubstantial side effects compared to other drugs, and it's ridiculous beyond comprehension that it's a Class I substance.
You mean:
Marijuana Use and Depression, Brian E. Green; Christian Ritter, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Vol. 41, No. 1. (Mar., 2000), pp. 40-49.
College Student Marijuana Use and Societal Alienation, R. C. Knight; J. P. Sheposh; J. B. Bryson, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Vol. 15, No. 1. (Mar., 1974), pp. 28-35.
Marijuana ``Justifies Serious Concern'', Thomas H. Maugh, Science, New Series, Vol. 215, No. 4539. (Mar. 19, 1982), pp. 1488-1489.
Marijuana: Harder Than Thought?, Ingrid Wickelgren, Science, New Series, Vol. 276, No. 5321. (Jun. 27, 1997), pp. 1967-1968.
Phytohemagglutinin-Induced Lymphocyte Transformation in Humans Receiving 9 -Tetrahydrocannabinol, R. Jane Lau; David G. Tubergen; Mason Barr, Jr.; Edward F. Domino; N. Benowitz; Reese T. Jones, Science, New Series, Vol. 192, No. 4241. (May 21, 1976), pp. 805-807.
Normal Skin Test Responses in Chronic Marijuana Users, Melvin J. Silverstein; Phyllis J. Lessin, Science, New Series, Vol. 186, No. 4165. (Nov. 22, 1974), pp. 740-741.
I can go on if you'd like...
Please. Tout the FUD in a forum where there isn't a pharmaceutical scientist available to tell you you're full of horse-pooey.
I'm willing to bet you couldn't even read that article about lymphocytes, much less note where the researchers are lacking in their data analysis.
fast as fast can be. you'll never catch me.