oracle
11-30-2002, 07:33 PM
Very Heavy Pot Use Clouds Mental Function: Study (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=571&ncid=751&e=1&u=/nm/20021129/hl_nm/marijuana_function_dc)
<font size=1>Fri Nov 29, 3:12 PM ET</font>
By Dana Frisch
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who smoked unusually large amounts of marijuana performed worse on tests of mental function than their peers who smoked less pot, even after a 30-day abstinence period, according to a new report.
Heavy users performed worse on 69% of the 35 tasks than light users, though their performances were not "clinically abnormal," the researchers found. The 22 participants were admitted to hospital during the course of the study and submitted to random urine tests to ensure they remained abstinent.
Lead author Dr. Karen Bolla characterized the study group as being "unusual" because of the large number of joints they smoked per week. Heavy users smoked on average 91 joints a week, or about 13 a day, while light smokers smoked an average of 11 marijuana cigarettes a week.
Bolla, who is an associate professor of neurology and psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, said the results cannot be generalized to social smokers or those who use pot for medicinal purposes, because they smoke far less marijuana. The potency might also differ, she said.
"What this study shows is that marijuana can be neurotoxic if you smoke a lot of it," Bolla told Reuters Health. She said this is particularly concerning since the average age of study participants was 22 years old, and the brain is still developing at that age. "You're putting a lot of foreign stuff in there that we don't really know what it does to a developing brain," she said.
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Click here to read more (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=571&ncid=751&e=1&u=/nm/20021129/hl_nm/marijuana_function_dc)
<font size=1>Fri Nov 29, 3:12 PM ET</font>
By Dana Frisch
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who smoked unusually large amounts of marijuana performed worse on tests of mental function than their peers who smoked less pot, even after a 30-day abstinence period, according to a new report.
Heavy users performed worse on 69% of the 35 tasks than light users, though their performances were not "clinically abnormal," the researchers found. The 22 participants were admitted to hospital during the course of the study and submitted to random urine tests to ensure they remained abstinent.
Lead author Dr. Karen Bolla characterized the study group as being "unusual" because of the large number of joints they smoked per week. Heavy users smoked on average 91 joints a week, or about 13 a day, while light smokers smoked an average of 11 marijuana cigarettes a week.
Bolla, who is an associate professor of neurology and psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, said the results cannot be generalized to social smokers or those who use pot for medicinal purposes, because they smoke far less marijuana. The potency might also differ, she said.
"What this study shows is that marijuana can be neurotoxic if you smoke a lot of it," Bolla told Reuters Health. She said this is particularly concerning since the average age of study participants was 22 years old, and the brain is still developing at that age. "You're putting a lot of foreign stuff in there that we don't really know what it does to a developing brain," she said.
...
Click here to read more (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=571&ncid=751&e=1&u=/nm/20021129/hl_nm/marijuana_function_dc)