Avoid marijuana until of age?

[orangeman]

Well I was always told that marijuana is harmless and really poses no harm but should be avoided until the brain is done developing. I just was wondering why exactly is that? I always heard that but never got an explanation for it. Does anyone know why? Does it stunt anything like growth or what...

orangeman Reviewed by orangeman on 06-25-2007. Avoid marijuana until of age? Well I was always told that marijuana is harmless and really poses no harm but should be avoided until the brain is done developing. I just was wondering why exactly is that? I always heard that but never got an explanation for it. Does anyone know why? Does it stunt anything like growth or what... Rating: 5

[40oz]

In undeveloped brains it can possibly cause something called Amotivation syndrome. I don't know how far science has come being able to explain why or even if amotivation syndrome is 100% real, but basically it robs kids of their ambitions and makes them just want to smoke pot.

[CannabisHappiness]

I think it's probably more of a general precaution. Could be wrong thou, but I think it's something like they're still learning new things about our brains, so until their done developing we shouldn't fuck with em. Know what I mean? I read somewhere that a females brain stops developing around age 24 & a males around age 26. But everybody's different.

[orangeman]

Oh I don't have all those years to waste (lol that sounds backwards doesn't it) but yeah I guess I get it. Hopefully I don't develop that syndrome if I haven't yet...I dunno all the lies the government has tried to feed us has caused me to believe a lot of things not to be true about weed.

[bhouncy]

In undeveloped brains it can possibly cause something called Amotivation syndrome. I don't know how far science has come being able to explain why or even if amotivation syndrome is 100% real, but basically it robs kids of their ambitions and makes them just want to smoke pot.

One thing I've found out about my motivation is that as long as something is clear in my mind that I want and I believe I can get it and it seems VERY appealing to have it then the immensely good feelings I get from this fantasy drive me to take action. With respect to cannabis the immensely good feelings I got from it are very similar to that of my powerful fantasy but they were not associated to a future image but rather the effects of cannabis in that moment which in turn meant I could reach my final goal (being high) just by taking more bong hits... for Jesus.

As for brain development I have no idea on that.

[bhouncy]

how old until a brain is developed?

For most politicians it's about 100 years.

[bhouncy]

For most politicians it's about 100 years.

The rest of us it looks about 12 according to this article.

[shh.3kingz]

Well I'll tell you that I've been smoking on and off (off and on) for since I was around 12. And my memory is far worse off than my peers today.
I didn't have any motivation to begin with, though, so I can't really comment on the motivational thing.

[GonzoForever]

After reading about Amotivational syndrome I really don't think they have much support for their claims about this.

Sounds like BS...but I could be completely wrong.

[birdgirl73]

That little artcle was about the brain's almost unlimited capacity for learning, which seems to drop off after the age of 12. That doesn't mean kids can't and don't learn after that. They certainly can. But the uncanny, almost spongelike ability to soak up languages and various other verbal and math skills isn't quite the same after adolescence that it is before. Certain neural pathways shut down and dont continue to expand in the same way that they do before the age of 12.

They used to think the human brain was through developing by 17 or 18, but more recent studies have shown that the final finishing touches are still being put on the frontal lobe, the area that governs reasoning and judgment and impulse control, well in to the early 20s. So now they say the brain's probably not to its fully developed state until 23 or 25.

The precaution against marijuana use until a brain is fully formed is because no one really knows what sort of effects it may have on those developing neural pathways and on the final stages of frontal lobe development. There've been some small-scale studies that have shown moderate cannabis use doesn't appear to interfere with learning or memory. But no one with any sense is going to do a large-scale study of the effects of cannabis on the brains of teenagers simply because it could be too risky. What if, in large-scale testing, they discovered cannabis did indeed affect intellectual development? Ethical scientists don't test substances on teenaged kids, just as they don't test them on fetuses, babies or small children. The stakes are simply too high.

I wish kids would wait to smoke weed till they're 21 or so, but hey, I didn't. And I turned out pretty well in the smarts department. Who knows, though? I might have been an absolute whiz-kid if I'd laid off the grass till was finished with college!