Cannabis is Harmful Towards Developing Brains

[Captain Hanks]

Not really (or at leas I highly doubt it). In fact, it would go against everything I have researched and studied as well as my own beliefs. I would think of it to be helping brain development growth.
However, there is this butthead who has been nagging me about it lately. I'm having problems finding any on my own, anyone know of any studies proving the above title false?:rasta:

Captain Hanks Reviewed by Captain Hanks on 12-05-2006. Cannabis is Harmful Towards Developing Brains Not really (or at leas I highly doubt it). In fact, it would go against everything I have researched and studied as well as my own beliefs. I would think of it to be helping brain development growth. However, there is this butthead who has been nagging me about it lately. I'm having problems finding any on my own, anyone know of any studies proving the above title false?:rasta: Rating: 5

[mrdevious]

I wouldn't recommend any alterations in brain-chemistry at an age when the brain is still developing. Cannabis certainly isn't guaranteed to be detrimental, I have a 20 year old friend who's been smoking pot every day since she was 13, and she has one more semester to go before getting her degree in business administration. My other hardcore stoner friend is in his third year of sciences, getting all A's and B's, majoring in physics, chemistry, evolutionary and nuclear biology, as well as advanced calculus.

On the other hand, through the teen years synapses are forming and grouping, the brain is pruning and making connections more efficient, the hypocamupus is still developing in memory and emotional control (THC has been shown to stimulate cell-growth in the hipocamupus however). The point is, consuming a substance which will (while tolerance is low enough to still induce pleasure) stimulate seratonin and dopamine production at heightened levels, will be bound to carry a risk of descencitizing those receptors (or "burning them out") and cause issues with depression, emotional stablity, and occasionally psychological instability. Not to mention such a stress-relieving and often escapist substance used in the teen years will deprive the brain of the necessary time needed to develope skills in dealing with stress and responsbilities independantly.

I say legalize cannabis, but it's not for kids.

[five0addict]

:stupid:
mrd seems somewhat educated.
danm!

[Inferius]

I don't have the motivation to look it up on erowid,
but I've read that truly long lasting negative health effects are only acquired by teens who smoke 5 joints a week, or something like that.

[LIP]

Well, from something i read A LONG time ago, it can keep healthy cells alive longer, which i supose would contribute to learning... But i've always said that kids shouldnt smoke untill about 16. I started puffing when i was 11, not as much as i do now, and it didnt fuck me over, but thats just me, i cant talk for everyone.

[Samwhore]

it doesnt kill brain cells, cannabis just makes my brain cells take a nap

[TheSmokingMonkey]

Fact: In 1972, after reviewing the scientific evidence, the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse concluded that while marijuana was not entirely safe, its dangers had been grossly overstated. Since then, researchers have conducted thousands of studies of humans, animals, and cell cultures. None reveal any findings dramatically different from those described by the National Commission in 1972. In 1995, based on thirty years of scientific research editors of the British medical journal Lancet concluded that "the smoking of cannabis, even long term, is not harmful to health."

[TheSmokingMonkey]

Fact: None of the medical tests currently used to detect brain damage in humans have found harm from marijuana, even from long term high-dose use. An early study reported brain damage in rhesus monkeys after six months exposure to high concentrations of marijuana smoke. In a recent, more carefully conducted study, researchers found no evidence of brain abnormality in monkeys that were forced to inhale the equivalent of four to five marijuana cigarettes every day for a year. The claim that marijuana kills brain cells is based on a speculative report dating back a quarter of a century that has never been supported by any scientific study.

[TheSmokingMonkey]

http://www.drugpolicy.org/marijuana/factsmyths/

the facts are from here.

[TheSmokingMonkey]

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Study_fi...opment_in_rats

"This is quite a surprise, chronic use of marijuana may actually improve learning memory when the new neurons in the hippocampus can mature in two or three months," said Xia Zhang, with the Neuropsychiatry Research Unit of the University of Saskatchewan.