Discuss:

 

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091217115834.htm

Cannabis Damages Young Brains More Than Originally Thought, Study Finds

 

ScienceDaily (Dec. 17, 2009) — Canadian teenagers are among the largest consumers of cannabis worldwide. The damaging effects of this illicit drug on young brains are worse than originally thought, according to new research by Dr. Gabriella Gobbi, a psychiatric researcher from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre. The new study, published in Neurobiology of Disease, suggests that daily consumption of cannabis in teens can cause depression and anxiety, and have an irreversible long-term effect on the brain.

 

"We wanted to know what happens in the brains of teenagers when they use cannabis and whether they are more susceptible to its neurological effects than adults," explained Dr. Gobbi, who is also a professor at McGill University. Her study points to an apparent action of cannabis on two important compounds in the brain -- serotonin and norepinephrine -- which are involved in the regulation of neurological functions such as mood control and anxiety.

 

"Teenagers who are exposed to cannabis have decreased serotonin transmission, which leads to mood disorders, as well as increased norepinephrine transmission, which leads to greater long-term susceptibility to stress," Dr. Gobbi stated.

 

Previous epidemiological studies have shown how cannabis consumption can affect behaviour in some teenagers. "Our study is one of the first to focus on the neurobiological mechanisms at the root of this influence of cannabis on depression and anxiety in adolescents," confirmed Dr. Gobbi. It is also the first study to demonstrate that cannabis consumption causes more serious damage during adolescence than adulthood.

 

Dr. Gabriella Gobbi is a researcher at the neuroscience axis of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre and also a psychiatrist and associate professor at the Department of Psychiatry, McGill University.

This study was funded by a grant from The Canadian Psychiatric Research Foundation (CPRF)

 

This article was co-authored by Dr. Francis Rodriguez Bambico; Ms. Nhu-Tram Nguyen, and Mr. Noam Katz from from IR-MUHC and the Neurobiological Psychiatry Unit, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University.

 

http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/12/17/marijuana-teen-brain-rats.html

Teen marijuana use affects brain permanently: study

 

 

Regular marijuana use takes a worse toll on the teenage brain than thought, say researchers in Montreal who studied the effects of cannabis in rats.

 

The findings suggest daily marijuana use by teens can cause depression and anxiety, and have an irreversible effect on the brain.

 

The study, which was published in the journal Neurobiology of Disease, looked at 18 adolescent and adult rats that were exposed to cannabis.

 

Those given the drug had decreased levels of serotonin, which affects mood.

 

The animals also showed higher levels of norepinephrine that can increase susceptibility to long-term stress, said Dr. Gabriella Gobbi, a psychiatric researcher from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre.

 

"These permanent changes in the brain are also linked to certain mental illnesses, like schizophrenia," Gobbi said Thursday.

 

"And we showed that even if we stopped the cannabis use at the end of adolescence, the changes were still detectable in adulthood."

 

Previous population studies have looked at how smoking marijuana can affect behavior in some teenagers. But Gobbi said this was one of the first to focus on how the drug affects depression and anxiety in adolescence compared with adulthood.

 

The researchers also plan to observe a group of young human marijuana smokers to investigate the idea further.

The study was funded by a grant from The Canadian Psychiatric Research Foundation.

too high to read all that

I dont really know how we can discuss this. I havent been doing as much research lately on my own tests on cannabis use in the rats in my lab.

^ :laugh3: I'm sure your rats are grateful.

 

I just thought it was interesting because people seem to think of it as such a low-consequence drug (you couldn't pay me to go near the stuff but I have fallen into that category), yet it's such a cultural cliche that regular pot smokers end up like overgrown teenagers at least well into their 30's even if they quit long ago.

Fair enough.

 

I have gone through a few periods of months of smoking every day, but you just get sick of it eventually. People who do this for years and years, they just aren't thinking straight anyway.

 

I think if you do enough of anything its going to have a negative effect on your brain. I know people who could easily have 6-10 joints every single day, its what they spend literally all of their free time doing. I mean imagine spending all your time drinking coffee, or doing anything, constantly, day in day out.

 

Does is destroy braincells? I'd imagine so, but I also imagine that you'd have to smoke shitloads of weed for it to affect you late into your life.

I think it's especially bad to smoke pot when you're that young since your brain doesn't stop developing until you're in your mid-twenties.

Not surprising at all. Just as bad as smoking cigarettes.

 

Hehehyeah MAN!

Not surprising at all. Just as bad as smoking cigarettes.

 

But tobacco doesn't mess with the brain, as far as I know...

Funny, the press release says tests were done on daily consumption, and the CBC report says nothing about it.

Not surprising at all. Just as bad as smoking cigarettes.

 

Was that a joke?

Well generally speaking it's not a good idea to inhale smoke, but cigarettes have many more carcinogens than marijuana.

 

I'd love to see a study that focuses on people who use primarily vaporized marijuana, or people who just eat it (baked into cakes or whatever). It might be tough to find people like that but I'm sure they exist.

What's the fucking problem with ganja. What's the fucking problem with homosexuality. What's the fucking problem with your religion being the only crazy truthful religion in the entire universe. Hahaha, I'm having a rough patch with the patience one needs to bear human stupidity.

Sounds like youve lost it.

Totalement.