The Abstract:
There is much debate about the impact of adolescent cannabis use on intellectual and educational outcomes. We investigated associations between adolescent cannabis use and IQ and educational attainment in a sample of 2235 teenagers from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. By the age of 15, 24% reported having tried cannabis at least once. A series of nested linear regressions was employed, adjusted hierarchically by pre-exposure ability and potential confounds (e.g. cigarette and alcohol use, childhood mental-health symptoms and behavioural problems), to test the relationships between cumulative cannabis use and IQ at the age of 15 and educational performance at the age of 16. After full adjustment, those who had used cannabis ⩾50 times did not differ from never-users on either IQ or educational performance. Adjusting for group differences in cigarette smoking dramatically attenuated the associations between cannabis use and both outcomes, and further analyses demonstrated robust associations between cigarette use and educational outcomes, even with cannabis users excluded. These findings suggest that adolescent cannabis use is not associated with IQ or educational performance once adjustment is made for potential confounds, in particular adolescent cigarette use. Modest cannabis use in teenagers may have less cognitive impact than epidemiological surveys of older cohorts have previously suggested.
So, first and foremost, this study reinforced a number of concerns about TOBACCO use in youngins.
further analyses demonstrated robust associations between cigarette use and educational outcomes, even with cannabis users excluded
So, I am 55 years old. I have heard, my entire life, about how cannabis use does this and that to one’s brain. It makes you stupid, it makes you lazy, amotivational syndrome.
All of that is bullshit. It is not correlated with academic shortcomings.
H/T to Raw Story:
“People often believe that using cannabis can be very damaging to intellectual ability in the long-term, but it is extremely difficult to separate the direct effects of cannabis from other potential explanations,” Mokrysz added. “Adolescent cannabis use often goes hand in hand with other drug use, such as alcohol and cigarette smoking, as well as other risky lifestyle choices. It’s hard to know what causes what- do kids do badly at school because they are smoking weed, or do they smoke weed because they’re doing badly? This study suggests it is not as simple as saying cannabis is the problem.”
People believe that because it has been blasted at them relentlessly for generations. MUCH of what they found was not shocking: kids with significant emotional issues, traumas, etc. are far more prone to engage in tobacco and alcohol use at early ages.
The findings clash with a previously published study that found frequent cannabis users could lose an average of six IQ points between age 13 and age 38. That study, published in 2012 in the journal PNAS, was based on a longitudinal study of 1,037 New Zealanders.
Anti-marijuana propaganda — what I call Reefer Madness — is seen all over the world but propaganda is always tailored to a specific population or takes on the cultural issues/flavors in the particular country. American reefer madness started with scary stuff like “you’ll be an axe murderer” unless, of course, you get the amotivational syndrome, then you’ll be that skeevy loser hanging out at the video game parlor. (Old ONDCP schtick)
The UK, where this study is from, shares many cultural issues with Australia and New Zealand and they are as reefer mad as any American DEA agent or other Republican.
For example, the reefer mad propagandists will lie through their teeth to generate scare tactics. In the UK, Australia and New Zealand a significant focus of their reefer madness is the “you’ll catch schizophrenia” from “smoking skunk.”
I have little recollection of the ONDCP raving about this. It is grossly insensitive to people with actual mental illnesses because it is used a scare tactic and thus spread inappropriate and false ideas about these illnesses. But the UK and related cultures spread it on thick. I doubt it is the case that the ONDCP gives a flying flip about the mentally ill: I just figure they found more effective issues to lie about. (Man boobs, Purple Brain, there’s a lot of them. Alternet has a nice collection.)
So now research is showing that cannabis isn’t really affecting young minds as propagandists want you to believe.
Nobody is saying go smoke pot. Nobody is saying it is okay for teens to smoke pot; it’s not. Really heavy pot smoking can detract some, but I would like to have the focus more on keeping teens healthy and drug/alcohol/tobacco AND crappy-food free until 18 or so. Just from a health nut perspective.
But people can stop freaking out about it.
And stop trying to jail people for enjoying it.