Marijuana Affects Brain Long-Term
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Marijuana users have faster blood flow in their brains, even after a month of not smoking, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.
The findings suggest they have narrowed arteries, similar to patients with high blood pressure and dementia, and could help explain reports that heavy marijuana users have trouble on memory tests, said the researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Baltimore.
Ronald Herning and Jean Lud Cadet tested 54 marijuana users, who smoked anywhere between two and 350 joints a week, and 18 non-smokers.
They found that blood flow improved in people who smoked up to 70 marijuana cigarettes a week -- people they defined as moderate users -- after a month of avoiding cannabis.
Heavy users, who smoked up to 350 joints a week, saw no change in blood flow even after a month, the researchers said.
The NIDA is telling us 70 joints a week is moderate use and 350 joints a week is heavy use. How could anyone smoke that much pot? Why would anyone want to smoke that much pot? Is it even physically possible? These researchers might need to scan their own brains.
The findings suggest they have narrowed arteries, similar to patients with high blood pressure and dementia, and could help explain reports that heavy marijuana users have trouble on memory tests, said the researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Baltimore.
Ronald Herning and Jean Lud Cadet tested 54 marijuana users, who smoked anywhere between two and 350 joints a week, and 18 non-smokers.
They found that blood flow improved in people who smoked up to 70 marijuana cigarettes a week -- people they defined as moderate users -- after a month of avoiding cannabis.
Heavy users, who smoked up to 350 joints a week, saw no change in blood flow even after a month, the researchers said.
The NIDA is telling us 70 joints a week is moderate use and 350 joints a week is heavy use. How could anyone smoke that much pot? Why would anyone want to smoke that much pot? Is it even physically possible? These researchers might need to scan their own brains.
posted by Loretta Nall at
1:59 AM
5 Comments:
I should have known you'd beat me to this. I called it Junk Science here. What an embarassment. And what a disgrace for NIH -- if they cared about preserving their own integrity they'd cut loose the NIDA and let Bill Bennett or his ilk go run it somewherere besides on the government dime.
By
Gritsforbreakfast, at 10:46 AM
This blog must be set to the wrong time zone. It shows everything as having been posted two hours earlier than actual posting time. Maybe it's the marijuana?
By
Loretta Nall, at 2:41 PM
You beat me to it. I posted here about how the tactic now is to demonize the smoking, if not the weed. It's not the drug they hate, per se, it is the drug they can't profit from that bugs the Drug Warriors.
By
"Radical" Russ, at 5:57 PM
I suspect that this is just an old tobacco study report fraudulently recycled by NIH with the word "marijuana" inserted before the word cigarette. 350 "tobacco cigarettes" a week is a pack and a half per day smoker. No one smokes that much pot.
By
Anonymous, at 11:39 PM
Anonymous Correction: that 350 "tobacco cigarettes" a week is a TWO and a half pack per day smoker.
By
Anonymous, at 11:44 PM
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