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from the snuff-ignorance-before-it-spreads dept.
Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), reports at AlterNet:
A new study identifying minor differences in the brain imaging of habitual marijuana consumers compared to non-users may be ideal for stimulating sensational headlines (e.g., "Regular pot smokers have shrunken brains, study says," Los Angeles Times, November 10), but tells us little in regard to whether pot poses actual health risks.
Specifically, an MRI scan revealed less gray matter in the orbital frontal cortex of pot-smoking subjects compared to those who had never used the drug. Researchers also identified increased connectivity between certain regions of the brain in regular marijuana users compared with non-users.
So precisely what do these findings tell us in regard to pot use and health? Not much. Since the study design is not longitudinal, investigators cannot determine whether these differences are caused by subject's cannabis use, whether these differences existed prior to subjects' ever trying cannabis, or whether these differences persist when users' cannabis consumption ceases.
Most importantly, investigators in this study failed to determine whether any of these differences are positively associated with any measurable adverse performance outcomes, such as cognitive performance or quality of life. It may be that these cannabis users are functioning in their daily lives in a manner that is indistinguishable from controls, in which case the imaging differences may hold little if any real-world significance.
(Score: 2) by Lagg on Wednesday November 12 2014, @04:31PM
I don't really care for the stuff now (makes me tired) but as a kid I smoked a fair share of it. For a while I had pretty severe migraine issues that lead to a few MRIs. If this actually caused shrinkage wouldn't my doctor have told me that I was missing gray matter? It doesn't seem like something that the doctor would need to be looking for in particular in the scan. I know, anecdotal evidence and all that but still. It's better than these media idiots always failing to understand correlation and causation.
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday November 12 2014, @05:08PM
The doctor could of noted that it was slightly smaller than the average. That wouldn't be any cause for concern on their part, if it was still within a certain range. Seeing a bunch of people with similarly reduced brain size in a study is something to think about.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday November 12 2014, @05:12PM
"pretty severe migraine issues"
I had the same issue in my youth, bad enough that I never used it much. I wonder with all the legalization stuff if this will be researched. If my home state legalizes, I'm not burning any, until I can without a headache, so there's an obvious financial motivation for both the growers and the taxers to figure this out.
I never tried it in edible form in brownies, maybe the key is something in the smoke not the thc itself. Smoke inhalation is rarely good for you.
I did some googling on the topic of shrinking brains and the only known ways to shrink a brain before this study were stress, aging, and pregnancy. (seriously, not some kind of weird joke, go google it if you don't believe me) So this is probably going to severely screw up any longitudinal studies. "Obviously" the older someone is the more likely they tried pot at some point in their life, but the older they are the more likely they are older aka brain shrink due to aging as previously discovered.
I find it chemically speaking to be truly bizarre that the only oil known to shrink brains is THC and the only psychoactive known to shrink brains is THC etc etc. That's just weird. All the crazy stuff in the world and only THC shrinks your brain, at least according to google. I guess everything else could be wrong, or maybe this study has weird issues. My bet is on the study being wrong.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Lagg on Wednesday November 12 2014, @06:25PM
Interestingly enough the few times I did feel like lighting while experiencing a migraine (as I'm sure you remember the pain-so-bad-its-nauseaus feeling) it helped it to a certain extent. I think it relieves pressure in the same way it does for people who use it for glaucoma. But yeah if there is something that actually causes damage to the brain I'd be more willing to think it was carcinogens than anything from the THC or cannabis itself. Perhaps they should have a cigarette smoker control group or something. Or even just use people who ingest without smoking. It's kind of silly that any self respecting experiment would do otherwise since it introduces a ton of new variables.
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿