Young cannabis smokers run risk of lower IQ, report claims

[youngian]

According to a shocking new report young teenagers who get stoned the most were not as good at doing IQ tests-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19372456

Next week young alchoholics are not such good drivers, report reveals.

[Quazer]

Great, now some people who have no clue about weed smoking will say "but there is this new report... and its really bad for your brain"... My reply will be "go back to fucking kindergarden where you can repeat everything the adults say withouth actually having to use your brain.

edit: also the german news websites all have this new report on. one comment was great though: "so it doesnt matter if they smoke weed because the german teens are idiots before they even start smoking anyways..."

[TwoCanucks]

soon the first generation of non-hand-writers will begin to populate the world...where keyboards are used before pens... just saying.

[dude65]

Well, isn't it a good thing that none of this bad stuff happens with alcohol.
My problem is that the articles contain very few details. Who paid for the study?
Was the methodology used correctly and does the study actually come to a valid result?

So much for the media. Now on to politics

As long as governments (I'm affected by the German version) deal with alcohol like they do,
I just can't take any politician babbling on about how weed is the bane of humanity seriously.

With governments being tightly controlled by industy lobbyism as they are, it is fairly easy
to see what would happen if for example the german gov't started thinking about de-criminalising cannabis.

The pharmaceutical and alcohol industries would have their lobbyists out in force, whining to the
politicians about how that would cost them revenue and profits and how they would have to offshore
jobs to far-away places, leaving a wake of unemployment in Germany.

So there, project stopped.

[the.jetsharks]

I came across this the other day an i found it interesting - mainly because of how the data from this study has and will continue to be misrepresented.

First off one study, regardless of how good the data is, never makes something a fact.


The next thing to mention is that this is overall a concrete longitudinal study which began in 1972 containing 1000 participants - 5% of which became habitual cannabis users in their teens. This means that their sample size for this particular piece of research was only 50 weed-smoking participants, which some researchers would consider to be a low sample size to be making estimations about the rest of the population.


Then you have to contend with limiting the confounding variables which i know would be difficult to do in this context, how would you make sure out of the fifty participants you did have that it was only weed smoking affecting their performance on IQ tests, and not also alcohol abuse, other drug use, social problems... the list goes on. The researchers would have been competent without a doubt so i imagine they would have done their greatest to limit these factors and to try and isolate just cannabis use - though to do this 100 percent accurately i personally think isn't entirely feasible.


Another point to be making is that the usefulness of IQ tests themselves and what factors affects these are often contested amongst the scientific community. I personally for one don't put alot of stock into one set of numbers but hey that's just my opinion. I also think, although its a small insignificant point, how many of the participants were doing these tests stoned. Habitual weed smokers, including myself, will elect to do alot of boring tasks stoned which honestly isn't always the greatest idea as i once learned with my theory driving test as a younger man.


Another thing i wanted to mention which is probably the most important is that correlation does not imply or mean causation. Just because there was an association found between weed smoking in teens and receiving fewer points on a IQ score does not mean that one caused the other - and i believe this is what will be misunderstood the most amongst the not so intelligent non-weed smoking community who don't necessarily look kindly upon our activity. Thanks to their abyss of knowledge concerning scientific evidence to back up their arguments we will most likely hear in days to come: " smoking weed as a teenager makes you stupid " - which would be a major misrepresentation of this particular study. Finally i cant help notice the irony that there will be plenty idiots that will be misusing this research to call other people stupid - that makes us laugh a little

[youngian]

Another thing i wanted to mention which is probably the most important is that correlation does not imply or mean causation. Just because there was an association found between weed smoking in teens and receiving fewer points on a IQ score does not mean that one caused the other.

Exactly the lifestyle of someone who smokes heavily in their teens probably wouldn't predispose them to take up much academic excercise which would help you raise IQ scores.

[schererbuzz]

I don't understand...

[myoung321]

Man finally a study that shows something, I mean look what can happen to you... Win More Gold Medals than anyone ever... Michael Phelps....or Win Back to Back Olympic 100 Meters Usian Bolt... Or even become President of the United State.. Barrack Obama... just awful..

[Uncle Ron]

According to a shocking new report young teenagers who get stoned the most were not as good at doing IQ tests-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19372456
Next week young alchoholics are not such good drivers, report reveals.

Thanks for the post...
Nothing shocking about this "new" report. More sensationalism, gotta have hype on BOTH SIDES!!!
This isn't anything new, science has been saying this for years.
But hey, what do doctors and scientists know, right?

Next...

[USbongLord]

And so do old ones

[o5car]

As already stated, the study states nothing of other major life-style factors, which would effect the results of the study, such as other drug or alcohol use. Also friends, the area you live in and family situation, all have an effect; yet no information is given regarding these factors.

[Kingdoc]

Wouldnt say it makes you daft! but it does make you forget lol.