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MARIJUANA

No, Smoking Pot as a Teen Doesn't Lower Your IQ

Intelligence drop caused by poverty not pot, new study claims

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by Mary Noble

Senior Editor t

Image: Myspace.com

Chronic pot-smoking as a teen probably doesn't fry your brain later in life, contrary to a 2012 study, which Politix duly reported. Apparently that study was flawed, and the IQ drop likely had nothing to do with cannabis.

Which is good news, given that America's teenagers are smoking more pot than ever before.

The IQ drop seen in the original study turns out to be normal for people with the education level and occupation of the study subjects, regardless of whether they smoked pot or not. Put another way, marijuana use as a teen is correlated with socio-economic disadvantage - which often predicts an IQ drop in adulthood. That's according to a different group of scientists, who revisited the original results, and published the new findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Via CBS and PNAS.
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Do studies like this affect your view of whether marijuana should be legal?

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Comments (view in Forum)

  • o
    thejimbo
    !
    I KNEW IT!!! I read that study a month ago and smelled a rat: More Junk Science supported by ODNCP, DEA & NIDA to perpetuate their failed,(but highly profitable), "Drug War". When is the public going to wise up and realize that our government has been lying through their teeth to us about most of the drugs it considers 'dangerous'. Their play is on a par with the rubbish Josef Goebbels and his crew of degenerates pushed on the German populace...Eventually, the House of Cards came tumbling down, just as our governments repressive 'drug dis-information/law enforcement repression/tyranny' departments will. I can't wait until these base prevaricators have been exposed for the scurrilous, murdering, malevolent rodents that they truly are.
  • o
    woodtick57
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    @Mogal

    it could certainly fund some great drug research...i'd just be afraid of what would be added to the pot.

    Back when I smoked, I bought mine from a friend who grew it in his basement. i knew exactly what was in it, pure TLC and THC...
  • Zazziness
    !
    @Mogal But I can see Phillip-Morris setting up fields. I'm sure they will, in fact. When asked about it, they said they had zero plans of entering the industry while it was federally illegal. When asked what would happen if the feds legalized it, they suddenly had "No comment."

  • View all 25 replies >

  • stepped_in_it
    !
    Want + desire = IQ. The WANT to learn and the DESIRE to educate yourself will maintain/increase your IQ. It's called "use it or lose it". AHHH, the dumbing down of America marches on. We watch TV and play games/social network on our computers instead of using it to expand our horizons!
  • stepped_in_it
    !
    Of course the pot alone doesn't lower your IQ. Just like alcohol, McDonald's burgers, Facebook and articles like this doesn't directly lower your IQ. BUT, if all you do is sit on the couch, smoke pot, drink beer, eat McDoubles, social on Facebook and read dribble like this, YOUR IQ will definitely drop to the point of drool coming out the side of your mouth! Use it or lose it.....
  • u
    BelinKS
    !
    I've said this before. Marijuana should be legalized. Alcohol was against the law during prohibition. It is legal now. The same should go to marijuana. It can reduce glaucoma if caught early enough. It not only helps people with cancer, it would help alleviate pain for a great number of diseases without impairing people the way narcotic pain medicine does. Right now it would help my son emensely! It could help him with pain that he is in all the time due to a bone marrow transplant that left him with major medical problems. It could help him to gain weight that he badly needs! I am also sick. I have the SLE version of lupus. Marijuana could keep my pain under control without drugging me up like my narcotics pain medicine. This old story still rings true. Have you ever heard of a man coming home drunk and beating his wife and children? Yes. Have you ever heard of a man that comes home after smoking pot and beating his wife and children? No. It is not a gateway drug that the Reagan Aministration said it was. It is not addictive either like they said it was. It is a plant that naturally occures here. It is people like my 74 year old mother that still believes what the Reagan administration said. People her age always vote! That is a fact. My generation and the next do not. If they did, marijuana would already be legal. It's time to step up and vote. If every state legalized it, the federal level would have no choice but to do the same thing.If we do not step up and vote. That is the same as voting against marijuana. We want to out vote the baby boomers. The largest portion in politics that can still out vote us. But my son's generation and mine could out vote the baby boomers.
  • kathyparsell
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    I hope for your sake and the sake of others like my husband, the country/government get with the program. As it is now, you can't get pain medicine if you use marijuana, despite the evidence that shows people with intractable pain need less medicine if allowed to use pot. Big pharma wins again at the cost of the people.
  • Denizen_Kate
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    It isn't us boomers who are against deciminalization. In fact, it's the boomer generation pushing the hardest for it. It was boomers who got medical cannabis on the ballot in California several years ago. Trust me, I was there. Nearly every boomer I know either smokes the stuff socially (like having a cocktail or a beer at a party) or uses it medicinally. If you feel the need to place blame, look elsewhere. But instead of fixing blame, let's fix the problem of archaic, unreasonable laws against citizens pursuing happiness in whatever way they like.
  • u
    BelinKS
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    @Denizen_Kate
    You obviously do not live in the south. The views of the older generations is why Arkansas did not pass medical marijuana in the last election. We lost 49% to 51%. We were so close. With the education out there now, we could win next time. My mother is part of the oldest baby boomers and my husband is part of the youngest. Needless to say he is older than me. My generation is known as Gen X. You should have seen me trying to convince my mother. My medical books spread all over the place, plus many, many Internet searches. I now have her convinced to vote for medical marijuana, but she said she will never vote for recreational use of marijuana! I just hope she spreads this around to her friends. I have her plenty of information written down and multiple websites that she is keeping in her purse. That suggests that she will tell her friends. I guess this state will have to wait on the recreational use until this older part passes away. But winning medical marijuana next time will be huge for this southern state!
  • u
    BelinKS
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    @kathyparsell
    I agree with you. There are many times I do not take my pain meds because I want to spend time with my 7yr old daughter, though doing that leaves me in severe pain and that gets in the way anyway. My husband has the beginning stages of glaucoma. Some how marijuana can reverse that. I really hope we get it done in my state in the next elections. In the last, we lost 49% to 51%.
  • kathyparsell
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    @BelinKS My father had macular degeneration. An old childhood friend of mine stopped by to visit my parents and was so distraught after the visit he came by my house the next week with a small gift. It took some doing but finallymy father (83) gave in at my mothers behest and smoked (the comedic Scean will be forever in my memory) some. It helped tremendously with the pain but he just couldn't get passed the aspect he was breaking the law and so we gave up forcing him. He and my mother passed away soon after and the laws are still the same so I will never truly know how much benefit it could have been to him. Good luck in your state, each year I am more hopeful.

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  • o
    Sharpshooter
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    I remember a Bill Cosby story from years back about someone suggesting that he smoke some "grass". They told him it "enhances your personality..." To which Cosby replied... "Well... what if you're an asshole?"

    If it's illegal to smoke dope, smoking it is stupidity. The risk of arrest would be sufficient to dissuade an intelligent person.

    Studies and Polls are going to reflect what the buyer wants or it doesn't get made public... If someone disagrees with the result of a poll they can simply BUY their own.

    I'm at a loss as to why people are so enamored by such an obviously flawed system.
  • o
    Mogal
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    The irony here is that this post reads as if the writer actually has a clue as to what they are speaking of, which obviously, they dont.
  • mimi57
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    This entire administration will love to dumb everyone down by smoking pot, after
    all, the POTUS was a big smoker of that good Kona gold.. as long is everyone is
    'high' no one will know or care about the destruction being done to the country.
    We'll be Europe in no time at all !!!
  • Post Removed by Moderators

  • View all 38 replies >

  • mimi57
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    How nice?..and some people believe everything they read instead of seeing the
    consequences first hand. I have a cousin who smokes pot, it's a great motivator!
    He gets up, plays video games, smokes pot, eats, naps , smokes some more pot. He can't keep a job. When a relative said he should get a job and that he
    needs to be productive...someone replied, "Why should he, he's too busy and
    besides his parents were potheads too." I am the mom of four sons, I've never
    smoked a cigarette, can't stand it...my friends smoked , I didn't. All of my sons
    are non-smokers, except one,( he's the least productive one.) Two graduated
    college, two went to a trade school. One owns his own business and makes a
    very good living , adopted a Russian boy, and a Guatemalan girl, his wife has a
    PHD., the other is successful in the medical field, one runs a large hotel in AZ.,
    and the youngest is still in school and works for an auto parts store, never misses
    a day of work. I never could have told my kids not to smoke ( anything ) if I did.
    I could not have told them not to be a drunk if I were one...Drugs do not make
    people productive, I see it all the time. If it doesn't lower your IQ., it really doesn't
    matter, I have yet to see a successful pot head.
  • u
    AceLuby
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    I have a cousin who drinks milk. He gets up, plays video games, drinks milk, eats, naps, drinks some more milk. He can't keep a job... blah, blah, blah BAN MILK!!!!
  • mimi57
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    @AceLuby Does it make him all goofy and smelly and annoying ?! This is no kid, he's in his late twenties. At some point most people want to grow up... I
    guess the milk acts as a sedative for him, it's time for him to put the baby bottle
    down and get movin' and shakin'!
  • u
    AceLuby
    !
    @mimi57 It does smell, he spillsa all over himself and all you smell is rotten milk, and he's no kid either, he's in his 30's! No job and all he can think about is the milk he's so highly addicted to. He needs to grow up, but a better idea would be to throw him in jail and add milk to the controlled substances list as highly addictive w/ no medical use. That'll show all those nasty smelly milk drinkers.
  • mimi57
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    @AceLuby Well, what is the solution? We just can not have these lazy pot smoking, milk drinking, twenty somethings laying around. What do you think? LOL
  • u
    AceLuby
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    @mimi57 The solution? They are adults and if they choose to be lazy milk drinkers, or lazy pot smokers, or lazy drinkers, or lazy video game players, or lazy movie watchers, or lazy whatever, it is their right to do so as a free American. That's how liberty works.

    BTW, I have a Mensa score of 75, an IQ of 150, graduated Magna Cum Laude from a top 25 school in the country, make six figures, and smoke regularly. Know what I don't do? I don't drink milk.

  • View all 48 replies >

  • Mia
    !
    Teens & children should not do drugs, smoke pot, drink alcohol, play violent video games, watch pornography, etc.... This article was about teens not adults. Children and teens have developing brains that shouldnt be exposed to these things. Is it going to happen? Of course. Should adults promote it or turn a blind eye? Hell no. We need to educate and shield our youth. Fill their lives with as much positive responsibility as we can.
  • mimi57
    !
    That is so true . I work with addicted, mentally ill teens. Thanks for making a great point! Too bad many people don't get to see what dope and alcohol do to teens,
    they may change their minds...and then again, maybe not. Addiction has a real
    strong hold, as does denial.
  • Mbjhug
    !
    So it's not OK for Jr to eat a magic brownie as a snack after school to help him wind down from the pressures of high school and help him focus on homework, but it IS OK to prescribe him Ritalin to speed him up and make him less focused? Or Xanax for the anxiety and make him distant and drooling in the corner?

    Tell me which drugs are not OK for a teen to do?
  • mimi57
    !
    @Mbjhug I don't think kids should do any drugs. They need to eat better, take vitamins, get involved in sports, even track, golf, etc.. Anything that burns calories
    and pumps endorphins into the body which helps to relieve stress. Also, kids need more love, and need to know that their parents care about them. Whenever
    a person feels good about themselves, they are less likely to have the need for drugs.
  • Mbjhug
    !
    @mimi57 See, this is good. I'm also for not letting kids have ANY drugs (baring life-saving and whatnot), both legal and illegal. I'm just trying to point out that just because it's legal doesn't make it any less of a drug. There are drugs that are legal to prescribe (to kids) which are either A.) Not nearly as effective as they claim (1/3 aren't' affected by scripts) B.) more harmful than cannabis.

    But it's OK to pump up em up so full of pills they don't even know who they are anymore, just don't smoke that demon weed!

  • View all 17 replies >

  • u
    AceLuby
    !
    Treat pot like beer and call it a day. I find it funny that the people who are against this are the same people who want the govt to fix the debt. Well, guess what, we spend billions each year trying to stop people from smoking pot, then we lose billions in potential revenue by not taxing it. More revenue, less spending, and a fairly benign plant, yet you want to continue what hasn't worked for 40 years? The hypocrisy stinks.
  • Mbjhug
    !
    I thought something was off about that article. It just didn't seem to add up. Glad to see people don't always believe everything they see/hear/read/etc
  • PNWest
    !
    I think that recreational use of marijuana should be legal. Regulate it like alcohol and let the government collect some tax $$$. But does smoking pot make you stupid? Not if you just do it occasionally. But heavy users just like heavy drinkers are burning up brain cells they can ill afford to lose.
  • PNWest
    !
    @AceLuby I admit that I base my opinion on first hand observations made in my hazy youth. I had a couple of friends that smoked pot every day and by their early 20's seemed as forgetful as Alzheimer patients. I attributed it to heavy pot smoking. Admittedly not a scientific study.
  • SignifiedNBlue
    !
    @AceLuby are you kidding?? Heavy pot smokers are burnt toast. I know that personally. This loser pothead is a chronic pot smoker...5/8.times per day for the last 3 decades.. Hes burnt. 50 and cant work...
  • u
    AceLuby
    !
    @SignifiedNBlue Losers smoke pot, losers also eat and drink, what's your point? I've never claimed that lazy people don't smoke pot, but you'd be lying if you thought that successful people don't also smoke pot, even habitually, just as there are successful people who have a couple drinks after work and have been for thousands of years.

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  • Post Removed by Moderators
  • u
    tomincali
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    these studies keep changing by the minute. seems to show that it is more like if so many are jumping off the bridge it must be right to jump off the bridge.

    maybe they should do a study like when showing how driving skill goes down after drinks the way the chp does on tv,do the same thing with marijuana and see if it effects anything whatsoever. our local news has been showing that more are being arrested for dui and it is more marijuana use than booze. funny how the acceptance of marijuana has more using it at least in my area.
  • Knightkore
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    @tomincali I have not problem with it as a prescribed drug for medical purposes....but as with any drug it should be regulated as such....with the warnings of not driving....
  • JoeJared
    !
    From first hand use in my teens and 2 short periods in adulthood, what I knew or realized that after I stopped, a few weeks later I suffered no ill effects from it. When I saw the original research that suggested otherwise, I also naturally assumed that it was a biased study. Fluoridation in water has more of an effect on IQ as more than 2 dozen studies show. I'm looking forward to the day that like Asbestos, fluoride is seen for the toxic damaging chemical that it is.
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