Attention Parents Of Teens!!!!

Heavy Marijuana Use Doesn't Damage Brain
01 July 2003 - By Sid Kirchheimer

Analysis of Studies Finds Little Effect From Long-Term Use

By Sid Kirchheimer


Reviewed By Michael Smith, MD
on Tuesday, July 01, 2003
WebMD Medical News

July 1, 2003 -- Long-term and even daily marijuana use doesn't appear to cause permanent brain damage, adding to evidence that it can be a safe and effective treatment for a wide range of diseases, say researchers.

The researchers found only a "very small" impairment in memory and learning among long-term marijuana users. Otherwise, scores on thinking tests were similar to those who don't smoke marijuana, according to a new analysis of 15 previous studies.


In those studies, some 700 regular marijuana users were compared with 484 non-users on various aspects of brain function -- including reaction time, language and motor skills, reasoning ability, memory, and the ability to learn new information.


Surprising Finding


"We were somewhat surprised by our finding, especially since there's been a controversy for some years on whether long-term cannabis use causes brain damage," says lead researcher and psychiatrist Igor Grant, MD.


"I suppose we expected to see some differences in people who were heavy users, but in fact the differences were very minimal."


The marijuana users in those 15 studies -- which lasted between three months to more than 13 years -- had smoked marijuana several times a week or month or daily. Still, researchers say impairments were less than what is typically found from using alcohol or other drugs.


"All study participants were adults," says Grant, professor of psychiatry and director of the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research Center at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.


"However, there might be a different set of circumstances to a 12-year-old whose nervous system is still developing."


10 States OK Marijuana Use


Grant's analysis, published in the July issue of the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, comes as many states consider laws allowing marijuana to be used to treat certain medical conditions. Earlier this year, Maryland became the 10th state to allow marijuana use to relieve pain and other symptoms of AIDS, multiple sclerosis, cancer, glaucoma, and other conditions -- joining Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.


Medicinal marijuana is available by prescription in the Netherlands and a new marijuana drug is expected to be released in Great Britain later this year. In the U.S. and elsewhere, Marinol, a drug that is a synthetic form of marijuana and contains its active ingredient, THC, is available by prescription to treat loss of appetite associated with weight loss in AIDS patients.


Grant says he did the analysis to help determine long-term toxicity from long-term and frequent marijuana use. His center is currently conducting 11 studies to determine its safety and efficacy in treating several diseases.


"This finding enables us to see a marginal level of safety, if those studies prove that cannabis can be effective," Grant tells WebMD. "If we barely find this effect in long-term heavy users, then we are unlikely to see deleterious side effects in individuals who receive cannabis for a short time in a medical setting, which would be safer than what is practiced by street users."


Grant's findings come as no surprise to Tod Mikuriya, MD, former director of non-classified marijuana research for the National Institute of Mental Health Center for Narcotics and Drug Abuse Studies and author of The Marijuana Medical Handbook: A Guide to Therapeutic Use. He is currently president of the California Cannabis Medical Group, which has treated some 20,000 patients with medicinal marijuana and Marinol.


'Highly Effective Medicine'


"I just re-published a paper of the first survey for marijuana toxicity done in 1863 by the British government in India that was the most exhaustive medical study of its time in regards to possible difficulties and toxicity of cannabis. And it reached the same conclusion as Grant," Mikuriya tells WebMD.


"This is merely confirming what was known over 100 years ago, as well as what was learned by various government findings doing similar research -- marijuana is not toxic, but it is a highly effective medicine."


In fact, marijuana was available as a medicinal treatment in the U.S. until the 1930s.


Lester Grinspoon, MD, a retired Harvard Medical School psychiatrist who studied medicinal marijuana use since the 1960s and wrote two books on the topic, says that while Grant's finding provides more evidence on its safety, "it's nothing that those of us who have been studying this haven't known for a very long time.


"Marijuana is a remarkably safe and non-toxic drug that can effectively treat about 30 different conditions," he tells WebMD. "I predict it will become the aspirin of the 21st century, as more people recognize this."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SOURCES: The Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, July 2003. Igor Grant, MD, professor of psychiatry, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine; director, UCSD Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research Center. Tod Mikuriya, MD, president, the California Cannabis Research Medical Group, Oakland; former director of non-classified marijuana research, the National Institute of Mental Health Center for Narcotics and Drug Abuse Studies. Lester Grinspoon, MD, professor emeritus of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston; author, Marijuana: The Forbidden Medicine and Marihuana Reconsidered.





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This does not surprise me in the least.

 

i don't have issues, you just made SERIOUSLY INCORRECT assumptions of my lifestyle and beliefs because i DARED to say something negative about your blessed herb. to me it's just another substance to be utilized with care, just like alcohol or prescription meds. i believe everything exists for a reason. you really need to stop jumping to conclusions about people, it makes you look like an ass.

 

^^^^You need to stop being such a contradictory spazz. I think if you go back and reread your replies you will see the only "ass" here is you. Blessed herb, hahaha!!!

Go back to being a mom, hopefully your better at that than trying to make a point about something you SEEM to know little about. I only go by the words and thoughts you type, so if my assumptions of you were wrong it's because of how you presented yourself.

BTW, if you actually read my past replies you would see that I stated earlier that I may have jumped to the wrong conclusion about your exprience/knowledge about this substance. I can at least admit when I'm wrong, you seem to be a know it all and have an answer for everything. Your experiences with mj have been kinda' shitty from what you wrote, but like I said earlier, your experiences don't speak for everyone.

 

Interesting. It doesn't say NO ill effects, just LITTLE ill effects.

Also: "However, there might be a different set of circumstances to a 12-year-old whose nervous system is still developing."

So, at what age can parents stop worrying whether or not little MJphysicist is rotting out his nervous system with dope?

Still doesn't get you past "my house, my rules". Or the fact that MJPhysicist is generally a whiny, immature space case who shouldn't be doing drugs in the first place.

 

It's best to wait until the body and mind are developed, at least in my opinion. I guess a parent never really stops worrying about thier child at any age. I am 33 and have no children ( My better half wants children desperately, so I may have to give in, hahaha!!!). I am a professional studio/touring musician and I don't feel that with the amount of travelling that I do that it would make for good parenting. My father was a travelling musician during my early childhood and I remember not liking his absentee parenting. When I was 5 he gave up music and is now a retired captain from the Atlantic City police department.

I can't imagine what a parent goes through when worrying wether or not thier child is using drugs. As I said before I don't think any smoker with half a brain in thier head would say that mj, or any drug for that matter, is 100% safe. I am a moderate smoker and haven't noticed any ill affects from smoking mj. I have been smoking mj since I was 20.

 

RE: It's best to wait until the body and mind are developed, at least in my opinion. I guess a parent never really stops worrying about thier chaild at any age

In essence, you're agreeing with me. The only ones who aren't are the kids coming on saying that they know best and we should let them smoke their lives away at 16.

 

^^^^^Kids are kids. I thought I knew it all when I was 16, little did I know that I didn't know shit. I agree that a person should wait until they are at least 18 to experiment with any mind altering substances due to the way the mind and body develops prior to later teen years. If kids want to use at an early age, they have to deal with the consequences, if any arise. I believe that children should respect the wishes of thier parents while living under thier roof and are being cared for by thier family, but kids are going to be kids and some need to learn lessons the hard way.

 

RE: I believe that children should respect the wishes of thier parents while living under thier roof and are being cared for by thier family, but kids are going to be kids and some need to learn lessons the hard way.

Yes, well, the OP believes different. Don't yell at, ground, punish, or otherwise limit the freedom of your kids when it comes to drugs. Talk to them, relate to them, hell, smoke a bowl with them and probably BUY it for them, and then let them carry on doing what they were already doing.

Parenting like that is why society is what it is today.

And everyone over 18 has said "uh, no, you're off base". It's only the kids saying otherwise.

 

here i have quoted my every statement in this thread that is supposedly contradictory. i'm not seeing it. i thought perhaps i aughtta check, just in case, but it's just not jumping out at me. perhaps, guysmiley, you can show me?

i never had a problem with it until i was incharge of my teenaged sister who went completely psycho with the drugs. a little beer, a little pot, neither ever harmed me. i wasn't inclined to attach to either. but my little sis lost her fucking mind and just about lost her fucking life just over being stupid while stoned and getting into the wrong car with the wrong guy. yeah, i'd say that shit has to be VERY closely gaurded. and i know, the argument is "but she wasn't being responsible." well, shit, she was stoned, how was she supposed to make the appropriate RESPONSIBLE choice?

whatever, man. dave used to have nearly unlimited supplies of pot but couldn't get any alcohol. he was still a fucking dumbass. i agree that pot being illegal while alcohol is legal is stupid, since they both turn you into fucking dumbasses.

oh, and toketrip, the fact that my little sister robbed up blind to get more pot says to me that people with any kind of mind numbing habit are willing to steal to get it. and it DOES impair driving. i can't for the life of my understand why anyone would think that it doesn't. and so far as i can tell, killing someone while driving stupid stoned is still killing someone for their habit.

idiot. i've smoked enough to know exactly what the effects are. i've also been the sober one around to drive while other's got completely stoned to know what the effects are. i've also been ripped off my a little sister willing to steal from me just to buy more to help her excape her problems. don't tell me what i don't know.

seriously, i love the weed. but i'll never deny it's ability to fuck people up, just like any other drug. don't live in denial. it makes you look stupid and childish.

really? skewed and ridiculous? couldn't put down the stupid pipe to go to the fucking store and now we got a fucking deadly accident? just as bad as not putting down the bottle deal with it. i've been around way too many stoned as fuck morons not to know how stupid it would be to drive. it IS the norm.

btw, thanks for "falling' to my level. lol. classy.

don't be so bitter. let's smoke, individually, far far away from each other. don't be so emotionally attached to a chemical reaction. i'm not raping your sister or anything. embrace the good, acknowledge the bad. respect the reality.

 

^^^^You need to get a life hun. You and I joined at the same time, you have almost 11,000 posts (20 a day) and I barely have 500. Guess you like to see your own words in print? Do you not have anyone to listen to you ramble at home? Considering that you seem to be more than aware of your ability to irritate others and argue, which it says in your profile, I should have seen this bullshit coming.

If you can't see the contradictions, albeit slight, on your own....... pointing them out to you will make no difference. Once I point out the contradictions, you will say that they are not. Funny how you are the only one I am arguing with, hmmmmmm? I have moved on and am having a fairly decent conversation with Iron Goth. Just like it says under your screen name, you are a pain in the ass. Go ahead and have the last word, I know it will make you feel like you accomplished something.

 

I'll argue any day that pot should be legal. I have even done reports and articles on the benefits of legalizing marijuana both medicinally and for adult consumption. I have participated (against the status quo) in formal debates on the topic. I despise the drug war and believe that in a free country one should have the freedom to do whatever they want to oneself as long as it doesn't infringe on the rights and well-being of others. I loathe all the propaganda surrounding the drug and would love to see more research done on the effect of pot on our bodies.

What I won't argue for, however, is that parent's should be okay with their teen smoking, or that they should smoke with them. A child bringing illegal drugs into their parent's home or car IS infringing on the rights of his parents and putting them at criminal risk. Children, until they reach the age of 18 (well, it varies from state to state), are the legal responsibility of their parents. I have my own personal opinions on how I as a parent should raise my child, but I am not foolish enough to think that MY opinions on how children should be raised is the best way for every parent to raise their kid.

I also realize that I probably would have argued these same points I'm now making when I was a pot-smoking teenager myself!

 

^^^^^Yeah, smoking with your children is a piss poor idea and those parents need to grow up. I know some poeple that smoke with thier teenage kids and I feel embarrassed for them. Not setting a good example at all.

 

RE: I also realize that I probably would have argued these same points I'm now making when I was a pot-smoking teenager myself!

When you're a kid you think of this as hypocrisy. When you get older you realise it's the wisdom of experience. I don't think any of us at that age would have argued otherwise either.

 

http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2005/10/13/hscout528519.html

Health
Marijuana Compound Spurs Brain Cell Growth
By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Oct. 13 (HealthDay News) -- When it comes to the controversy surrounding medical marijuana, an international team of researchers is busy stirring the pot by releasing findings that suggest the drug helps promote brain cell growth while treating mood disorders.

According to the study in rats, a super-potent synthetic version of the cannabinoid compound found in marijuana can reduce depression and anxiety when taken over an extended period of time.

This mood boost seems to be the result of the drug's ability to promote the growth of new brain cells, something no other addictive drug appears able to do, the researchers say.

The findings, which appear in the November issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, remain preliminary, however.

"Our results were obtained from rats, and there's a big difference between rats and humans," said study co-author Dr. Xia Zhang, of the neuropsychiatry research unit in the department of psychiatry at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada. "So, I don't really don't know yet if our findings apply to humans. But our results indicate that the clinical use of marijuana could make people feel better by helping control anxiety and depression."

The new findings come on the heels of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June granting federal authorities the power to stop doctors from prescribing marijuana. That decision also bars individuals from cultivating the herb for medical purposes.

The decision overrides laws currently on the books in 11 states which had legalized the use of marijuana for patients receiving a doctor's approval. According to the ruling, the Supreme Court justices made their decision on the basis of interstate commerce regulations rather than on an evaluation of the pros and cons of medical marijuana use.

But does medical marijuana work? To help settle that question, Zhang's team focused on the potential of a synthetic laboratory-produced form of the cannabinoid compound naturally found in the marijuana plant.

Humans and other animals also naturally produce the compound, and are known to have cannabinoid receptors lying on the surface of cells in the nervous system and the immune system.

Prior research has shown that, when exposed to cannabinoids, these receptors can provoke an anti-inflammatory and anti-convulsive response. They can also instigate a range of psychotropic effects such as euphoria.

The current study focused on a particular formulation of synthetic cannabinoid known as HU210 -- a compound which Zhang described as the most powerful cannabinoid in the world.

The authors explored both the short-term and long-term effects of exposure to HU210 in rats.

To measure the drug's short-term response, they gave adult rats a single injection of HU210. To study the same drug's effect over the longer term, the researchers gave a separate group of adult rats twice-daily injections of the cannabinoid over a two-week period.

Autopsies revealed that by the end of the 10-day HU210 treatment regimen, new neurons had been generated and integrated into the circuitry of the hippocampus region of the rat's brains. This process, known as neurogenesis, was still in evidence a full month after treatment had been initiated.

Neurogenesis was not triggered in response to brain cells being killed through cannabinoid exposure, the researchers add. In fact, HU210 injections did not appear to prompt any loss of neurons in the hippocampus.

Cannabinoid use appeared to boost mood, as well: According to the scientists, behavioral tests suggest that long-term treatment reduced the rodent's anxiety- and depression-linked behaviors.

For example, one month post-treatment, treated rats deprived of food for 48 hours were quicker than similarly deprived, non-treated rats to begin eating food when it was finally offered to them in an unfamiliar environment.

The researchers believe treated rats may have been less anxious in the manner they handled this novel situation. They stress the results were not related to cannabinoids' appetite-stimulating effects, since the treated rats' eating behavior was similar to that of untreated rats when they were offered food in a familiar setting.

Treated rats also responded in a less anxious manner to swimming and climbing tests, and displayed shorter periods of immobility compared with untreated rats. The latter finding was interpreted to mean that HU210 had an antidepressant effect on rats receiving the cannabinoid over the longer term.

However, while long-term administration of higher doses worked to reduce anxiety and depression, lower doses did not appear to have the same effect, the researchers added.

Zhang and his associates credit cannabinoid-linked neurogenesis with the apparent mood shifts seen in the animals.

The hippocampus area of the brain where the neuronal growth occurred is key to the regulation of stress and other mood disorders, Zhang's team point out. This region is also important to the control of cognitive processes such as learning and memory.

Among the common addictive drugs, marijuana alone appears able to promote neurogenesis when used over time and in the right dosage, the researchers say. In contrast, prior research has demonstrated that chronic administration of cocaine, opiates, alcohol and nicotine inhibits brain cell growth.

"If our results can be confirmed in humans, we should anticipate the chronic use of marijuana as a medical treatment for anxiety and depression," Zhang said.

However, he cautioned that "this treatment is not the same as smoking marijuana. Whether smoking marijuana can produce the same effect, we just don't know."

Dr. Perry G. Fine, a professor of anesthesiology at the University of Utah School of Medicine Pain Research Center, said more than enough data has already been gathered to confirm medical marijuana's potential benefits.

"It's great that there's new science, but to me this is no longer an epiphany," he said. "It's just proving what's been long-suspected. We're behind the curve with the cannabinoids largely because of the stigma of marijuana going years and years back."

"I think most people with clinical expertise in the area of palliative medicine know that if patients had access to all the tools we currently have, we could certainly do a whole lot better to help people live with multiple chronic diseases," he added. "The social policies are way behind our technology, and that's where we need some catching up."



It seems as though the people claiming MJ has improved their life might have more merit behind those statements than ol' IronGoth realizes/admits. Your contentions that every cannabis user is "escaping reality", or blocking personal growth are not scientifically based, and come across to me as an emotionally based argument from a desperate propagandist.

 

This doesn't surprise me at all.

 

RE: If our results can be confirmed in humans, we should anticipate the chronic use of marijuana as a medical treatment for anxiety and depression," Zhang said.

However, he cautioned that "this treatment is not the same as smoking marijuana. Whether smoking marijuana can produce the same effect, we just don't know."

Hmmmm.....

The compound they were looking at was a specifically engineered synthetic cannabinoid. Not something naturally found in pot.

 

My high-school boyfriend smoked with his mom (so did I), but she always told me she wished she never smoked with him. Her house became the place all the kids would go to hang out and smoke pot. She had lost a lot of the control and respect she once had.

THC also helps protect the brain from cell damage caused by stroke. I did a report on it for senior-year Anatomy and Physiology class. I got an A

 

i'm on bedrest. you understand the concept? and seriously, your arguments were weak and your accusations false.

 

Disrespect? Yeah, I hear you there. The cool mom is the one who lets her kids eat donuts for breakfast, skip school, smoke pot etc.

I'm really glad my mom wasn't cool. My teeth aren't full of holes, I don't have Type II diabetes, no criminal record and I actually did well in school rather than scrape by with a Good Enough Diploma.