Scientific arguments on cannabis.

Interpretation: Current marijuana use had a negative effect on global IQ score only in subjects who smoked 5 or more joints per week. A negative effect was not observed among subjects who had previously been heavy users but were no longer using the substance. We conclude that marijuana does not have a long-term negative impact on global intelligence. Whether the absence of a residual marijuana effect would also be evident in more specific cognitive domains such as memory and attention remains to be ascertained.

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Interpretation: Adolescence is a time of particular vulnerability for brain maturation. During this period many individuals experiment with illicit substance use and sometimes quite frequently. Some adolescents who abuse cannabis subsequently develop chronic serious psychiatric symptoms, such as schizophrenia (e.g. [22]) and also cognitive deficits [23-25]. However, it has never been shown consistently that cannabis has direct effects on brain development and there are no known reports using more advanced imaging technology such as DTI to examine white matter integrity. Thus the current study was an initial evaluation to determine whether any indication of cortical atrophy or white matter abnormalities could be detected applying these current MRI methods.

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Interpretation: Performance impairment during Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) intoxication has been well described in occasional cannabis users. It is less clear whether tolerance develops to the impairing effects of THC in heavy users of cannabis. The aim of the present study was to assess neurocognitive performance during acute THC intoxication in occasional and heavy users. Twenty-four subjects (12 occasional cannabis users and 12 heavy cannabis users) participated in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, two-way mixed model design. Both groups received single doses of THC placebo and 500 microg/kg THC by smoking. Performance tests were conducted at regular intervals between 0 and 8 h after smoking, and included measures of perceptual motor control (critical tracking task), dual task processing (divided attention task), motor inhibition (stop signal task) and cognition (Tower of London). THC significantly impaired performance of occasional cannabis users on critical tracking, divided attention and the stop signal task. THC did not affect the performance of heavy cannabis users except in the stop signal task, i.e. stop reaction time increased, particularly at high THC concentrations. Group comparisons of overall performance in occasional and heavy users did not reveal any persistent performance differences due to residual THC in heavy users. These data indicate that cannabis use history strongly determines the behavioural response to single doses of THC.

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Interpretation: Structural brain abnormalities have been observed in adolescents with alcohol use disorders but less is known about neuropathological brain characteristics of teens with sub-diagnostic binge drinking or the common pattern of binge drinking combined with marijuana use. The goal of this study was to examine white matter integrity in adolescents with histories of binge drinking and marijuana use. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was conducted with 42 adolescents (ages 16-19) classified as controls, binge drinkers, or binge drinkers who are also heavy marijuana users. Tract based spatial analysis identified shared fiber structure across individuals and facilitated voxelwise comparisons of fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) between groups. Significant between group differences were found in FA in eight white matter regions (ps < or = .016) between the binge drink-only group and controls, including superior corona radiata, inferior longitudinal fasciculus, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, and superior longitudinal fasciculus. Interestingly, in 4 of these same regions, binge drinkers who are also heavy marijuana users had higher FA than binge drinkers who did not use marijuana (ps<.05). MD did not differ between groups. Findings are largely consistent with research suggesting less neuropathology in adolescents without histories of substance use. However, binge drinkers who also use marijuana did not show as consistent a divergence from non-users as did the binge drink-only group. Detection of white matter alterations may have implications in identifying early cognitive dysfunction in substance using adolescents.

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desert dude said:

All very interesting. What is the point of the thread, though?

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abandonconflict said:

There is no point, it's just science. Pointless science, desert rat.

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desert dude said:

Oh. OK. Well, here is some more pointless science:

http://funnycrave.com/5-completely-pointless-scientific-studies/2185/

"
Monkeys Can&#8217;t Type For Shit

If you give an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of typewriters and an infinite amount of time, the monkeys will eventually produce the collected works of William Shakespeare. Whether or not it will be leather bound and possess a badass monkey forward isn&#8217;t really the point. It&#8217;s simply a highly improbable situation that is backed up by the law of probability, and it&#8217;s called the Infinite Monkey Theorem.
Some researchers at Plymouth University in England had so much faith in primates that they may as well have nailed a chimp to a cross to die for all of our primate sins. These crazy British bastards actually put the infinite monkey theorem to the test.

The results? Well, we&#8217;ll let one of the researchers tell you himself:
&#8220;They get bored and they shit on the keyboard rather than type.&#8221;

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abandonconflict said:

There is no point, it's just science. Pointless science, desert rat.

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NLXSK1 said:

How dare you bring science to the politics forum!!

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abandonconflict said:

I will + rep anyone if you can present a cogent argument pro cannabis prohibition that does not have a premise that could be proven or disproved by research. If there is no such argument, science is capable of rendering all arguments against legal cannabis fallacious.

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abandonconflict said:

I will + rep anyone if you can present a cogent argument pro cannabis prohibition that does not have a premise that could be proven or disproved by research. If there is no such argument, science is capable of rendering all arguments against legal cannabis fallacious.

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GOD HERE said:

All black people smoke cannabis so it should be outlawed, along with black people.

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desert dude said:

All very interesting. What is the point of the thread, though?

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abandonconflict said:

Google "scientific arguments on cannabis".

The politics subforum of RIU gets hundreds of views per hour and this thread at less than an hour old already has over a hundred. It isn't pointless just because it is science.

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Canna Sylvan said:

Then make a thread stating. "I like mixing science thought and politics."

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abandonconflict said:

I will + rep anyone if you can present a cogent argument pro cannabis prohibition that does not have a premise that could be proven or disproved by research. If there is no such argument, science is capable of rendering all arguments against legal cannabis fallacious.

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abandonconflict said:

I will + rep anyone if you can present a cogent argument pro cannabis prohibition that does not have a premise that could be proven or disproved by research. If there is no such argument, science is capable of rendering all arguments against legal cannabis fallacious.

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abandonconflict said:

There is no point, it's just science. Pointless science, desert rat.

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