Smoking marijuana reduces intelligence
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
Unfortunately, in the modern world, drug addiction among adolescents is a widespread phenomenon. Disappointing world statistics says that it is people who have not reached adulthood - the greatest lovers of marijuana.
Smoking marijuana temporarily changes mood, thoughts, feelings and perception. In most cases, consumers of this drug perceive these changes as positive.
The systematic use of marijuana by adolescents under the age of 18 threatens to impair memory and cognitive activity. An international research group has come to such conclusions.
"Our goal was to find out what changes occur in the brain of adolescents who use marijuana, and what consequences systematic cannabis smoking can have," says Dr. Medellin Mayer, the initiator of the study, a PhD at the University of Duke.
The specialists conducted long-term studies and analyzed the intelligence level of 1,000 New Zealanders, whose cannabis use began as early as adolescence and continued to the present day. All participants in the study of 37-38 years passed a series of psychological tests on the speed of processing information, visual perception and memory status.
When experts compared the results of teenage tests and their indicators at the moment, it was revealed that on average the level of intellectual development in people who had been smoking marijuana for a long time decreased by an average of eight points.
According to Medellin Meyer, unfortunately, these processes are irreversible.
An analysis of the cognitive abilities and intellectual activity of people who started using marijuana as an adult with a formed organism did not show such results. On their health, this has not been so devastating.
The so-called "early" smokers experience a steady decline in memory, language abilities, understanding, perception and planning skills.
Experiments on animals using cocaine, alcohol and nicotine show that the systematic use of narcotic drugs and alcohol leads to irreversible processes in the brain.
"Especially in the pubertal period, when teenagers are in the age of increased vulnerability. Also, the role of dosage in these processes is unknown, "says Lawrence Steinberg, a psychologist at Temple University.
Research scientists point to the obvious disastrous effect of marijuana on a teenage organism. Drug use causes more serious damage to the brain in the puberty period than in adulthood.
[