cannabisnews.com: Behavior: Marijuana and a Slower Mind and Body 





Behavior: Marijuana and a Slower Mind and Body 
Posted by CN Staff on March 20, 2006 at 20:36:37 PT
By Nicholas Bakalar
Source: New York Times
New York -- Long-term heavy users of marijuana perform significantly worse on tests of mental agility and physical dexterity than short-term users or nonusers, even when they have abstained from smoking for more than 24 hours, new research shows. Scientists, led by Lambros Messinis, a neuropsychologist at University Hospital in Petras, Greece, tested three groups.
They were 20 long-term users who had smoked four or more marijuana cigarettes a week for at least 10 years, 20 short-term users who had smoked a similar amount for 5 to 10 years and, finally, 24 people, representing a control group, who had used marijuana no more than 20 times in their lives and not in the prior two years. The long- and short-term users were drawn from participants in a drug rehabilitation program.Even after controlling for I.Q., other drug use, age, sex, depression and other variables, long-term users scored significantly lower than control group members and shorter-term users on tests of verbal fluency, memory and coordination. The exercises included naming objects when shown pictures of them, thinking up words with the same initial letter, listening to lists of words and later recalling them and drawing lines in the proper order among numbers and letters randomly spread on paper. The study appears in the March issue of Neurology.Dr. Messinis acknowledged that the results might have differed with marijuana users from the general population. Still, he said, the study was carefully controlled, and frequent heavy use appeared to have significant negative effects on performance. Source: New York Times (NY)Author: Nicholas BakalarPublished: March 21, 2006Copyright: 2006 The New York Times Co.Contact: letters nytimes.com Website: http://www.nytimes.com/ Related Articles & Web Site:Chronic Cannabis Use http://freedomtoexhale.com/ccu.pdfMemory Up in Smoke With Long Marijuana Usehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21661.shtmlMarijuana Again Tied To Memory Problemshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21660.shtmlSmoking Pot Doesn't Harm Brain Function http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16706.shtml 
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Comment #17 posted by runderwo on March 21, 2006 at 10:36:10 PT
mayan
I emailed Paul Armentano regarding the Dutch study. Its sample size is even smaller, so I think it is also bad science. They have a long way to go to refute the laundry list of studies here:http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6812This study has tons of other problems, not limited to:- Obvious sample bias (polydrug users in treatment)- 24 hours abstinence only (how do you feel 24 hours after an alcohol bender?), they should have tested after 30 days instead of running to the press with results- Controlled for use of other illegal drugs but what about abuse of legal drugs?- They claim to control for IQ, but if you read the study, the IQ was extrapolated using some sort of simulation, which I find very suspect. The drug users may just have been dumber as a group to begin with. Other studies take more time because they sample the users at the points in their life before and after they begin using.- Maybe someone performs better on cannabis as many claim, but the study didn't bother testing that. This is a justifiable question because of knowledge about state-dependent learning.This is bad science, pure and simple. Of course, what else would be printed in the mainstream press? 
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Comment #16 posted by FoM on March 21, 2006 at 07:34:26 PT
Off Topic
Last night I read an e-mail where Steve Kubby said that they can watch Cops but no MTV or music videos. It made me realize more then ever the power of music. 
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Comment #15 posted by FoM on March 21, 2006 at 07:13:35 PT
Dutch Coffee Shops Introduce Fingerprint ID
By Jan LibbengaPublished: Tuesday 21st March 2006 Some Dutch coffee shops, which sell marijuana in small quantities for personal use, are introducing fingerprinting technology to check the age of customers.The shops are not allowed to sell to anyone under the age of 18. Coffee shops currently require photographic ID for proof of age.The first coffee shops to use turnstiles with built-in fingerprint sensors are Inpetto in Rotterdam, Birdy in Haarlem, and 't Rotterdammertje in Doetinchem in the east of the country. Customers must first register with the shops, but personal details will not be stored.The technology has been developed by FingerIdent, a company owned by Gerrie Mansur, one of the members of legendary Dutch hacking group Hit2000. According to Mansur, the system can match 35,000 fingerprints in less than a second.http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/21/fingerid_coffeeshops/
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Comment #14 posted by FoM on March 21, 2006 at 06:45:51 PT
Hope 
I'm playing museman's new song for my husband. He really likes it too. 
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Comment #13 posted by mayan on March 21, 2006 at 05:29:28 PT
Some "Study"
The long- and short-term users were drawn from participants in a drug rehabilitation program.Whatever. Why aren't newspapers covering the Dutch study which is actually credible?Frequent Cannabis Use Not Associated With Cognitive Declines In Working Memory, Selective Attention:
http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6832THE WAY OUT IS THE WAY IN...Actor Charlie Sheen Questions Official 9/11 Story:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/march2006/200306charliesheen.htm9/11 Skeptics Get a Loooong (and surprisingly fair) Treatment in "New York" Mag:
http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20060320164312944Nutty Conspiracy Theory:
http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2006/03/nutty-conspiracy-theory.htmlScholars for 9/11 Truth:
http://www.scholarsfor911truth.org/index.html
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Comment #12 posted by jose melendez on March 21, 2006 at 04:23:50 PT
what message does this send?
http://hammeroftruth.com/2006/03/21/pax-americana-applies-to-both-wars/ http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/
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Comment #11 posted by OverwhelmSam on March 21, 2006 at 04:00:49 PT
Just What The Doctor Ordered
With all the hype behind marijuana in this Society, I need something to dumb me down once in a while just to cope with the mental midgets in our Congress, Courts and Administration.
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Comment #10 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on March 21, 2006 at 03:58:12 PT
About this article...
Lombar: I think that means they took the subjects from a drug rehab program, and if they tested cannabis smokers who weren't in rehab maybe things would be different.The part I liked best, though, is that their definition of a non-user is "no more than 20 times in their lives and not in the prior two years"... if this were a study about heroin addicts, do you think that someone who'd only shot up nineteen times several years ago would count as a "non-user"?
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Comment #9 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on March 21, 2006 at 03:53:16 PT
Slightly OT
Does anyone know how to go about obtaining a publication put out by the Illinois State Police? I found this bibligraphic reference:Illinois State Police. D.A.R.E.: Drug Abuse Resistance Education. Springfield, IL: Illinois State Police, 1999; 203.It's from here:
http://www.alcoholfacts.org/DARE.html#Note9 - The footnote is a reference to one very intriguing sentence:"The Illinois State Police funded a study that found DARE inadvertently encouraged some students to try drugs."I haven't found this publication online, and the librarian I asked scratched her head and said she'd try, but it's been a while and I haven't heard anything. I'd like to know if this is the main thrust of the publication or not. If it is, it could be very useful...
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Comment #8 posted by lombar on March 21, 2006 at 01:15:28 PT
What does baffles mean?
"Dr. Messinis acknowledged that the results might have differed with marijuana users from the general population." So just *where* did the sample come from? Why not test the heavy users after they use their usual amount? Lets see the test be done on alcoholics/long-term heavy alcohol users...
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on March 20, 2006 at 23:01:20 PT
Dutch Children of 12 'Addicted to Cannabis'
 
By Isabel Conway in Amsterdam March 21, 2006 Dutch schoolchildren as young as 12 are being treated for addiction to a powerful home-grown marijuana which is up to 20 times stronger than imported varieties, an addiction clinic in the Netherlands has revealed. But while the age of regular and dependent cannabis users has dropped sharply in recent years, the dangers and health hazards of soft drugs have been "completely underestimated" by parents caught "in a flower- power time warp", Dr Romeo Ashruf, an addiction specialist, said.The cannabis that Dutch children take, nederwiet, is produced in Holland and is up to 20 times stronger than imported varieties, he told Network 2's Bij ons Thuis television programme last night. It was not unusual for children as young as 12 to be addicted to cannabis and referred to drugs clinics by their GPs, said Dr Ashruf."In years gone by, the age group for referrals was between 16 and 21 but now it has gone down to between 14 and 19," he said. "Children of 12 and 13 who are addicted to soft drugs are also brought in. It is an alarming development."Complete Article: http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article352562.ece
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Comment #6 posted by Hope on March 20, 2006 at 22:59:08 PT
Oh man! Listening to Museman's new song.
It's sweet! I like it a lot.Very sweet.Beautiful, Museman.Got to listen to that once more before I pack it in for the night.
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Comment #5 posted by Hope on March 20, 2006 at 22:37:05 PT
Nah...guess not.
That would make me a liar since I don't know that. I've got to ease up on poor little Crete. Sorry guys.I don't have any confidence in the study though. Any study that says "may" is just theorizing.
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Comment #4 posted by Hope on March 20, 2006 at 22:26:32 PT
Think I'll write the NYT
and tell them that there were just too dang many Cretans involved in that study for any sensible person to believe it.:0) My apologies to any non-lying Cretans out there. (It was, though, one of their own that came up with that saying about them and lying.)
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Comment #3 posted by Hope on March 20, 2006 at 22:21:53 PT
Dang...here we go.
Now that the NYT has decided to print that trashy study, it will be all over the place.Boballen1313, I don't believe that forty times stronger stuff, or even the BC Bud stuff. Marc gave us the BC Bud hype and and the prohibs are just spewing crap when they say "forty times stronger". That's interesting that "panel beaters" are aware of the protective qualities of cannabis. That's cool. Regular people who have experience with cannabis are so much more knowledgable about what it can do and can't do than most of the so called "experts", it seems to me. It's kind of like the people that don't have children always know how to raise them better than those who do, I guess.
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Comment #2 posted by boballen1313 on March 20, 2006 at 21:55:21 PT:
I Got a Question
In my old trade, autobody repair and refinishing, it's well known that the consumption of cannabis is a powerful deterent to the symptoms related to the absorbtion of toxic chemicals used during the work day. Of course, panelbeaters also come in at the top of the list for alcohol abuse,too. The feeling in the shop was if chemicals were making me crook then chemicals had better make me feel right! So my question is this, are these folks smoking the 40 times as potent cannabis? or just ordinary BC bud? Most auto refinishers would love to have some liver repairing, cancer fighting, lung cleansing, after work, super marihuana.
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on March 20, 2006 at 21:52:34 PT
Just a Comment
I just checked out museman's forums and he wrote a new song. I thought others here might like to hear it. I like it.
To This Moment
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