This Just In: Marijuana Use and the Brain

[JoeMoma]

"We cannot honestly say that that is what’s happening here," Filbey told Business Insider in 2014."

So your premise is totally douche. Epic fail.

Dear Mudda ^ I emphasized this as the punchline! ^
That is the whole joke!

But the connection is still proven, just not the RELATIONSHIP.
What scientists haven't proven yet is "cause and effect"
because it could be CORRELATION. They are not negating the studies.

But they haven't studied yet:
* if people who ***ALREADY HAVE*** reduced regions for decision making
are the ones with greater percentages of pot smokers among them
* or if people who smoke pot regularly end up reducing that part of their brains

^^^ LOOK AT THESE TWO CHOICES THAT COULD BOTH
EXPLAIN THE CORRELATIONS BETWEEN REDUCED BRAIN FUNCTION AND POT ^^^

THAT'S WHAT THE RESEARCH SHOWED, IT'S ONE OR THE OTHER
THAT EXPLAINS THE FINDINGS OF REDUCED BRAIN AREA
FOR DECISIONMAKING IN POT USERS

IS POT SMOKING CAUSING A SMALLER REGION FOR DECISION MAKING IN THE BRAIN?
OR DOES A SMALLER DECISION MAKING REGION IN THE BRAIN PREDICT POT SMOKING?

BOTH EXPLANATIONS STILL SERVE TO DISCREDIT DRUG LEGALIZATION ARGUMENTS AND STILL PROVE THERE IS A MAJOR PROBLEM MISSING FROM THOSE ARGUMENTS!

Another Note: I would also study the brains of people like monks so openminded they no longer respond to LSD and other "conscious opening drugs": Could it be that the smaller region means those people make decisions intuitively "on some higher spiritual level" and don't need to use the same part of the brain? If the highly focused and enlightened monks who didn't become that openminded using drugs ALSO had a "reduced brain area for decision making" it could be they are using a different part of their brains to make decisions using other means.
Just because a brain area is reduced may not mean a bad thing. If it also "correlates" with a higher dependence on using a different region of the brain to make decisions, then this could be good or bad: What if the pot smoking brains don't have the enhanced shift to the intuitive focused region that monks are using if their "NORMAL decision making region is reduced."
So this is an example of how further studies could show a difference between people who open up their minds NATURALLY without using drugs.

There could be other factors. For example, there have been studies showing similarities between the brains and faster reaction time of sociopathic people and monks with highly disciplined minds. It is still possible for positive qualities to be associated and not just negative.
But clearly there is a difference between monks/saints who override emotional distraction to do what helps others without delay, and psychopaths who override emotions to do what hurts others. That they both have "reduced emotional reactions" doesn't explain the difference.

So....either pot use causes people to be more stupid or stupid people are more likely to use pot. Or perhaps a combination of both.

 

[Syriusly]

Issues Berkeley Medical Journal

Carl Sagan, Salvador Dali, and William Shakespeare all smoked cannabis. In a recent interview with Anderson Cooper, Lady Gaga—former NYU Tisch student who took home three awards at the Grammy’s this year—admitted to her artistic relationship to the drug, claiming bluntly: “I smoke a lot of pot when I write music.” Medicinal marijuana ameliorates nausea and vomiting, stimulates hunger in chemotherapy patients, alleviates back pain and lowers intraocular eye pressure. Considering the drug’s many benefits, we may pose the same question the journal Clinical Addiction Psychiatry asks, “One purpose of medicine, in addition to the alleviation of suffering, is to improve the quality of life. A question that arises in this context is: if we could enhance cognition in disease, should we do it in health?” If yes, we might bring the aforementioned artists back into the discussion, asking whether their relationships with marijuana enhanced, if only even partly, their cognitive creative processes. Research concerning both the neurophysiological effects of marijuana on the brain and the neurophysiological tendencies found in creative individuals brings to light the ways in which marijuana may act as a muse to bolster individuals to creative genius.

Yeah? and cocaine makes people more energetic------so why not hand it to every farm hand? Paxil relieves depression----lace the water supply with it

Interesting how Conservatives are so opposed to persons controlling for themselves what they put in their body, that they relate it to forcing everyone to take drugs.

I don't know how any Conservative can actually call for the prohibition of any recreational drug and still be considered 'small government Conservative'