According to a new study, marijuana can affect a user’s ability to make decisions, solve problems, and perform other cognitive functions.

A new review of research, published Thursday in the journal Addiction, finds that impact may last well beyond the initial high, especially for adolescents.

“Our study enabled us to highlight several areas of cognition impaired by cannabis use, including problems concentrating and difficulties remembering and learning, which may have considerable impact on users’ daily lives,” remarked coauthor Dr. Alexandre Dumais, associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Montreal.

“Cannabis use in youth may consequently lead to reduced educational attainment, and, in adults, to poor work performance and dangerous driving. These consequences may be worse in regular and heavy users,” Dumais added.

The study has also said that vaping marijuana by teens has doubled in the last seven years and with potentially harmful consequences.

According to Dr. Megan Moreno, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, who was not involved in the study, marijuana’s impact on the brain can be particularly detrimental to cognitive development for youth, whose brains are still developing, said

“This study provides strong evidence for negative cognitive effects of cannabis use, and should be taken as critical evidence to prioritize prevention of cannabis use in youth,” Moreno said. “And contrary to the time of Cheech and Chong, we now know that the brain continues to develop through age 25.

“Parents should be aware that adolescents using cannabis are at risk for damage to their most important organ, their brain.”

The review had looked at studies on over 43,000 people and found a negative impact of tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, the main psychoactive compound in cannabis, on the brain’s higher levels of thinking.

“Research has revealed that THC is a fat-soluble compound that may be stored in body fat and, thus, gradually released into the bloodstream for months,” Dumais said.

“Thus far, the most consistent alterations produced by cannabis use, mostly its chronic use, during youth have been observed in the prefrontal cortex,” Dumais said.

“Such alterations may potentially lead to a long-term disruption of cognitive and executive functions.”


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