Marijuana Use Can Cause Brain Growth In Certain Areas

Source:
Society for Neuroscience
TruthTokens.com

In the current study, Jodi Gilman, PhD, Anne Blood, PhD, and Hans Breiter, MD, of Northwestern University and Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to compare the brains of 18- to 25-year olds who reported smoking marijuana at least once per week with those with little to no history of marijuana use. Although psychiatric evaluations ruled out the possibility that the marijuana users were dependent on the drug, imaging data revealed they had significant brain differences. The nucleus accumbens -- a brain region known to be involved in reward processing -- was larger and altered in its shape and structure in the marijuana users compared to non-users.



"This study suggests that even light to moderate recreational marijuana use can cause changes in brain anatomy," said Carl Lupica, PhD, who studies drug addiction at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and was not involved with this study. "These observations are particularly interesting because previous studies have focused primarily on the brains of heavy marijuana smokers, and have largely ignored the brains of casual users."

There are many mentally ill homeless people in Canada because of the war on drugs. Alot of these people never were involved with drugs but had their lives dismantled because of what the system chooses to believe. It's like the 500 missing women case in BC. They are all labeled as drug using prostitutes by the system but none of them has a criminal history in drugs or prostitution. Mj on its own has never harmed anyone. If anything mj stops people from retaliating against the system for its ignorance and non-humane way that they treat innocent people..

They claim that there are changes in the brain, but do not reveal if they are good changes, or bad changes, and assume ANY change is for the worse.

This study was NOT scientific, it was conducted in a biased fashion from the very outset.

They also have no way to quantify the change without knowing if those changes would have taken place or not if the person had NOT ingested marijuana.

There is also no way to be able to falsify this study, one of the key factors in producing scientific fact.

I agree that the opinions expressed in the article appear to be bias. But, don't let that dismay you from centering on the facts.
The results of the study showed significant growth in size and density of the Nucleus Accumbens, in cannabis users vs non-users . The Nucleus Accumbens is an area associated with the feel good sensation after completing a task. Otherwise referred to as the reward process. I guess you'll have to decide for yourselves whether or not you would like a larger thicker enjoyment center. The only bias part, is the human opinion aspect of the article. Perception is a matter of perspective. Read the article again noting only the facts. Like the bold text for one.

The opinions come from individuals funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Counterdrug Technology Assessment Center, and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Of course, their opinions will favor the platform of their donors. But, their findings speak for themselves.