Could marijuana have a negative effect on young minds? A new study shows that marijuana use can cause abnormalities in the brains of teenagers.
A group of scientists set out to discover the effect casual marijuana use has on the growing brains of teenagers and young adults, reports The Huffington Post . In a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers found that the brains of casual marijuana users, defined as smoking up to 11 joints per week, show significant abnormalities when compared to the brains of people ages 18-25 who do not smoke. The brains of the smokers showed differences in the areas connected to emotion and motivation, known as the amygdala and the nucleus accumbens. These areas had a different density and shape in the brains of the users compared to the non-users, and the differences became more pronounced in those who admitted to smoking more often.
"What we think we are seeing here is a very early indication of what becomes a problem later on with prolonged use," said Dr. Hans Breiter, who worked on the study. The areas of the brain effects are responsible for things such as lack of focus and impaired judgment. As more and more states legalize the drug for use as a medical aid, scientists question the long term effects it will have on the brains and bodies of users. The Boston Globe reports that many other scientists are weighing in on the impact this study will have on the population. “It’s fairly reasonable to draw the conclusion now that marijuana does alter the structure of the brain, as demonstrated in this study,” says Stuart Gitlow, president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, before adding that these changes in structure are responsible for many of the cognitive changes seen in other studies.
Due to the small size of the study, which had just 40 participants, more research will need to be done to assess the impact the findings will have on the general population