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Demosthenes

Mjordan, my favorite person with which to debate things

. Very punctual as usual. I don't remember any of the stoners with whom I went to school ever achieving a 4.0 GPA. If they are geniuses, then I believe they would just be throwing thatI went to a large school, so maybe there was someone I didn't know. I'm glad to see you aren't an advocate yourself, that's promising and also a relief.

I realize the punishment for being caught is stiff, but I think you only go to jail if you are caught with a certain amount, which is considered to be dealing. No doubt one of these stoners will correct me with that amount to the ounce. I also realize that controlling it would cause too much a strain on the government, which is already hurting. I've actually seen a special on TV that said people were allowed by the government to smuggle mairjuana over the border from Mexico. Who knows if that's true, it falls right in there with the government dealing with aliens to control the minds of people, or what have you.

Anyhow, I took the liberty of finding this online. For those of you who believe that marijuana is not a Neurotoxin, read on. You may be correct, but I think you would actually be happier with the hypothesis that it's a Neurotoxin.

Quote:

There is evidence that individuals who start to smoke marijuana at an early agewhile the brain is still developingshow deficits in cognition which are not seen in individuals who begin use of the drug when they are older. The reasons for this difference are unclear.

Scientists from the Harvard Medical School and from the intramural research program of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) found lasting cognitive deficits in those who started to smoke marijuana before age 17. The researchers analyzed neuropsychological test results from 122 long-term heavy users of marijuana and 87 subjects who had used marijuana only a few times (control subjects). Sixty-nine of the 122 users started using marijuana at age 17 or before. The subjects were between the ages of 30 and 55 at the time of the study, and all had refrained from any drug use 28 days prior to testing.

Individuals who started using marijuana at age 17 or younger performed significantly worse on the tests assessing verbal functions such as verbal IQ and memory of word lists than did those who started using marijuana later in life or who had used the drug sparingly. There were virtually no differences in test results among the individuals who started marijuana use after age 17 and the control subjects.
The investigators suggest three possible hypotheses that might explain these differences. One possibility is that early-onset smokers had lower innate cognitive skills before they ever started smoking marijuana. A second possibility is poor learning of certain cognitive skills by young users of marijuana who neglect school and academic pursuits. The third and most ominous possibility is that marijuana itself has a neurotoxic effect on the developing brain. According to the authors, further research will be required to determine the relative contributions of these three factors.