From P.H. at The Economist:
Hans Breiter, a professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at Chicago’s Northwestern University, worries that the rush to promote recreational use is reckless, and that not enough thought is being given to the balance between costs and benefits. In a study published today in the Journal of Neuroscience, Dr Breiter and a group of researchers from Northwestern, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School found that the size, shape and structure of parts of the brain are changed in teens and young adults who smoke weed as little as once a week. Earlier studies have focused only on tetrahydrocannabinol (THC, the main psychoactive component of pot) affects the brains of animals or intensive, dependent human users—and found evidence of impaired learning, memory, attention and decision-making. But those studies did not consider the effects of casual use.
Read more at Marijuana: Baked brains | The Economist.
I am sure he is right. Its much better for teens and young adults to go out and get smashed on alcohol on a weekend. The government likes the taxes it gets from alcohol sales too.
There are similar studies showing the effect of alcohol on teenage brain development….