Freely available marijuana and cognitive problems

Quick Boost #8 - Is smoking legalized weed safe for the brain?

We’ve suspected that weed has both beneficial and harmful effects on the body and mind for quite some time. A classic scene from the 1978 movie National Lampoon’s Animal House goes like this between the pot-smoking, enlightened Professor Jennings and two students nicknamed Boon and Pinto:

Professor Jennings : Teaching is just a way to pay the bills until I finish my novel. 
Boon : How long you been workin' on it? 
Jennings : Four and a half years. 
Pinto : It must be very good. 
Jennings : It's a piece of sh!t. Would anyone like to smoke some pot?
~
[Handed his first joint] 
Pinto : I won't go schizo, will I?
Jennings : It's a distinct possibility.

Marijuana is increasingly legal and widely available in the United States. Legalization was built upon many considerations, but one of the consequent assumptions people make is that it must be safe to use it. Marijuana use is increasing in young, midlife, and older people. With billions of dollars to be made, Big Weed is becoming the new Big Tobacco.

Is getting stoned safe? Especially for our brains?

I’m going to present a remarkable study recently published in the American Journal of Psychiatry. The prospective study recruited people born in 1972 (six years before Animal House) and followed them over 45 years. The conclusion: long term marijuana use, averaging 4 times per week, is not good for the brain.