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Study Shows Cannabis
Does Not Lower IQ
But Drinking Alcohol Does
A new study revealed this week shows that in
spite of past claims, marijuana use does not affect
IQ. The research, performed by the University College of London, was presented on Tuesday at the
European Conference of
Neuropsychopharmacology in Berlin.
The longitudinal study was performed on over
2,000 students. Researchers studied subjects–once
at age 8 and again at age 15–born between 1991
and 1992. As the Washington Post reported, the
study found:
“‘No relationship between cannabis use and lower
IQ at age 15,’ when confounding factors – alcohol
use, cigarette use, maternal education, and others
– were taken into account. Even heavy marijuana
use wasn’t associated with IQ.”
This runs in stark contrast to what an internationally publicized Duke University study found
in 2012. That study claimed that using marijuana in adolescence led to irreversible drops in
IQ–an average of 8 points. Though scientists almost immediately objected to the efficacy of the
Duke study, the University College of London’s
findings are the most recent to prove it wrong.
As the lead author, Claire Mokrysz noted,
“This is a potentially important public health
message- the belief that cannabis is particularly
harmful may detract focus from and awareness of
other potentially harmful behaviors.”
In fact, the only substance the study found to
lower IQ was alcohol, a government authorized
drug. While cannabis, a largely prohibited plant,
improves a variety of medical ailments, alcohol
is mostly detrimental and addictive. Even the
state, which allows alcohol consumption, acknowledges alcohol’s health risks and admits
that it instigates violence.
Likewise, pharmaceutical painkillers can be highly addictive, are increasingly abused by teenagers, kill more people than the drugs the state
forbids, and remain perfectly legal. This is because they are approved by an agency in bed
with pharmaceutical companies.
Similarly, toxic chemicals are considered legal and
safe (as are poisonous foods and pesticides approved by the FDA and EPA) because corporations pay for special treatment. Meanwhile, drugs
deemed dangerous by the government continue
to be outlawed and punished. Marijuana is not
the only one. LSD, mushrooms and MDMA are
increasingly recognized as beneficial yet they remain classified as Schedule 1 narcotics, described
by the DEA as:
“Drugs, substances, or chemicals…defined as
drugs with no currently accepted medical use and
a high potential for abuse. Schedule I drugs are
the most dangerous drugs of all the drug schedules with potentially severe psychological or physical dependence.”
Painkillers do not make the list, nor does alcohol.
The London study did find that among the heaviest marijuana users, test scores averaged 3%
lower, cautioning that there are still drawbacks to
consumption. However, as Mokrysz noted,
“The current focus on the alleged harms of cannabis may be obscuring the fact that its use is often correlat ed with that of other even more freely available drugs and possibly lifestyle factors.
These may be as or more important than cannabis
itself.”
The study’s main findings add to the growing body
of evidence that marijuana is far more medicinal than it is harmful. The new evidence adds to a
long list of other past claims about the plant that
have been disproved: that it causes cancer, that it
is a gateway drug, and that it leads to crime and
delinquency, to name a few.
Article by Carey Wedler
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