Analysis casts doubt on marijuana’s link to IQ decline (Damn, there goes another excuse)

[Playinghardball]

A longitudinal study that found teens who smoked marijuana had lower IQ scores in adulthood has been challenged by a researcher at the Frisch Centre for Economic Research in Norway.

In an analysis published online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Ole Røgeberg said the original study of almost 1,000 participants in New Zealand over nearly four decades was “flawed and the causal inference drawn from the results premature.”

The original study found those who started smoking marijuana before 18 years of age tended to score lower on IQ tests in adulthood. There was no decline in IQ for those who began smoking after 18 years of age, suggesting the teenage brain was particularly vulnerable to the drug.

However, Røgeberg found the participants’ socioeconomic status — their income, education, occupation, and family history — could explain the apparent correlation between marijuana use and decline in IQ scores.

Raw Story (http://s.tt/1yrN8)

[RKP5637]

1. At the university I delivered some of my best papers when a bit high on pot, standing

ovations. If it lowered my IQ, then I guess it brought me down to the level of those I was addressing so they could understand me.

[FrodosPet]

4. Smoked from age 12 to age 50

Placed 76th out of 400 students in an eighth grade statewide math competition. Quit high school because it was too easy, not too hard. Passed my GED with 101 points to spare without spending a single day in prep. My ASVAB got me into Advanced Electronics program. Scored 142 on the last IQ test I took. Used to have people with doctorates in computer science call me for support.

Yeah, I might occasionally forget people's names (I am getting much better at that though - I feel it is disrespectful to do so). And my friends still rib me about the time I left the remote control in the freezer. But over the long term, I don't know that I would have done much, if any, better had I not smoked.

I quit because it was too expensive and anti-motivational, not because I was a burnout.

[RomneyLies]

5. Growing your own is cheaper

but more risky if you share.

[FrodosPet]

6. Lots of upfront cost though

Grow lights, growing and cloning buckets, substrate, pumps, plant food, electricity, cooling fans...

LED grow lights are much easier on the light bill, but they are expensive. And while getting a medical card would have theoretically kept me out of legal trouble, the neighborhoods I was living in probably would have led to a break-in at some point - I did not have the money nor space for a good size light-containing box.

As for throw some seeds in the dirt and hope for the best - I lost my taste for ditch weed when I tried the gourmet stuff.

[RomneyLies]

8. Colorado becomes an attractive alernative

Self sustainability with five plants becomes easy. Three strans in mother vegetation with two constantly in production will keep you in personal use forever.

5 plants total makes DEA involvement insane so long as you don;t go public with your grow.

I think about moving to Colorado every day due to arthritic pain.

[RKP5637]

10. Yep!!! I was in college in the 60's, all of us smoked pot off and on. Many of my friends are

professors today, others excelled in music and literature, all sorts of things. None of us have ever felt stunted, so to say, because of pot. IMO it's the old fear game. I did quite well in corporate life. I quit because it was hard to be a bit high around ultra-straight corporate types where I worked. That said, I can see where really overdoing it with pot could interfere ... as usual, moderation IMO is fine.

[samsingh]

2. huge intellectual kick

e=mc2

see

[Shivering Jemmy]

3. It's a challenge to a hypothesis.

The hypothesis could still be correct. Or not. We'll see.
Just because I support legalization of marijuana doesn't mean I will reject data that it may have deleterious effects. And it certainly doesn't mean I will ever try it. Because I won't.

[Mopar151]

7. Evidence continues to mount

That anti-pot crusaders, sin-burnin' preachers, RW talkers, and Faux sNooze all cause far more IQ decline and cognitive dysfunction than weed.

[MannyGoldstein]

9. That totally sucks

Young Thor Goldstein's IQ tests came back last week, I was hoping that once he started smoking pot his IQ would go down to my level.

Guess that won't happen. I'm doomed to be dumber than the rest of my family.