Casual Pot Smoking Causes Brain Damage

[liveonearth]

OK, maybe that's a little exaggerated, but basically any drug causes a dopamine surge that changes your brain such that the rewards of normal life don't seem good enough anymore. This study actually found that pot smokers have a bigger nucleus accumbens (the brain area associated with pleasure, reward, and reinforcement learning). They say that

Comments

[hausfrauatu]

It's a 40 person study isn't it? 4 times a week is kind of a lot. The assumption that difference is always bad is also specious. People are always going to use intoxicants. They always have. Pot seems the better choice as far as general health compared to other drugs. Nothing is ever going to be perfect.

[liveonearth]

I agree. Difference is not always bad. Perhaps an enlarged nucleus accumbens makes one more capable of enjoying life. We just don't know. As for which intoxicant is best, pot does seem high on the list for relative harmlessness and enjoyability. Nobody gets away scott free from their choices. It is more harmful to children than is widely appreciated, however, and I agree with measures to keep it out of the hands of minors.

[anais_pf]

Based on the abstract (since the full article is behind a paywall) it seems as though they didn't study the brains over time . . . just compared pot-smoker's brains to "normal" brains. I wonder if there's any chance that the enlarged nucleus accumbens were pre-existing, and encouraged those people to smoke marijuana more often. In other words, is there any way cause and effect have been reversed?

[liveonearth]

You are correct, the study does not confirm causality, only association. I had a similar thought, and also the question: what does an enlarged nucleus accumbens mean, functionally?

FYI: I stuck the text of the article behind the "text" cut.

[anais_pf]

I read the text of the Washington Post article; it's the paywall at The Journal of Neuroscience that stopped me. And yes, I'd be interested in knowing more about the function of the nucleus accumbens in its "normal" and enlarged states.