(Newswire.net — February 13, 2015) — Marijuana users often cite research results that confirm health effect of the weed. Opponents say that frequent marijuana consumption is detrimental to users’ mental health. A new study shows that the old arguments may no longer ‘hold water’. New studies, however, give reason to believe that marijuana doesn’t really affect the brain even with daily user.
Previous tests found that a regular marijuana user’s brain, or rather several parts of the brain, show some difference in size and volume. It was never clear if this caused any dysfunctionality or a problem of any kind. Various tests prove that alcohol has a greater impact on the brain than marijuana, but that is entirely another issue.
Some frequent marijuana users have indeed experienced some cognitive decline, however, the researchers wondered if marijuana is directly responsible for lower IQ results, so they dug deeper and conducted more robust test.
Surprisingly, a team of six researchers, led by Barbara Weiland of the University of Colorado, conducted a controlled study that showed daily marijuana use does not affect the size and volume of the brain. The study was conducted on adults and adolescents, all daily marihuana users
The study monitored the changes on areas of the brain, such as the amygdala, hippocampus and the cerebellum. Every group has equal number of subjects. The test was conducted on 50 everyday adolescent users and control group of 50 adolescent non-users. The adult group was 29 users and the same number of non-users to compare.
The researchers went even further to match the groups based on depression and tobacco use. The group was compared as well to the alcohol use groups to show the precise results.
The results of MRI scans showed no apparent changes, including decreases of notable areas in question.
These results might seem as the good news for marijuana users. However, be aware of some limitations and confounding variables. The truth is that even in highly controlled testing, the results may be dependent on the factors such as socioeconomic and historical aspects of the subject.
The study, however, significantly pulls away from claims that marijuana has detrimental effects on the brain. This presents better perspective of the herb with a much more positive reputation for science and society.