There's Good Reason Why Marijuana's Called Dope

There's a Good Reason Why Marijuana's Called Dope
By Jennifer Warner

April 2, 2002 -- Smoking five or more marijuana joints a week can make
you feel stupid -- really. A new study shows heavy marijuana use can
actually lower your IQ (intelligence quotient).

Researchers say it's one of the first studies to look at the long-term
effects of marijuana on intelligence. Although the immediate,
mind-numbing effects of marijuana are well known, it's been difficult to
study the long-term effects on users because researchers often don't have
a starting point before marijuana use began on which to base their
measurements.

In this study, which appears in the April 2 issue of the Canadian Medical
Association Journal, researchers compared the IQ scores of 70
participants before they started smoking pot (aged 9-12) with their
current scores at age 17-20. Among heavy users who currently smoked more
than five joints a week, IQ scores dropped by an average of 4.1 points.

Researchers say that drop might seem minor, but it's about the same
degree of IQ reduction found among children who were exposed to an
average of three drinks a day in the womb. And it's more than the decline
found in children exposed to cocaine in the womb or to low levels of lead
as infants.

But among light users (fewer than five joints a week), researchers found
gains in IQ scores of about 5.8 points. Former users and non-users also
had slight increases in their scores -- of 3.5 and 2.6, respectively.

The study authors say these finding have several limitations and should
be interpreted with caution. The size of the study was small and did not
look at the length of marijuana use. The young age of the participants
may have also tempered some of the potential long-term effects of the
drug.

Researchers say that marijuana has grown in popularity among youth in the
last four years, so more study is needed to fully understand the
consequences of both current and previous marijuana use.

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