Research shows risks of pot use

Researchers, after studying 3,826 students over four years in and around Montreal, Canada, found that cannabis has greater short- and long-term negative consequences than alcohol on the memory function of teens in four crucial areas, resulting in lifelong brain damage. The results of this study were published in the American Journal of Psychiatry in October of 2018.

The lead author and a professor of psychiatry at the University of Montreal, Patricia Conrod, said of the report: "We initially suspected alcohol would have a bigger effect." But they "found that cannabis had greater short- and long-term consequences than alcohol on four key components of teens' memory."

As to how the test was conducted, over a four-year period, beginning when students averaged 13 years old, these four "cognitive functions" were followed: problem solving, long-term memory, short-term memory manipulation, and the ability to stop habitual behaviors.

Young cannabis users experienced long-term damage to a brain function associated with substance abuse in the area of "response inhibition" that allows an individual to change their actions. As to the difference between alcohol and marijuana, THC, the chief active ingredient in marijuana, remains in the fat cells of the bodies of marijuana users, hindering learning by impairing thinking, reading comprehension and verbal and math skills.

The co-author of the study, Jean-Francois G. Morin, offered this warning: there is no zero risk when it comes to (cannabis use) whether habitual user or otherwise.

Recreational marijuana must not become law here in Illinois.

Nancy Thorner

Lake Bluff