Study: Teens Who Use Marijuana Have Slight Reductions In Cognitive Function
BOSTON (CBS) - A new study in the journal JAMA Psychiatry finds that teens and young adults who use marijuana frequently are more likely to have slight reductions in cognitive functioning.
Researchers reviewed nearly 69 studies from more than four decades and found that young people who said they were heavy marijuana users were more likely to have slightly lower scores on tests of memory, problem solving and processing speed.
We've known that marijuana can slow certain brain functions like learning, memory and attention span, but perhaps what was more surprising in this study is that if young people stopped using the drug for more than 72 hours, the cognitive effects seemed to fade.
That said, other research has suggested that marijuana could cause irreversible damage to young brains that are still developing so before we read too much into this current study, we need to learn more.