Los Angeles Times once again doing its best Daily Mail impression:
Regular pot smokers have shrunken brains, study says
Of course, if you actually read the article, you discover that the researchers discovered several minor differences between smokers and non-smokers with absolutely no evidence that the differences were in any way detrimental and no evidence of causality.
But hey, “shrunken brains” in a headline is just so perfect when you’re more interested in sensationalism than… truth.
[Thanks, Jeff]
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The prohibitionists won’t give up without at least a few hilarious last gasps, last licks.
I guess they’re analyzing the analysis of the analysts.
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I mean, they would have found the smoking gun long ago. . .
Wonder what Carl Sagan would have thought about that.
Alcohol’s the real brain shrinker. Autopsied brains of older alcohol abusers can be half the size of non-abusers. Try googling “wet brain” or “confabulation.
I wondered what that rattling sound was…
… so if we go to WebMD, search brain shrunken… let’s see, hmmm… yep, there it is! “brain, shrunken” it says “see marijuana”
and if I search head rattling… hmmm… it says “see “brain, shrunken.” Man I love the wwweb, the truth is out there.
feel the power baby,,I don’t think I would like to go back to phone modem internet after getting used to almost instant gratification.
What the Fuck Are We Thinking?
http://www.ladybud.com/2014/11/05/what-the-fuck-are-we-thinking/
When I posted the above, I hadn’t read more than a few paragraphs. I’ve now finished the article and I urge everyone on the couch to take the time to read it.
More:
The problem is apparent,,you cannot sell a plant that can be grown for $2 a gram or less and sell it for more than $5 per gram and stop the green market,,even $5 per gram will have some people growing and selling but it may stop cartel marketing of marijuana.
I don’t care how they dress that pig trying to keep the price up,,it is still a pig.
The article was interesting for what it actually said vs. what the critics say it says. The study authors say that the frontal lobe is much more connected, though smaller in size. What they don’t say is whether that affects its operation in either a positive or a negative way. They merely state the facts. They also state that when they had previously tested 12 year olds, the ones with smaller frontal lobes were more likely to subsequently take cannabis. In error, they referred to those activities as ‘drug abuse behaviors’. That is a conclusion for which they do not provide data. IOW they pulled it out of their ‘hats’.
OK, we know that cannabis stimulates the development of more neurons. The ‘more connected’ frontal lobes they described obviously required significant extra wiring to accomplish the interconnecting. It would therefore be logical to posit that people with a smaller than normal frontal lobe found that cannabis helped to overcome this deficit through increased growth of brain neurons. IOW these people are using it as medication. That would be in harmony with all known facts, unlike the ‘drug abuse behavior’ line of BS which is not.
ヽ(ಠ_ಠ)ノ
Regular pot smokers have shrunken brains, LATimes says
https://www.facebook.com/222DdC/posts/10152678958602326
☛ Does researching casual marijuana use cause brain abnormalities?
☛ Shame on the Drug Worrier Profiteers
☛ Marijuana use may lead to cardiac arrest and other hobgoblins
☛ Using Pot To Save Brains!
☛ 9 Reasons Why Sanjay Gupta Changed His Mind About Marijuana
☛ We Need a Law Against False or Misleading “Newsâ€
☛ Drugwar Lies Linked to Schizophrenia
Mother’s Little Anti-Psychotic Is Worth $6.9 Billion A Year via @jaymichaelson
Here’s What Happened When A 65-Year-Old Woman Took Shrooms In A Lab via @YahooFinance
A Patient Speaks from Patrick H. Murphy
http://vimeo.com/51254785
If the purpose of the research was to link denigrating myths about marijuana consumers to a specific brain structure, the researchers failed. There is no evidence the brain structures associated with the tested marijuana users are from marijuana or do anything to affect a specific behavior.
The study is flawed in that the R-team should have picked people with nearly similar IQs to do the comparison in order to eliminate that particular variable. Marijuana consumers with higher than average IQs typically dominate the American consumer population, so where are they in this study that examined only marijuana users having lower IQs than the non-users? The study makes it appear marijuana smokers were preselected based on their socioeconomic status.
The LA Times article follows a well entrenched tradition of reporting on studies involving cannabis;
1). Front load the article with the scariest “facts” gleaned from a study. Have them come across as definitive and beyond questioning.
2). As the article progresses, blithely begin to backtrack and soften what the dreaded “facts” might suggest. Start using words like “may”, “possibly”, “could be”, “might not be”, etc.
3). Toward the end of the article mention that the researchers themselves are unsure what the results of their study signifies — if it signifies anything at all.
Of course, the prohibitionists — those with the most deficient IQ’s — will latch on to point number one above and scream it loudly. Just follow Kevin Sabet’s twitter feed for proof.
LATimes,,,,Shut the fuck up,,I am shrinking my fucking brain.
It’s MY brain and I will shrink it if I want to.
It is part of my diet plan to lose weight and it’s a shame the alcoholics in Congress don’t shrink theirs.
I am pretty damn certain that those alcoholic politicians ARE shrinking their brains (and their ability to reason) since alcohol kills brain cells. I would prefer that all politicians used cannabis since cannabis grows new brain cells AND new connections between those new cells, perhaps then we’d get some intelligent ideas coming out of government.
mmmmmmm….brains.
“You killed the Zombie Randy!”
“He was a zombie?”
H/T Treehouse of Horror
The study’s authors may claim no conflict of interest, but poorly conducted research of the type proffered by the shrunken brain study enables racist law enforcement to continue its institutionalized racism.
Specifically, it enables people such as Mr. Ben Stein, a lawyer, a former speechwriter for Richard Nixon, a man whose alma mater includes the Richard Nixon School for Bigoted Apeheads, to announce publicly why he thinks black people in America are inferior—you guessed it—it’s because of drugs. Here is his eminence, Ben Stein:
Neglecting to mention that his boss Richard Nixon was a rabid racist who started a drug war that decimated black communities throughout the country, or Woodrow Wilson who oversaw the revival of the KKK, Ben Stein typifies the modern American who clings to racism and its methodologies by demanding that prohibition continue forever.
Yep, the two things which are most responsible for breaking down the formerly successful and upward bound black communities was first the unconstitutional welfare programs (mothers got more money if they were NOT married or at least not living with their husbands), and the racist effects of the unconstitutional prohibition of some drugs.
It’s subjugation, no matter how you call it. Moms with wrongly colored children, and even those meeting White Anglo Saxon Protestant social standards, turn to welfare because the paterfamilias is in jail on drug charges.
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66% of births in Iceland are to unmarried mothers.
Boy a couple people (prohibidiots? prohibitches? welfare state supporters?) did NOT like that comment.
Ya my local rag ran this article also – fucking prohibition parasites.
Speaking of shrunken brains… Nyssa, OR is considering emergency measures to ban now legal cannabis within the city limits. Pot would be considered a public nuisance, rats, etc. I wonder if they’ve ever been in a hay barn?
word has it that Nyssa had it’s largest turnout ever for a city council mtg… no ordinance passed. 🙂 that’s voting with your feet!
Brain swelling may be common with Alzheimer’s drugs
http://www.dementiatoday.com/brain-swelling-may-be-common-with-alzheimers-drugs/
Dementias with Associated ‘Brain Swelling’
http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-642-00818-4_8
In addition to volume loss and signal change, structural MRI allows an assessment of ‘brain swelling’ – we use this here as an umbrella term to cover a range of conditions with apparent increases in volume (or pressure) of a part of the brain or a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) compartment – the brain may not be literally ‘swollen’ in all of these.
NFL Dementia… Using Pot To Save Brains!
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/904
The NFL estimates that nearly three in 10 former players will develop debilitating brain conditions, and that they will be stricken earlier and twice as often as the general population.
Using Pot To Save Brains!
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/601
A Day in the Life of A Dementia Sufferer
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1741
Alzheimer’s seems to be related to depression in some way, they d o not know if it is the very earliest effects of the dementia, causes the dementia or just that people who are subject to depression are also subject to dementia due to something about their brains. Cannabis relieves depression as well as having a beneficial effect on the memories of those who already have dementia.
One of my good friends (known her since first grade) has early dementia (not Alzheimer’s). She has not been a cannabis user (and, tmk, never had depression), I have been encouraging her to get her medical license and start taking some edibles (told her to just take a quarter of what the suggested dose is) and gradually increase the amount she eats. I even gave her some brownies I made that were quite weak (accidental, but good for her) which I had in the freezer because hubby and I found them too weak to bother with. I’ll be suggesting RSO, eventually.
My sister-in-law has advanced dementia, probably Alzheimer’s, my brother has his hands full trying to maintain his job (luckily he can do a lot of it from home on the computer) and take care of her. He tells me the things she does, his life is hell right now but he cannot afford to institutionalize her even though that is where she now needs to be, apparently some drastic incident needs to happen before she can be institutionalized involuntarily and she currently will not consent and she has fits if anyone she does not know comes into their house, so he can’t hire someone to relieve him occasionally. It’s a nightmare. I think it is too late for cannabis to help her, but perhaps my brother should try it, anyway, even if just calms her down it would be beneficial to both of them.
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My heart goes out to your brother and his wife. I don’t even know what I would do in his (or her) situation…
Too bad you aren’t Canadians. Our system would take care of your sis-in-law. Your brother would not be impoverished by it. Once again, our system is better.
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Do you realize that you’re talking about a Country whose population is so thick that we can’t deal with abandoning the English standards of weight and measure? We don’t even care that the English have abandoned that system. Oh the irony, the humanity, the denial, the stupidity…
Windy, I don’t think it’s ever too late to begin therapy with oral cannabinoids. Remarkably, there are more cannabinoid receptors in the brain than any other neurotransmitter.
Putting metabolic pressure on the endocannabinoid system with oral cannabinoids WILL WORK to reduce inflammation and amyloid plaques and other junk that “gunks-up” our neural synapses.
Improved memory from cannabis use is based on the removal or clearing-out of plaque-like material that interferes with the brain’s nerve-signal pathways.
The only caveat may be the use of high-THC versions of RSO, at least until tolerance is developed. The sooner your brother’s wife gets started the sooner your family can hope for improvement.
While the population sample-size is small, I have ZERO knowledge of any of my long-time using pot-smoking friends developing symptoms of dementia or Alzheimer’s.
I’m a living case sample… my dad died from a stroke brought on from his Alzheimer’s. It was a terrible thing to watch him leave. I’m the last one in my family to visit my dad during a lucid period (which was a wonderful but too short an experience).
He passed at 74, I’ll be 64 next year. So do I have 10 years left or will my decades of cannabis consumption be my guardian angel? Stay tuned.
On a personal note… ordered my WiFi and should be here Fri or Sat! I’m on pins and needles. 🙂
From reports and research it seems that fresh green leaf and bud juiced is the ticket for Alzheimer,arthritis,seizures and dementia,,who knew that the most medicine is in the raw plant?
The more thc and cbd’s the better the medicine of course but you lose the high. It takes a lot less marijuana to treat people than oil does and that is going to really bum some oil producers out,,,but that is because we are still re-discovering how to use marijuana.
If no fresh bud is available dried bud will do how ever curing the bud activates some of the thc resulting in a slight buzz. Since we were not issued four stomachs like a cow the marijuana must be turned into dust.
You can take two grams a day mixed with peanut butter and jelly to get it down or fill capsules with it and take them. It won’t hurt them if you double the dose at first just to be sure you are giving them enough.
I would try this now while locating the RSO,,the results on dementia and the big A is reputed to only take a couple of days to see improvment.
My sister-in-law is too far gone for it to matter that there is no high associated with ingesting raw cannabis, she never smoked it anyway, that I know of, though my brother did, and still does from time to time, but he doesn’t smoke much cuz it puts him to sleep.
I’m sending all this info to my brother, hope he takes it and uses it.
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For me the most hurtful things about Alzheimers was the first time my dad forgot my my name.
Another part that I deeply regret was when I found out that cannabis helps people with Alzheimer’s and had never thought take him some ABT cookies. It would have been better than how the nursing homes use haloperidol in lieu of a straight jacket. I very highly recommend that you research that nasty drug,
After pop had been living in the nursing home for about two years. I became convinced that he was knockin’ on heaven’s door because he had eyes which appeared to me to be dead. After about three years later I was compelled to decide that his death had never been imminent. So guess what actually is in fact a side effect of taking haloperidol? You guessed it:dead eyes.
I knew about the side effects of haliperidol going all the way back to the 1970s. But I wasn’t privvy to Dad’s list of various prescription drug habits and had no clue that geriatric patients might be prescribed that particular compound.
http://www.drugs.com/cdi/haloperidol.html
I feel ya Duncan. My last visit w/ my dad was at the state hospital in Tacoma. I was there for 3 hours or so. Sat down in the little open dining area and had a cup o’ joe. Sat there. And sat there…
… and then dad looks at me and says, “the beard, is that new?” I grinned. Yeah dad. “You still in Oregon?” Yup. We had maybe 20 minutes of real, he-recognized-me conversation. Both my sis and my mom hated being in that institution so I was the only one that had a quality, final connection. But I had to wait a good while for him to rise above the confusion his brain was in…
I’ll throw myself off a cliff before I go thru that particular and inescapable hell.
Of course the Daily Mail (UK) puts their own spin on the ‘shrunken brain/cannabis link’;
“Scientists at the universities of Texas and New Mexico found the drug does warp key structures in the brain.”
I guess shrunkeness can be construed as warped, especially if you work for the Daily Mail.
Elsewhere in their article — but purposefully not emphasized;
“The scientists said that because their study represented a simple snapshot of users’ brains, and did not monitor them over time, they could not be certain that the damage was directly caused by the drug.”
Not too certain of the shrunkeness now, eh? Interesting…
And this sentence that contradicts itself;
“While our study does not conclusively address whether any or all of the brain changes are a direct consequence of marijuana use, these effects do suggest that these changes are related to age of onset and duration of use.”
Uh wait, if your study does not conclusively prove anything regarding marijuana use, then how do the supposed effects suggest anything either? Those cannabis studiers are a befuddled lot. Carry on.
Smoking cannabis every day ‘shrinks brain but increases its connectivity’
http://gu.com/p/437t4/stw
Dementia swells the brain.
Conservatives have larger fear centers in the brain.
12,000 years of use then cold turkey prohibition abstinence.
Cannabis is good for the brain and memory.
That doesn’t sit well trying to dumb down America or sell pharmaceuticals.
https://www.facebook.com/222DdC/posts/10152678958602326
Did you check out the comments and their rankings? Seems the UK has more prohibidiots per capita than the US.
“Cannabis boosts brain connectivity”
http://tinyurl.com/p7hxsjq
“…our study does not conclusively address whether any or all of the brain changes are a direct consequence of marijuana use”
Its pretty bad when the press is played for a tool in the drug war portion of the government/health,etc. industrial complex.
If anyones still musing about last week’s elections, I remember the PDFA PSA’s on Air America.
There is nothing wrong with our cranium muscle in acknowledging that our founding fathers grew hemp and dabbled with its medicinal properties.
Adam and Eve or their children found the hemp plant,,it’s been going on since before written history.
A bit OT
TED TALK
Ethan Nadelmann:
Why we need to end the War on Drugs
http://youtu.be/uWfLwKH_Eko
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The more “stupid” that they “prove” that we are, the funnier it is that we’ve kicked their pathetic asses at the ballot box.
ROFLMAO at their dimwittedness!
They’ll be even more surprised (and regretful) when we outlive them.
Either that, or they’ll be dead?
The more they lose ground, the crazier they’ll get. The kind of crazy that once said that ‘pot makes men grow boobs’ with a completely straight face and wide, staring eyes. ‘Raving loon on street corner’ crazy.
But, in my estimation, we ain’t seen nothin’, yet. The prohibs have been holding out on us.
In a last ditch effort, The Crazy Uncles are being rousted from their attics and being sent to the front lines in a desperate ‘forlorn hope’, a prohib version of a WW2 banzai charge. The all-out gibbering, foaming lunacy has only now been trotted to the starting gate, awaiting the signal to leap forth, full bore. Like using mental patients to clear minefields by letting them madly dance through them.
Excuse me; I’m getting some popcorn for the upcoming performance.
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I’m not even worried about it anymore Our (for all practical purposes) sweep on “Elect a Republican” Election Day tells me that the people have decided. The one we “lost” was the one where we had the highest percentage of votes. I couldn’t believe that Ms. Calvina was stupid enough to say “the people have spoken” but she did. 58-42, you’re right sweetie, the people have spoken. They just didn’t say why you heard in Calvina Fantasy Land.
While I agree with you that we’re going to get some laughs because the people you’re calling the crazy uncles, I don’t agree that it’s because of desperation. I think that it’s because that’s all who’s left on their side of the table. They’re getting out of the attic because there’s no one to make sure that they can’t get out. Hey, that reminds me, have we fed the wiggle dude lately?
I threw the last of the tainted Halloween candy up the attic stairs a few days ago, it’s gone. I hear scratching noises occasionally, but it might be rats. And somebody has been eating peanut butter off a fork in the middle of the night, but that might be Pete…. As far as the Wiggles, I think he’s cool….wanna go up and look?
*shouting* “Hey Wiggles…show yourself, bro…”
when you vape a bud, a prohibitch brain somewhere on the planet shrinks.