Pubdate: Thu, 24 Apr 2014
Source: USA Today (US)
Copyright: 2014 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/625HdBMl
Website: http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/index.htm
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/466
Author: Alisa A. Padon
Page: 9A

POT'S EFFECT ON THE BRAIN

A recent study on differences in brain structures and marijuana use 
is getting a lot of attention for all the wrong reasons ("Casual pot 
use messes with brain?" News, April 16).

Coverage of the story has heralded that casual marijuana use can 
cause brain abnormalities, which is very misleading. The researchers 
looked at brain differences between casual marijuana users and 
non-users at one point in time and saw a correlation. That is, the 
users' brains were different from non-users'. This kind of research 
says nothing about what caused the differences.

To do that, you need to look for brain changes following drug use 
over time, and even then it may be that these abnormalities incline 
individuals to smoke, or that someone inclined to smoke is also 
inclined to do other things that cause changes.

It's up to researchers to be very clear about what they did or did 
not prove. In this case, deliberately or not, the limits of their 
conclusions were lost in a cloud of smoke.

Alisa A. Padon

Baltimore
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom