"Cannabis use not harmful to brain of adolescents"

"Cannabis use not harmful to the brain of adolescents", Magnetic Resonance Imaging study finds

"Another marijuana myth has been busted," said NORML NZ president Chris Fowlie

Researchers of the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric
Research and the New York University School of Medicine
scanned the brains of 10 individuals who were frequent cannabis
users in adolescence and 10 control subjects with advanced
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) methods. They found no
"evidence of cerebral atrophy or loss of white matter integrity"
and concluded that "frequent cannabis use is unlikely to be
neurotoxic to the normal developing brain."

The former cannabis users were now aged 18 to 27 years and
had used cannabis between daily to 2-3 times weekly for one or
more years during adolescence, but were currently abstinent.

They were compared to subjects of similar age and sex who
never used cannabis. Measurements were obtained of whole
brain and certain brain areas, which are most often related to
psychotic experiences and memory.

Scientists noted, that their "data are preliminary and need
replication with larger numbers of subjects, although they do
have implications for refuting the hypothesis that cannabis alone
can cause a psychiatric disturbance such as schizophrenia by
directly producing brain pathology."

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