Middle-Aged Drug Users Have Sharper Minds: 50-YR-OLDS WHO TOKED-SCORED HIGHER ON MEMORY TESTS

[kpete]

Middle-Aged Drug Users Have Sharper Minds
50-YEAR-OLDS WITH HISTORY OF TOKING SCORED HIGHER ON MEMORY TESTS

(NEWSER) – Past or present drug use doesn't seem to damage middle-aged brains, a new study finds. British researchers studied the mental sharpness of thousands of 50-year-old subjects, and found that those who had used illicit drugs—mainly marijuana—actually performed better than others on tests of memory and other brain functions, Reuters reports. Around a quarter of test subjects said they had taken drugs at some point in their lives; 6% were still using drugs in their 40s.

The middle-aged tokers may have scored higher than others because the drug users tended to have a higher education level than non-users, the researchers say. "The results seem to suggest that past or even current illicit drug use is not necessarily associated with impaired cognitive functioning in early middle age," the lead researcher says. "However, our results do not exclude possible harmful effects in some individuals who may be heavily exposed to drugs over longer periods of time."

http://www.newser.com/story/136834/middle-aged-drug-users-have-sharper-minds.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/04/us-drugs-idUSTRE8030AE20120104

[Bluzmann57]

1. As a fifty something former toker

I have a theory about this , but I can't really remember what it is right now.

[tridim]

2. Grrrr. If they mean Cannabis, say "Cannabis users", not "drug users"

I freaking hate that Cannabis is always linked with the dangerous drugs.

[RainDog]

22. agreed n/t

[seabeyond]

3. so, the reason i dont remember things now is i stopped the pot a couple years ago???? lol lol.

hm, that is interesting. might or might not read article, if i remember.

[Control-Z]

7. Are you sure you've stopped? n/t

[seabeyond]

8. pretty damn sure... nt

[Zorra]

4. Maybe the short term memories we lost back in the day

are manifesting after all these years.

[cthulu2016]

9. In all seriousness, the brain skills nessecary to "maintain" are

a form of exercise not unlike the sorts of exercises of function that are said to delay dementia.

[Duer 157099]

24. That's interesting. Can you elaborate?

Do you mean like self-control? or

[cthulu2016]

30. I'll try...

Being stoned forces the stonee to do some mental tasks conciously rather than automatically -- mostly short-term memory related.

I know that they have found that mental exercises like remembering strings of numbers help delay the rate of deterioration from Alzheimers... exercising memery helps keep the process of remembering sharper.

So being short-term memory impaired artificially (ie. stoned) might be like running with wrist weights.

[Duer 157099]

32. Hmm. Interesting. Probably correct.

As for brain exercises, I've read that novelty is an important factor, doing things differently rather than routine (like taking different routes both literally--as in a car or on a walk--and figuratively, as in using different brain pathways).

Perhaps under the influence of pot, the brain perceives all things as novel? That certainly is my experience, you look at something familiar and see it from a totally different perspective.

Someone should study this.

[brewens]

5. I occasionally get comments on, "how can you remember all that"? Recently when

talking high school football with a couple 50 year old teamates. I remember details and scores that those guys can't believe. Even a limerick those guys made up on a road trip one time.

I'm also deadly when someone tries to deny saying something they are being called on. I will remember exactly what they said.

I smoked weed almost every day for about 30 years. Maybe we had to develope a sharp memory to counter the "short term memory loss" so often sited as a dangerous effect of smoking pot. It probably doesn't work for someone that was a dumbass to start with.

[Quantess]

6. I think it's fine to take a break from sobriety now and then.

For most people, anyway.

[wildbilln864]

10. Cannabis smokers yes, drug users, no!

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn8155-marijuana-might-cause-new-cell-growth-in-the-brain.html

[JackRiddler]

11. One possibility...

is that smart people with restless minds and poor conformity will be more attracted to psychoactive substances in the first place. Not that taking certain drugs is the "smart" thing, but that it seems to promise more of a thrill for the smart. If they stick to cannabis or don't take so much worse stuff that it fucks them up physically, the one who went in smarter will remain smarter at the end of the experience.

Anyway, yet another article that can't just say cannabis, treats arbitrary drug schedules like writs from god.

[surrealAmerican]

33. There is a difference between intelligence and memory.

This study was not about intelligence.

[JackRiddler]

37. Definitely. However in practice they tend to go together.

It's hard to stay smart without memory, and intelligence definitely aids retention (for example, in organizing memories for better retention, albeit selectively).

[opihimoimoi]

12. 10 fatties a day will keep the Doctors away is twue from this 71 ole skinny ass chinaman....LOL

[WingDinger]

13. I used to study in college, on Pot. Then, take the test with the same pot, and amount. Had perfectis

perfectish retention. With MINIMAL study.

[kestrel91316]

14. I got my BS in Microbiology and my DVM while mildly but regularly high.

There was no cognitive impairment. There WAS, however, an improved ability to sleep when heavily stressed out.

[randome]

18. And you would know if there was cognitive impairment because...

...you would just know, right?

[kestrel91316]

20. Well, I wouldn't have gotten the grades I did, and wouldn't have beaten out so very many

straight arrows for my slot in vet school.

[RainDog]

26. Your experience is verified - see post 25. n/t

[Voice for Peace]

15. I wonder if pot-typical short-term memory loss is actually useful in preserving memory space.

Most older people's brains are overly cluttered with memories, most of which is useless accumulated data.

Maybe the pot blocks some of that accumulation?

Generally if you ask young children what they were doing yesterday, or even ten minutes ago, they can't recall. Moreover, they don't care; because Fun happens in the present, not the past.

[tridim]

16. IMO that's why it's good for mild autism.

[RainDog]

34. my son is of legal age

but he doesn't live in a legal state. I wish he could, under a doctor's supervision, try this to see if it would help him. but that won't happen b/c I will not offer him something illegal and he wouldn't use something illegal.

He's very smart, about some things, but has problems, he says, because he cannot forget things. He has a near-photographic memory.

Michael Pollan and others who have looked into cannabis for PTSD, said one of its useful functions is to help people to forget - or to remember things within a context that short-circuits the response to trauma that has developed.

[Peace Patriot]

17. Got to read between the lines when a study like this gets published/promoted...

...by the Corporate Press. And, believe me, Rotters is one of the worst as to hidden Corporate agendas.

For instance, there is a big movement in Latin America to legalize marijuana and re-think the entire U.S. "war on drugs," with centrist and even rightwing leaders saying rather astonishing things about it. It could be that Latin American countries will take the initiative and reject the corrupt, failed, murderous U.S. "war on drugs" (as some of them have already done, notably Venezuela and Bolivia), leaving U.S. war profiteers flat-footed and without a "cause." The CIA must know this, so are they laying some ground work for a shift of the war profiteer billions to some other "crusade"?

I don't know anything about this "study"--its funding and origins--but I do know that the Corporate Press is HIGHLY MANIPULATIVE, and if the "study" was truly independent and honest and the war profiteer "powers that be" didn't want it known, we wouldn't know about it. So, whatever the researchers' motivations may have been, the Corporate Press is likely publishing it for hidden reasons.

I have reason to suspect that the Bush Junta was using the U.S. "war on drugs" to consolidate the cocaine trade in Colombia and to better direct its trillion+ dollar revenue stream to certain beneficiaries (the Bush Cartel, transglobal banksters...the CIA itself?). So maybe there is some thinking (behind closed doors) that marijuana now needs to be eliminated as a rival trade (drastic reduction in price if it is legalized) or, perhaps some transglobal corporations are now set up to monopolize legal marijuana trade; they will immediately take it over, once legalized, and the illicit cocaine trade (and heroine trade out of Afghanistan) will keep the U.S. "war on drugs" war profiteers in clover for some time to come.

I don't have this totally figured out yet, obviously--but I'm thinking of recent "studies" promoted by the Corporate Press which have said that women don't need breast cancer screening and men don't need prostate cancer screening. I figured that these "studies" were prep for denial of these medical services by Medicare and the big insurance giants. The Corporate Press has MOTIVES in what they allow you to know. Again, I don't know about the honesty of the "studies" but I DO know that the Corporate Press is the servant of the Corporate Rulers.

As for the substance of this study, that's likely what the manipulators of the Corporate Press want us to restrict our discussion to. Is it harmful? Is it not? (It's possible they are setting up the researchers to be dissed or discredited later on--another possible hidden motivation.) What we should really be talking about is the "war on drugs" and the criminal misuse of this "war" by the U.S. government as a tool of aggression and, if my suspicions are correct, a flipover into vast crime (by the Bush Junta). Whether a drug is harmful or beneficial, or whatever, really isn't that important. How society handles problems such as drug use, drug addiction or the desperate poverty that drives people into illicit trades is the heart of the matter.

So maybe what the Corporate Press motivation is here is distraction. They are quite aware of the legalization movement in Latin America, and the medical marijuana movement here, and they are publishing this NOT to add information and enlightenment to the discussion, but to draw people off into a side issue. That is yet another Corporate Press tactic to look out for.

There is evidence of honesty in this study, in that the researchers admit that "The middle-aged tokers may have scored higher than others because the drug users tended to have a higher education level than non-users." That makes intuitive sense to me (though I don't have any numbers), having lived through much of the history of this medicinal herb as it was demonized by thuggish or cowardly politicians and turned into an excuse for fascist oppression. Intelligent people saw through this and some of society's brightest were in fundamental rebellion against the war machine when marijuana smoking became a synonym for living peacefully. Indeed, that is the first thing that occurred to me, when I read the headline--that many smart people took up marijuana smoking and maybe that skewed the numbers. Well, they admit it, so that's good. On the other hand, you have to wonder about taking up such a stupid study--that is, a study with such a huge "chicken and egg" question at its core. What does it matter, in the end, whether marijuana impairs memory, or benefits memory, or is neutral? The REAL issues are, a) individual freedom, and b) TRILLIONS of dollars WASTED on the "war on drugs." Why didn't they do a study instead on the assholes instigating wars? (Oh, wait, that might harm the cocaine trade!)

[Uncle Joe]

23. You make some good points, Peace Patriot.

"As for the substance of this study, that's likely what the manipulators of the Corporate Press want us to restrict our discussion to. Is it harmful? Is it not? (It's possible they are setting up the researchers to be dissed or discredited later on--another possible hidden motivation.) What we should really be talking about is the "war on drugs" and the criminal misuse of this "war" by the U.S. government as a tool of aggression and, if my suspicions are correct, a flipover into vast crime (by the Bush Junta). Whether a drug is harmful or beneficial, or whatever, really isn't that important. How society handles problems such as drug use, drug addiction or the desperate poverty that drives people into illicit trades is the heart of the matter.

So maybe what the Corporate Press motivation is here is distraction. They are quite aware of the legalization movement in Latin America, and the medical marijuana movement here, and they are publishing this NOT to add information and enlightenment to the discussion, but to draw people off into a side issue. That is yet another Corporate Press tactic to look out for.

There is evidence of honesty in this study, in that the researchers admit that "The middle-aged tokers may have scored higher than others because the drug users tended to have a higher education level than non-users." That makes intuitive sense to me (though I don't have any numbers), having lived through much of the history of this medicinal herb as it was demonized by thuggish or cowardly politicians and turned into an excuse for fascist oppression. Intelligent people saw through this and some of society's brightest were in fundamental rebellion against the war machine when marijuana smoking became a synonym for living peacefully. Indeed, that is the first thing that occurred to me, when I read the headline--that many smart people took up marijuana smoking and maybe that skewed the numbers. Well, they admit it, so that's good. On the other hand, you have to wonder about taking up such a stupid study--that is, a study with such a huge "chicken and egg" question at its core. What does it matter, in the end, whether marijuana impairs memory, or benefits memory, or is neutral? The REAL issues are, a) individual freedom, and b) TRILLIONS of dollars WASTED on the "war on drugs." Why didn't they do a study instead on the assholes instigating wars? (Oh, wait, that might harm the cocaine trade!) "

[eShirl]

19. my state's medicinal cannabis laws specifically allow it for treating Alzheimer's Disease symptoms

(under a doctor's recommendation)

[T S Justly]

21. Cannabis preserves and protects brain functions. K&R (nt)

[RainDog]

25. This correlates with a July, 2011 study that found no cognitive impairment for long-term users

http://healthland.time.com/2011/07/19/study-marijuana-not-linked-with-long-term-cognitive-impairment/

The research was published in the journal Addiction.

Participants took tests of memory and intelligence three times over the eight year period the study. They were also asked about how their marijuana use had changed. When the results were at last tabulated, researchers found that there were large initial differences between the groups, with the current marijuana smokers performing worse on tests that required them to recall lists of words after various periods of time or remember numbers in the reverse order from the one in which they were presented.

However, when the investigators controlled for factors like education and gender, almost all of these differences disappeared. The lower education levels of the pot smokers — and their greater likelihood of being male — had made it look like marijuana had significantly affected their intelligence. In fact, men simply tend to do worse than women on tests of verbal intelligence, while women generally underperform on math tests. The relative weighting of the tests made the impact of pot look worse than it was.

The authors, who were led by Robert Tait at the Centre for Mental Health Research at Australian National University, conclude:

The adverse impacts of cannabis use on cognitive functions either appear to be related to pre-existing factors or are reversible in this community cohort even after potentially extended periods of use. These findings may be useful in motivating individuals to lower cannabis use, even after an extensive history of heavy intake.

[Enrique]

27. employers will now start seeking out pot smokers

everyone should start putting pot use on their resumes.

[randome]

28. LOL!

[B Calm]

36. Testing positive should be reason for a pay raise!

[hunter]

29. Leftovers last longer in the refrigerator...

... don't know if that's a good thing or not.

[Weisbergkevin]

31. Awful thread title and Newser title

the first impression a reader will get is that 1-you are talking about all drugs, and 2-you are talking about frequent drug use, when in fact:

1-the study is about "light" drugs.
2- The study is about occasional use. Heavy users had worse memory, the article said.

Reuters, the carrier of the original story, used "pot" in its title. Newser just wanted attention and you copied it.

[RainDog]

38. good points. would be nice if the title were edited for reality. n/t

[DeathToTheOil]

35. Uh...what?

[Earthbound Misfit]

39. Correlation does not mean causation. n/t

[RainDog]

40. true.

The article might simply demonstrate that those with more education are more likely to have tried cannabis.

The study I noted in #25 indicated that, when education levels and gender are taken into consideration, long-term use does not indicate cognitive impairment over the long term.

What the studies seem to indicate is that cannabis doesn't make you stupid, better at math, better at reading comprehension or increase your IQ or memory - but it doesn't impair them, either.

[Tsiyu]

41. And cannabis may lead to a longer life

My 73-year-old mom sent me this story, saying "I thought this might make you smile." I love my mom.

http://www.smokersclubinc.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3899

"Kendrapada (Orissa), Nov 19 (IANS) A 125-year-old woman, said to be one of the oldest women in India, died at her home in Orissa, her family said Sunday."

Apparently, she loved her ganja, and she attributed her longevity to daily tokes. Yeah, I smiled.

(There is a link to the full story on the page linked above)Edit to add: that link no longer works, but here's another with a pic of that "evil" 125 year old hippie pothead:

http://valetudocafe.wordpress.com/2011/05/13/125-year-old-woman-claimed-smoking-pot-everyday-was-her-secret-to-long-life/