I think you're making it sound less scary than it actually is. The study you linked looked at adolescents who used cannabis once a week, and found that they suffered a permanent decline in IQ.
Once a week is not "binge usage." That term isn't used anywhere in the study. The study doesn't make or support the claim that only binge usage causes mental decline.
What the study supports is that weekly long-term use beginning in adolescence causes permanent mental decline.
Furthermore the NYT links many other studies to support their position, and a recurring theme is that we still don't understand all the long-term effects of marijuana.
I have a feeling that if this article was about tobacco or alcohol the comments would look totally different. I like cannabis, I think it's probably more benign than both of those drugs, but I don't think we should give it a free pass because of its counterculture association or any other reason. By the admission of researchers it is not well understood, so there is a good case to be made that the path of least harm is to legalize carefully and in stages.
Once a week is chronic use though, and long term too.
It's fine if this is actually tested in an RCT instead of a silly correlation that has any number of confounders such as:
- parental care - stable young people start smoking later and smoke less and/or less often
- wealth - rich people -"-
- mental illness
- social groups where early marijuana use can be special in other ways
- location
- other concurrent habits
I'd like to at least see a thorough analysis instead of one potentially random number average need with all sorts of biases. And just the bare bones of statistics have been applied to insufficient data.
The most reasonable paper, the IQ one, is funded by a drug prevention and treatment center.
And the other linked papers are a big bag of laughs. FMRI "looking" abnormal? Bah. Epigenetic study in vitro, wow, very useful if you're made of glass.
Precautionary principle is well applied here already, and in more reasonable countries. Remove reasons for abuse and it rarely happens.
Once a week is not "binge usage." That term isn't used anywhere in the study. The study doesn't make or support the claim that only binge usage causes mental decline.
What the study supports is that weekly long-term use beginning in adolescence causes permanent mental decline.
Furthermore the NYT links many other studies to support their position, and a recurring theme is that we still don't understand all the long-term effects of marijuana.
I have a feeling that if this article was about tobacco or alcohol the comments would look totally different. I like cannabis, I think it's probably more benign than both of those drugs, but I don't think we should give it a free pass because of its counterculture association or any other reason. By the admission of researchers it is not well understood, so there is a good case to be made that the path of least harm is to legalize carefully and in stages.