Occasional recreational use of marijuana does not seem to have much of an impact on health, well being or cognitive performance.
There is a short term depression in cognitive abilities for about a day after smoking, but your mental abilities quickly resume to a normal state of functioning thereafter.
Long term, heavy and regular smoking of marijuana can be quite harmful, and in addition to physical health risks to the body, heavy marijuana users can expect to suffer some significant cognitive impairment.
Why does marijuana get you high? What's going on in the brain? Marijuana works to intoxicate primarily through the active molecule THC, contained within.
There are cannibanoid receptors throughout the brain, and these are concentrated more heavily in certain areas.
When you smoke, the THC enters through the lungs and into the bloodstream and proceeds to the brain where it activates these cannibanoid receptors, causing a variety of reactions.
The cannibanoid receptors are located more heavily in areas of the brain that regulate thinking, memory, pleasure, appetite, sensory perception, concentration and time perception.
Many of the felt effects of a marijuana high can thus be explained from the areas of the brain affected by THC; explaining why marijuana can cause confusion, affect memory consolidation, make you hungry, cause altered sensory perception, and make time seemingly slow down or speed up.
Most of these effects are quite transitory, and after a few hours you will return to a baseline state of mental functioning, but some areas of brain functioning do present with a legacy of deficits after smoking, and with regular and chronic abuse, these cognitive deficits can exist perpetually.
Essentially, when you smoke marijuana everyday, you are never as smart as you would otherwise be.
How does it really affect you? A number of clinical studies have illuminated the cognitive deficit effects of marijuana smoking.
Studies of long term use show that marijuana can cause changes in the way your brain functions, similar to the effects of some other and harder drugs.
Marijuana increases your stress response reaction and seems to also change the way your pleasure producing neurotransmitter system, the dopaminergic system, operates.
Studies of frequent and regular smokers on a battery of cognitive testing also shows that marijuana use lowers mental memory, concentration and verbal expression performance.
Heavy smokers also seem less able to shift attention and focus between alternate stimuli as rapidly or as readily as non smoking people.
Heavy smokers are less likely to graduate from high school, are more likely to perform poorly academically.
On the job, self reports by heavy smokers indicates that marijuana use compromises their ability to excel on the job, to learn and retain job related information, and has interfered with career advancement.
Fortunately, these cognitive deficits seem almost completely reversible, and heavy smokers tested after a month of abstinence show a return to a normal level of cognitive functioning.
Regular smoking can be problematic If you smoke daily or more than daily, you are not performing as well as you could be on a number of different measures of cognitive ability.
If you do smoke at a level that impairs you ability to excel in life, you may want to consider reducing or stopping altogether your consumption.
There is a real syndrome of withdrawal associated with quitting marijuana after heavy use, but it can be beaten.
If you find that you are not able to get past withdrawal and marijuana cravings on your own, you may want to consider getting professional help to do so.
There is a short term depression in cognitive abilities for about a day after smoking, but your mental abilities quickly resume to a normal state of functioning thereafter.
Long term, heavy and regular smoking of marijuana can be quite harmful, and in addition to physical health risks to the body, heavy marijuana users can expect to suffer some significant cognitive impairment.
Why does marijuana get you high? What's going on in the brain? Marijuana works to intoxicate primarily through the active molecule THC, contained within.
There are cannibanoid receptors throughout the brain, and these are concentrated more heavily in certain areas.
When you smoke, the THC enters through the lungs and into the bloodstream and proceeds to the brain where it activates these cannibanoid receptors, causing a variety of reactions.
The cannibanoid receptors are located more heavily in areas of the brain that regulate thinking, memory, pleasure, appetite, sensory perception, concentration and time perception.
Many of the felt effects of a marijuana high can thus be explained from the areas of the brain affected by THC; explaining why marijuana can cause confusion, affect memory consolidation, make you hungry, cause altered sensory perception, and make time seemingly slow down or speed up.
Most of these effects are quite transitory, and after a few hours you will return to a baseline state of mental functioning, but some areas of brain functioning do present with a legacy of deficits after smoking, and with regular and chronic abuse, these cognitive deficits can exist perpetually.
Essentially, when you smoke marijuana everyday, you are never as smart as you would otherwise be.
How does it really affect you? A number of clinical studies have illuminated the cognitive deficit effects of marijuana smoking.
Studies of long term use show that marijuana can cause changes in the way your brain functions, similar to the effects of some other and harder drugs.
Marijuana increases your stress response reaction and seems to also change the way your pleasure producing neurotransmitter system, the dopaminergic system, operates.
Studies of frequent and regular smokers on a battery of cognitive testing also shows that marijuana use lowers mental memory, concentration and verbal expression performance.
Heavy smokers also seem less able to shift attention and focus between alternate stimuli as rapidly or as readily as non smoking people.
Heavy smokers are less likely to graduate from high school, are more likely to perform poorly academically.
On the job, self reports by heavy smokers indicates that marijuana use compromises their ability to excel on the job, to learn and retain job related information, and has interfered with career advancement.
Fortunately, these cognitive deficits seem almost completely reversible, and heavy smokers tested after a month of abstinence show a return to a normal level of cognitive functioning.
Regular smoking can be problematic If you smoke daily or more than daily, you are not performing as well as you could be on a number of different measures of cognitive ability.
If you do smoke at a level that impairs you ability to excel in life, you may want to consider reducing or stopping altogether your consumption.
There is a real syndrome of withdrawal associated with quitting marijuana after heavy use, but it can be beaten.
If you find that you are not able to get past withdrawal and marijuana cravings on your own, you may want to consider getting professional help to do so.
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