Does marijuana actually ruin your memory?
Marijuana makes you dumb. At least according to the tired trope surrounding its use. Back in the day, stoners were considered slackers and anyone who smoked weed was on a one-way ticket to Loserville.
Today, many of those stigmas have fallen away. But some still linger in the popular consciousness, like the perception that every hit on a joint results in a lower IQ. But does smoking marijuana actually make you stupid?
Not really, according to a new review published in the journal Neuropsychology. Canadian researchers Scot Purdon and Daniel Krzyzanowski aimed to better understand what long-term cognitive effects cannabis could have on users. They analyzed 23 previous studies to determine if marijuana abstinence had any impact on verbal learning and memory abilities.
Based on available literature, they wrote, whatever impairment marijuana use inflicted upon memory and verbal learning “appear to resolve between 7 and 28 days of sustained abstinence.” However, they added, “years of regular use were inversely related to longer periods of abstinence and verbal learning performance, undermining a confident inference that abstinence alone has direct benefits to verbal learning and memory.”
This isn’t the first research conducted by Purdon that focuses on marijuana and memory. In 2018, Purdon conducted a study that found marijuana hinders the verbal learning — the ability to read and retain information — for up to 24 hours after usage. Within one to three days, that impairment is reduced by half.
What does that mean for general users? If you’re cramming for an exam or need to remember a presentation, it’s probably best not to use marijuana a day before learning the information. And if you’re ever worried your cannabis habit is causing you to become forgetful, take a week off.
420 Intel is Your Source for Marijuana News
420 Intel Canada is your leading news source for the Canadian cannabis industry. Get the latest updates on Canadian cannabis stocks and developments on how Canada continues to be a major player in the worldwide recreational and medical cannabis industry.
420 Intel Canada is the Canadian Industry news outlet that will keep you updated on how these Canadian developments in recreational and medical marijuana will impact the country and the world. Our commitment is to bring you the most important cannabis news stories from across Canada every day of the week.
Marijuana industry news is a constant endeavor with new developments each day. For marijuana news across the True North, 420 Intel Canada promises to bring you quality, Canadian, cannabis industry news.
You can get 420 Intel news delivered directly to your inbox by signing up for our daily marijuana news, ensuring you’re always kept up to date on the ever-changing cannabis industry. To stay even better informed about marijuana legalization news follow us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Â