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Does marijuana decrease gray matter?

Kingofthefungus

Kingofthefungus

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May 27, 2010
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Recently a friend told me that marijuana decreases the amount of gray matter in your brain.
I looked up the difference between gray matter and white matter, and was able to determine that gray matter is composed of tightly packed neuron cells.
Now I am someone skeptical to any claims of marijuana killing brain cells. I don't think weed is harmless, but I don't think it's neurotoxic either.
Does anyone have any information on this topic?
Thanks.
 
Weed decreases gray matter in your brain, that's one I've never heard before.

I don't have any scientific evidence to back this up but your friend is probably full of shit
 
This is a new tactic on the part of prohibitionists: make the claim really obscure so that it can't be immediately debunked using common sense by most people. For example, you had to actually look up "grey matter", because it's not something most people are familiar with.

But, NO, this claim contains about as much truth as claims that certain drugs cause holes in the brain or drain the spinal fluid, or what-have-you. With a drug as widely used as cannabis, with no obvious long-term effects on anyone, the burden of proof rests squarely on the accuser.
 
Too much weed will dull your mind and kill your short term memory, making it look like as if you would have lost grey matter.

But you don't actually lose grey matter, you just don't use it anymore cause you don't care!
 
Yeah if anything it may increase it AT FIRST as it's making a person think in totally different ways than ever before ......

.... But then like someone said , smoke too much and your mind becomes dull and yuckkkk.,.... But yeah I think the reason for this is because of the changed mindset and not the decrease in grey matter .

+ there are no fair studies showing that it decreases grey matter
 
nope

smoking anything pops some brain cells. nothing special bout weed has been found to decrease gray matter... that ive heard of
 
Zzyzx said:
Too much weed will dull your mind and kill your short term memory, making it look like as if you would have lost grey matter.

But you don't actually lose grey matter, you just don't use it anymore cause you don't care!
Click to expand...

or do you not care because you dont use as much of your mind?
 
jamesmartin said:
Yeah if anything it may increase it AT FIRST as it's making a person think in totally different ways than ever before ......

.... But then like someone said , smoke too much and your mind becomes dull and yuckkkk.,.... But yeah I think the reason for this is because of the changed mindset and not the decrease in grey matter .

+ there are no fair studies showing that it decreases grey matter
Click to expand...

Mr Scientist! but yeah smokings bad people.
 
Newbierock said:
Mr Scientist! but yeah smokings bad people.
Click to expand...
^^ yeahh man . That's what all the ladies call me .

your right a well . SMOKING (not vaping but smoking ) weed or anything infact is bad .
Smoke contains carcinogens which when inhaled will temporarily deprive your alveoli in your lungs from picking up oxygen .the deprevation of oxygen will temporarily produce bad quality red bloodcells (these are the ones that carry oxygen) which in theroy could temporarily reduce the amount of oxygen being sent to the brain making braincells suffer from oxygen depravation.


This is just a theroy Btw . If smoking weed actually killed brain cells though around 50% of bluelight would be dumbasses !! Or are they ? :-P
 
Zzyzx said:
Too much weed will dull your mind and kill your short term memory, making it look like as if you would have lost grey matter.

But you don't actually lose grey matter, you just don't use it anymore cause you don't care!
Click to expand...

That's a short-term effect. Abstaining from the cannabis for a few months completely reverses these kinds of effects, not that they're even that noticeable. I mean, you have to be a fairly hardcore pothead to get noticeable memory deficits.
 
Carcinogens cause cancer. Particles hamper gas exchange, particles can be carcinogenic. *
Its quite likely that smoking MJ does reduce grey matter. The question is, to what extent, and is this rate dangerous?
unqualified answer: to a low extent, probably more due to the fact you're holding your breath/reducing oxygen flow, and it's not very harmful when used in moderation.
 
No, it primarily "damages" your hippocampus for a short period of time. This is what makes your short term memory suck while you are high, and also why you do not remember your dreams as vividly. The word damage should be taken lightly, it's more like "impacts".

Long-term, habitual abuse however can cause low to moderate damage to memory or psychological addiction which can be reversed after abstaining from weed... as far as I know, there is no unbiased or current research which proves weed destroys grey matter.
 
The only argument I can see that would even slightly lend credence to this idea is the fact that your brain is constantly pruning neural pathways, and creating new ones. This is how people learn new things and mature over time. So if you are stoned ALL the time, then the type of pathways that your brain prunes and/or establishes could be effected in a way that favors lethargy and apathy.
I don't know if this is even the case though.
 
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i smoked a lot for 2 years prior to taking the ACT, habitually. and was extremely baked the night prior, and still got a 30. it takes a 21 to get accepted to the majority of schools.. highest score in my class, and i'm a drug user, lol
fuck you, government. fuck you.
 
chainer3k said:
That isn't how people learn
Click to expand...

How do people learn?


http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/d/d_07/d_07_cl/d_07_cl_tra/d_07_cl_tra.html
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/283/5409/1908
http://www.skidmore.edu/academics/biology/courses/ROY2/MindFall2003/LargeSizeArticles/KandelCh4.pdf

NOTE: I am by no means arguing that weed kills gray matter. I don't believe it's neurotoxic in any way, shape, or form. I am simply coming up with an idea on how constantly being stoned could effect your brain.

Actually this article is pretty interesting, and it argues the exact opposite of what the OPs dumb friend said http://www.lewrockwell.com/armentano-p/armentano-p10.htm
 
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