NHS: No, smoking skunk doesn’t actually ‘wreck your brain’

[poledriver]

NHS: No, smoking skunk doesn’t actually ‘wreck your brain’

On Friday, the anti-drug press went wild over a study which suggested that smoking skunk cannabis, ‘Wrecks brains’.

Except that’s not really what the study said, the NHS has pointed out.

The NHS responded to The Sun’s ‘simplistic’ headline, ‘”Scientists warn smoking ‘skunk’ cannabis wrecks brains,” saying that the paper had overstated the conclusions of the small academic study.

The NHS said, ’What this study doesn’t tell us is whether these structural changes do any harm or cause any negative mental health effects – which is why The Sun’s headline is too strong. The study simply didn’t look at this.’

‘Researchers used MRI scanners to scan the brains of 99 adults – some with psychosis, some without – looking for any links between small changes in their brain structure and their cannabis habits.

‘They found users of skunk – as well as those who used any type of cannabis on a daily basis – had different structural changes in the corpus callosum, compared with those who smoked less or lower-strength strains.

‘The effects of cannabis use – both in the short and longer term – are not firmly established.’


http://metro.co.uk/2015/11/30/nhs-no-smoking-skunk-doesnt-actually-wreck-your-brain-5534345/

 

[MushroomRyder25]

Can someone clarify for me, skunk seems to currently be the media's way of saying "heady" or top-shelf. I know there's different strains named skunk, skunk #1, rah rah rah....but when it's in the news it's really just their way of saying good weed right?

 

[Felonious Monk]

^It's a British thing as far as I can tell. And maybe it's because Skunk is a popular strain there, and that, among others, tend to be more Sativa than what's popular in America nowadays (at least near me, Indicas are far more popular).

 

[_DankOpiAmp_]

Just like marijuana is a term to associate cannabis with the then ( and possibly still now) loathed Mexican population the Limey government fucks use the term skunk to make you think cannabis is stinky and disgusting. The bastards are craftier than you thought, no matter how dumb they seem.

There was a strain called skunk apparently but that is not what they refer too.

 

[manboychef]

same thing in the states dank. When they first outlawed it, it was called hemp, or cannabis...then they switched it to marihuana because it had a more racist anti-mexican immigrant feel to it.

 

[SmokingAces]

I think the answer is it's all subjective.

^It's a British thing as far as I can tell. And maybe it's because Skunk is a popular strain there, and that, among others, tend to be more Sativa than what's popular in America nowadays (at least near me, Indicas are far more popular).

It's just a term for any well grown cannabis mate. Here is like everywhere else, loads of different strains and qualities. Depends who you know as with everything, there's no shortage of good cannabis in the UK, although I'm sure some people still manage to find bad stuff.