spini4
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2003
- Messages
- 795
NEWPORT BEACH -- The California Society of Addiction Medicine has taken no official position on Proposition 19, the ballot initiative that would legalize cultivation, possession and use of small amounts of marijuana. However, the doctors' group strongly urged voters Wednesday to consider the "collateral damage" caused by the measure's passage -- namely, the impact on young people.
The president of the San Francisco-based group, Dr. Timmen Cermak, uttered those words during a morning-long workshop called "Medical Aspects of Cannabis." He added that, should Prop. 19 pass Tuesday, it could create another 500,000 to 800,000 marijuana addicts in California.
Funds raised through taxing cannabis should be used to treat those addicts, as well as create warning labels and study the law's consequences, Cermak said.
Cermak, speaking to a hotel conference room filled with addiction doctors and counselors from around the state, acknowledged that a survey taken by the group showed that its membership is almost evenly divided between those in favor and those opposed to Prop. 19. So he refuses to endorse or condemn the measure. The group has instead sought to educate voters on the science of marijuana -- what it does to the body and the brain.
The star of the event was Krista Lisdahl Medina, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Cincinnati, whose slideshow presentation outlined in great detail how marijuana inhibits motor function, memory and cognitive skill among young people, whose brains continue developing well into their 20s.
In a study of subjects age 18-26, even a group who had abstained from smoking pot for a month showed cognitive deficits compared with a control group. Short-term tasks were easy to remember, Medina said, but they struggled with more complex ones.
What's worse, there's no way to precisely estimate the recovery time needed for heavy smokers, she said. "We hope that with a few more months there would be a greater recovery, because there's a lot of plasticity in the brain."
continued at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39879784
The president of the San Francisco-based group, Dr. Timmen Cermak, uttered those words during a morning-long workshop called "Medical Aspects of Cannabis." He added that, should Prop. 19 pass Tuesday, it could create another 500,000 to 800,000 marijuana addicts in California.
Funds raised through taxing cannabis should be used to treat those addicts, as well as create warning labels and study the law's consequences, Cermak said.
Cermak, speaking to a hotel conference room filled with addiction doctors and counselors from around the state, acknowledged that a survey taken by the group showed that its membership is almost evenly divided between those in favor and those opposed to Prop. 19. So he refuses to endorse or condemn the measure. The group has instead sought to educate voters on the science of marijuana -- what it does to the body and the brain.
The star of the event was Krista Lisdahl Medina, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Cincinnati, whose slideshow presentation outlined in great detail how marijuana inhibits motor function, memory and cognitive skill among young people, whose brains continue developing well into their 20s.
In a study of subjects age 18-26, even a group who had abstained from smoking pot for a month showed cognitive deficits compared with a control group. Short-term tasks were easy to remember, Medina said, but they struggled with more complex ones.
What's worse, there's no way to precisely estimate the recovery time needed for heavy smokers, she said. "We hope that with a few more months there would be a greater recovery, because there's a lot of plasticity in the brain."
continued at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39879784
