Belmont, MA: Heavy, long-term use of cannabis appears to have a negligible impact on cognition and memory, according to clinical trial data published in the current issue of the American Journal of Addictions.
Researchers at Harvard Medical School performed magnetic resonance imaging on the brains of 22 long-term cannabis users (reporting a mean of 20,100 lifetime episodes of smoking) and 26 controls (subjects with no history of cannabis use). Imaging displayed “no significant differences” between heavy cannabis smokers compared to controls.
“These findings are consistent with recent literature suggesting that cannabis use is not associated with structural changes within the brain as a whole or the hippocampus in particular,” authors concluded.
For more information, please contact either Paul Armentano or Allen St. Pierre of NORML at (202) 483-5500. Full text of the study, “Lack of hippocampal volume change in long-term heavy cannabis users,” appears in the January-February issue of the American Journal of Addictions. Synopses of previous clinical trials on cannabis use and cognitive function are available at:
http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6434