{"id":21682,"date":"2015-12-07T00:11:09","date_gmt":"2015-12-07T00:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/high-potency-pot-smokers-show-brain-fiber-damage\/"},"modified":"2015-12-07T00:10:57","modified_gmt":"2015-12-07T00:10:57","slug":"high-potency-pot-smokers-show-brain-fiber-damage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/high-potency-pot-smokers-show-brain-fiber-damage\/","title":{"rendered":"High-potency pot smokers show brain-fiber damage"},"content":{"rendered":"

{People who use especially potent pot show signs of damage in a key part of their brain. The results, reported online November 27 in Psychological Medicine, are limited, though: The small brain scanning study doesn\u2019t show that marijuana caused the brain abnormality \u2014 only that the two go hand-in-hand. But the findings suggest that potency matters, says study coauthor Tiago Reis Marques, a psychiatrist at King\u2019s College London.}<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are no longer talking about smoking cannabis or not smoking cannabis,\u201d Reis Marques says. Just as vodka packs more of a punch than beer, a high-potency toke delivers much more of the psychoactive substance tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. A bigger dose of THC may have stronger effects on the brain, Reis Marques says.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s important because as marijuana plant breeders perfect their products, THC levels have soared. Samples sold in Colorado, for instance, now have about three times as much THC as plants grown 30 years ago, a recent survey found (SN Online: 3\/24\/15).<\/p>\n

Reis Marques and his colleagues scanned the brains of 43 healthy people, about half of whom use cannabis. The researchers used a method called diffusion tensor imaging to study the structure of the brain\u2019s white matter, neural highways that carry messages between brain areas. Participants gave a detailed history of their past drug use, including information about how potent their marijuana was.<\/p>\n

People who reported using high-potency marijuana showed signs of damage in the corpus callosum, the major white matter tract that connects the left side of the brain to the right. Water molecules diffused more easily along tracts of the corpus callosum, a sign that the tissue is weaker.<\/p>\n

While the results show a link between smoking high-potency cannabis and white matter damage, they can\u2019t prove that cannabis caused the trouble. \u201cThese people could have had deviant brain structures prior to use \u2014 they weren\u2019t randomly assigned,\u201d says psychologist Mitch Earleywine of the University at Albany in New York. The results could be explained by other drug use, too, he says. Cocaine, for instance, has been tied to corpus callosum abnormalities, says Earleywine, who serves on the advisory board of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.<\/p>\n

Because the experiment focused only on brain anatomy, it\u2019s unclear whether these changes would affect abilities like memory, impulsivity or depression. It\u2019s also unknown whether white matter tracts elsewhere in the brain are affected by THC content, says neuroscientist and psychiatrist Hans Breiter of Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. \u201cThis study leaves out what is occurring with the rest of the white matter,\u201d he says. It will be important to look at other tracts, particularly those involved with memory and other behaviors that marijuana might influence, he says.<\/p>\n

With the growing availability of supercharged marijuana, understanding exactly what it does to the brain is more important than ever, Reis Marques says, particularly for young people who may not realize the marijuana they are using is much more powerful than earlier versions. \u201cWe are in a stage where there is missing information, or the information is changing fast,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\"SKUNKED<\/figure>\n

SOURCE:SCIENCE NEWS:[High-potency pot smokers show brain-fiber damage->https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/high-potency-pot-smokers-show-brain-fiber-damage]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{People who use especially potent pot show signs of damage in a key part of their brain. The results, reported online November 27 in Psychological Medicine, are limited, though: The small brain scanning study doesn\u2019t show that marijuana caused the brain abnormality \u2014 only that the two go hand-in-hand. But the findings suggest that potency […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000070667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[75],"byline":[2486],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-21682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science-news","tag-homenews","byline-science-news"],"bylines":[{"id":2486,"name":"SCIENCE NEWS","slug":"science-news","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2486,"name":"SCIENCE NEWS","slug":"science-news","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":{"id":2000070667,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21682.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21682.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21682.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21682.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21682.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21682.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000070667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21682"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=21682"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=21682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}