Is it true that smoking pot is bad for the DEVELOPING brain?

I’ve been told, and I’ve read, that younger users of marijuana tend to have impaired memory functions. However, what I’ve read was only tested with heavy users, I don’t think an infrequent smoker would see the same results.

I would only use it in a child in a viable medicinal fashion for a serious condition.
I do agree that any drug use starting early is problematic for the overall health and development of a child/teen/young adult.

Yes, @Joker94 said. I think infrequent or random use would not be as detrimental as someone who imbibed constantly.

Yes

I would not recommend smoking anything while the brain is still developing. I use marijuana to help with PTSD, back pain and insomnia. I am a light user and only use during the evening. Without my panic disorder would be off the chart. It truly is a God send to me and my family.

How can it not be? It takes up actual oxygen space—and the brain needs as much of that as it can get. Also, the brain is still developing, and putting any kind of brain affecting drug on a brain that is developing doesn’t sound like a good idea to me.

Good research questions, though.

If you want to develop a pot head I guess it’s the way to go. Don’t listen to people who say it’s good for you. Eat healthy, exercise and get a check up once a year.

I don’t think we know for certain, so why take the chance unless it’s absolutely necessary? Hopefully the bogus war on drugs will come to an end and we’ll take a sensible approach to this drug, just as we do all the other medications that are currently being peddled to ALL ages – including young people with developing brains. Some of those medications come with black box warnings, so it’s quite possible that marijuana could be the lesser of two evils.

We need more research, and decriminalization. Without those, I’m afraid your question really lacks a definitive answer.

There’s really nothing conclusive. Almost all studies are on rats and mice, not humans – which is typical for science, except that normally they move on to humans eventually (since marijuana is illegal, there’s a limit to the studies you can do). A couple studies say that heavy (once a week to once a day) usage may (always, may, not will) affect the brain, but often times it’s more about how they deal with stress (ie binge eating, like from getting used to “the munchies”), not directly diminishing brain size. And then another study (again, on rats) said THC actually increased the size of certain parts of the brain. So… if there’s a teen, probably don’t have them be a really heavy smoker, if for no other reason than that adolescence is a crucial period for developing other ways of dealing with stress. But the occasional joint at a part/concert? Not really going to do anything.

That’s what they say. How ironic that it is the developing brains that usually use it.

I’m with @GoldieAV16, decriminalization is the way to go. Or medicinal legalization.

Smoking weed does fuck up your memory

@smokeweedeveryday So do alcohol, sleep deprivation, and old age. One of those is tolerated, one of those is encouraged (only lazy people sleep more than four hours a day; everybody else works for 10 hours then does productive stuff like housework for the other 10) and one of those is merely inevitable.

@jerv Don’t forget stress! Stress is hell on your memory.

So is chemo. Chemo really screws up your short te….wow, did anybody else see that thi…I need a nap now.