Research by Duke University caught the attention of people all around the world. It stated that regular use of marijuana has a negative impact on the IQ of a person.
As soon as the results published, scientists around the world decided to see if that was true. A lot of people in the scientific world did not approve Duke University’s study as 38 participants are not enough which questions the objectivity of the study.
Six months later, a new study on the subject was published by the same journal. It was noted that the Duke research didn’t have in mind several important factors. The study concluded that the methods of the previous study had been incorrect and that the results weren’t accurate.
Ther is a new study by The University College of London that has even stronger proof that the Duke research is inaccurate. The participants in that study were much more than the previous ones- they were 2612 adolescents born in Bristol between 1991-1992. Their IQ scores were taken at the age of 8 and later when they were 15 years old. The study did not find a link between the usage of cannabis and lower IQ at age 15. The researchers took in mind alcohol use, maternal education, and cigarette use in consideration.
They only found that there is a connection between alcohol consumption and lower IQ scores.
The author of the study, Claire Mokrysz, states that the research is of high importance as it serves as a critical health message- the assumption that marijuana is bad for the health is disproved and people should open their eyes for other truly harmful substances and behaviors. .
Guy Goodwin of Oxford University is a reviewer and he agrees with that statement: “the current focus on the alleged harms of cannabis may be obscuring the fact that its use is often correlated with that of other even more freely available drugs and possibly lifestyle factors. These may be as or more important than cannabis itself.”
There are many people who are against the legalization of cannabis in the United States. The problem is that they concentrate their attention on the potential damage its usage can do alone. But marijuana use is just one of many behaviors that can possibly affect life outcomes. In many cases, these other behaviors are likely to play a much larger role in determining a person’s trajectory through life.
There are so many countries that have approved the use of cannabis as legal in the past decade, but negative outcomes haven’t been reported. This study makes it clear why.
Related: Studies Find Psychoactive Drug Safer Than Alcohol When Driving
