No Brainer HEADS UP: UPDATE August - 2014

 
‘Dumb and dumber? Teen marijuana use linked to lower IQ in later life.’ http://www.sj-r.com/article/ZZ/20140620/NEWS/306209982/2002/LIFESTYLE
 
Children will ‘pay’ if Cannabis is legalised!  http://www.dbrecoveryresources.com/2014/07/legalise-cannabis-and-children-will-pay-the-price/
 
Decreased dopamine brain reactivity in marijuana abusers is associated with negative emotionality and addiction severity
Significance: Marijuana abusers show lower positive and higher negative emotionality scores than controls, which is consistent, on one hand, with lower reward sensitivity and motivation and, on the other hand, with increased stress reactivity and irritability. To investigate this aspect of marijuana’s impact on the human brain, we compared the brain’s reactivity in marijuana abusers vs. controls when challenged with methylphenidate (MP). We found that marijuana abusers display attenuated dopamine (DA) responses to MP, including reduced decreases in striatal distribution volumes. These deficits cannot be unambiguously ascribed to reduced DA release (because decreases in nondisplaceable binding potential were not blunted) but could reflect a downstream postsynaptic effect that in the ventral striatum (brain reward region) might contribute to marijuana’s negative emotionality and addictive behaviors.  http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/07/10/1411228111
 
Resources:
a)      Grass Is NOT Greener - http://grassisnotgreener.com/
b)      Marijuana Harms Families - http://www.marijuanaharmsfamilies.com/