No, weed won’t rot your brain

Study cannot determine cause and effect
The Daily Beast (US web)
Thursday, April 17, 2014

Headlines are screaming Marijuana Makes Young Brains Go to Pot. But a new study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, does not in any way prove that casual marijuana use is bad for your brain. Whatever brain changes are seen in casual users, they don’t predict addiction, otherwise, all casual users would become addicted—or at least, a much larger proportion than actually do. Several generations of American adults survived far higher rates of marijuana use than we see now—without encountering a major epidemic of cognitive impairment, schizophrenia, or lack of motivation. (See also: Does researching casual marijuana use cause brain abnormalities? and Striking a Nerve: Bungling the Cannabis Story)