Stupid or not stupid by cannabis?

Researchers are arguing over the validity of a cannabis study

18/01/2013

Does not kiffen stupid? After a year in the trade magazine „Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences“ (PNAS) study had caused a stir, according to „excessive cannabis use in adolescence“ has led to impairments in cognitive performance and loss of intelligence quotient (IQ), the Norwegian economist Ole Rogeberg has now published a paper in the same journal that fundamentally calls the methodology of the original investigation into question.

Rogeberg concludes that the correlations between cannabis use and IQ changes in the cohort study are at least partly due to the worse socioeconomic status of the skittering adolescents. Accordingly, cannabis consumption would not be the cause of IQ loss. According to Ole Rogeberg, the authors of the original study probably overestimated the causal relationship between intellect and cockroaches. „The true effect could be zero“, so the conclusion of the Norwegian scientist.

Excessive cannabis use harmful to adolescents
After the study by the research team headed by Madeline Meier from the Department of Psychology and Neurosciences at Duke University in Durhamn (USA) in late July 2012, it seemed almost as if the media community had been waiting for such news. „Kiffen makes you stupid“, was read everywhere. Also „Heilpraxisnet.de“ has reported on the topic, but the admittedly catchy headline has a question mark for a good reason. In the original study, unlike most media reports, the correlation found did not relate to cannabis use in general but only to excessive cannabis use among adolescents. Although adolescents who consumed a great deal of cannabis for a prolonged period had a lower IQ, this does not allow us to say anything about the consequences of occasional cannabis use in adults.

Socioeconomic status rather than cannabis is crucial for IQ loss
In addition, the Norwegian researcher Ole Rogeberg's objection argues that a correlation between poorer socioeconomic status and smoking on the one hand and less favorable cognitive development on the other could have led to the seemingly causal link between IQ and cannabis use. Because numerous studies prove that the use of cannabis in adolescence is closely linked to the living conditions, which in turn have a significant influence on the development of the intellect, so Rogeberg. The social environment has been proven to be directly related to the intellectual development of children. Since the US scientists had not sufficiently considered the effect, their study results were at least distorted, if not completely useless. (Fp)

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Image: Petra Bork