I HATE TO WRECK YOUR BUZZ, BUT ...

According to some new studies, smoking dope can seriously damage your
ability to learn. Carol Hunt weeds out the truth

TWENTY years ago, while I was living in New York, Nancy Reagan was
busy pushing her finger-wagging, "Just say 'No,'" anti-drugs campaign
with little or no success.

Television ads warned of the terrible things that would happen to you
if you dared inhale the Devil's weed, and teenagers fell around the
place laughing as they watched and rolled themselves another joint.

One TV ad, however, touched a nerve. It featured two young men, one a
teenager, one in his late 20s, watching TV and rolling joints.

A voice from downstairs shouts: "John, did you remember the
groceries?" (Or something to that effect.) "No, Mom, I forgot," yells
the 20-something.

"Did you get a job today?" "No, Mom, it's not a problem. I'll get one
tomorrow".

Meanwhile, teenage boy is watching the end of one of those
overzealous anti-drug ads on the TV.

"Aw, don't listen to that," says the older man. "I've been doing weed
for the past 10 years and nothing's happened to me."

Kerchang. The implication being that cannabis robs you of the ability
to get up off your ass and on with your life.

But where's the evidence?

Everywhere I look there are habitual cannabis users holding down
steady jobs, rearing families and assuring me that my preferred drug
of choice -- a nice cold bottle of Pino Grigio -- is far more
dangerous in the long run. And maybe they've got a point.

Many's the time I've been encouraged to swap an extra glass for a
calorie-free joint. "It's relaxing, it's harmless and you won't get a
nasty hangover tomorrow," is what I'm usually told. Or, more
frequently, a surprised, "Do you not smoke?" as I refuse the joint
proffered after dinner.

Now, I am no angel. There's not much in life that I won't try at
least once as long as it doesn't involve violence, but me and
cannabis just don't mix. And that's not for lack of effort on my
part. I have tried to get into the habit -- it's pretty much an
impossibility to reach my age without inhaling at least once. But
smoking dope makes me edgy, paranoid, depressed and downright
miserable. "That's probably because you're mental to start off with,"
says a sympathetic friend. Not exactly tactful, but perhaps correct;
as a person with a history of depression, messing up my system with a
drug that sometimes contains a mild hallucinogenic is perhaps not clever.

"But you take Prozac," tuts another, with a look that suggests
prescribed drugs are as lethal as heroin. "At least cannabis is
natural, not full of those chemicals the drug companies put into
anti-depressants." Yes, I smile, cannabis is natural -- and so is arsenic.

So when I saw posters in the hallway of Trinity College's post-grad
library asking people who used cannabis on a regular basis to take
part in a medical experiment, there wasn't much point in me applying.
First off, I wasn't a user. Second, they were only interested in
ordinary people who didn't have a history of mental illness.

Last week, the TCD Department of Psychology and Institute of
Neuroscience, along with the Queensland Brain Institute, released the
results of two tests on the effects of regular cannabis use. By
"regular", they mean between five and seven times a week for the past
two years, with no other drugs used at all. And, of course, no
history of mental illness.

The results are a tad disturbing. These high-functioning users (many
from third-or fourth-level colleges) showed significant deficits in
learning, and in short- and long-term name recall.

In a second experiment, the stakes were upped. Same routine, but with
heavier users, and in addition areas of the brain were monitored for
signs of abnormality.

This test showed less activity in the brain area associated with
learning and an increase in activity in another area of the brain
called the parahippocampal gyrus. The paper suggests that the
increase in activity in this area reflects a compensation for
deficits in other parts, but argues that it is less efficient than
the brain area concerned with learning and memory.

So, does this provide evidence that cannabis makes you dumb?

Well, it certainly would seem to suggest it.

However, as many of you will point out, this study focused on "heavy"
users. Surely a joint every night wouldn't impede your mental capabilities?

I put this question to a friend who was in a position to tell me.

Some time ago, while stressed out with the demands of a new home,
larger family and setting up a new business, he fell into the habit
of relaxing with a nice fat joint every night before he went to bed.
After a few months, he noticed that he became incredibly bad-tempered
if he didn't have his bedtime smoke; he was also becoming
increasingly groggy in the mornings.

So he stopped. Soon, he no longer had a problem getting out of bed in
the morning, and his mood and ability to focus improved.

"But that was just me," he is quick to point out. "We both know
plenty of people who can smoke every day and it doesn't seem to
affect them in the least. If you take too much of anything it will
hurt you --drugs, food or alcohol."

"Then again, I don't know many highly successful people with heavy
cannabis habits," I counter.

"Ah yes, but maybe they're happy like that?"

It's a nice thought, but somehow I don't buy it.

Both of us were part of the arts scene in Galway during the late
Eighties and Nineties, and cannabis was the drug of choice for the
majority of people involved.

And by God, did we see some casualties fall by the wayside. People
who started out with ambition and drive ending up in a smoke-choked
daze, ranting on about how "commercial interests" never recognise
talent and how it was better to remain true to yourself and not sell out.

A lot of heavy cannabis users I know (but not all) are not exactly
fufilling their potential. I know, it doesn't sound nice and I hate
to wreck your buzz, but maybe getting wasted most nights of the week
is why you didn't do so well in those exams -- or get that promotion in work?

I'm hardly in a position to preach, though, as I am as devoted to my
after-dinner glass of wine (or two) as any pre-bedtime joint smoker
is to their puff. And anecdotal evidence would suggest that many
people enjoy a smoke or two without any noticeable after-effects.

But I do suspect -- particularly after reading that latest TCD report
- -- that cannabis may not be the tame little relaxant most of us think it is.