TOKING YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS

Are Those Who Inhale Really Smarter Than Those Who Don't?

So last week a swiss study was published saying teens who use only
cannabis appear to function better than those who also use tobacco,
and are more socially driven and have no more psychosocial problems
than those who abstain from both substances.

And all the potheads in the world said, "Booyah! See? Pass the
cookies." What can we glean from this? That occasional tokers are
smarter, more motivated, sportier and more sociable than non-tokers? Could be.

But don't go wild.

Sure, you might be just as smart when you spark up, but researchers
seem to agree you're going be processing info more slowly than
non-stoners. Bottom line? Don't toke and drive. Finally, will pot
really make you nicer? Recent research from the Centre for Addictions
Research of BC suggests, as we've all suspected for quite some time,
that it sure won't make you nasty.

What the Experts Say

"When you give a joint to relatively heavy pot smokers with a history
of smoking, you see limited effects on cognitive performance. Their
cognitive performance slows down, but they are just as accurate. So
if they're engaging in a task that requires quick reaction time, like
driving an automobile, they might put themselves in danger. With
light smokers, you can see a lot more disruptions in accuracy and
reaction time. It's the same thing with alcohol. It's difficult for
investigators to get funding to study these drugs."

CARL HART, associate professor, department of psychiatry and
psychology, Columbia University, New York City

"The sample is representative of 16- to 20-year-olds in Switzerland.
However, we can't assume causality. Our findings suggest there is a
group of mainly occasional cannabis users who do relatively well, and
much better than those who use both cannabis and cigarettes. And they
seem to be more socially driven than abstainers. One possible
explanation is that cannabis, at least in Switzerland, is becoming a
way to socialize, the way alcohol or cigarettes were. We have a
picture of these youth, not a movie, so we do not know what happens
later: do they stop using cannabis? Do they escalate in their use?
These questions remain to be answered."

JOAN-CARLES SURIS, research group on adolescent medicine, University
of Lausanne

"If you feed your cannabinoid receptors, you will never get
Alzheimer's. Nobody who smokes pot regularly in Canada has ever been
found to have Alzheimer's. People generally get both long- and
short-term memory preservation if they smoke lots of pot. If you
don't feed the receptor, it withers away by your late 50s or early
60s and cannot be restored. Also, cannabis does one really important
thing: it arouses curiosity, which is an important part of
intelligence. In our experience, people who don't smoke marijuana
tend to have more myopic views and are more closed-minded. They're
less tolerant and less open to new experiences. If you smoke
marijuana, you tend to become more curious and broad-minded. And that
contributes to intelligence."

MARC EMERY, publisher, Cannabis Culture Magazine, Vancouver

"The problem I see with the Swiss study is that we have no idea what
the subjects were like beforehand and if their family relationships
were good. I wouldn't be surprised if they were even better before
they started smoking up. Those in the Swiss study were infrequent
users. We found in adolescent heavy users -- I want to stress heavy
users -- that marijuana affected IQ negatively. Not by a lot. If
someone was on the margin of being mentally challenged, it might make
a difference. IQ includes memory and visual processing speed, and
these are adversely affected, in our work, among heavy users. Smoking
could affect driving and aspects of school performance. These
effects, however, disappeared after three months of non-use. No drug
has only a positive impact. You'll hear people claim they smoke up
regularly and are still doing well, but maybe they'd be doing even
better if they didn't smoke. This is where the personal decision
arises: feeling good versus possible negative consequences."

PETER FRIED, professor emeritus, department of psychology, Carleton
University, Ottawa

"If you look in treatment populations, people who've had problems
with marijuana abuse generally have higher violence rates than the
general population. They also tend to have more aggressive
personalities. But marijuana itself does not lead to violence. There
is little evidence that the pharmacological effects of cannabis
increase the likelihood of violence; in fact probably just the
opposite. It's more likely to make people fearful than fearless."

SCOTT MACDONALD, assistant director, Centre for Addictions Research
of BC, University of Victoria