NEW STUDY SHOWS POT SMOKING IS DAMAGING

Long-term cannabis use impairs memory and attention beyond the time of
intoxication, according to experiment results that the Journal of the
American Medical Association released yesterday. These effects worsen with
continued smoking and potentially affect users' academic and occupational
production, relationships and other daily activities.

"This has been an issue of substantial discussion for a long time," Interim
Director for University Health Services Robert Winfield said. "The big
question has always been, is (cannabis) temporary to being intoxicated or
is it permanent?"

"They did some fairly intensive mental study," Winfield said. "On the other
hand, the study is not very large - but it's not a study to be discarded
because it's done in some shallow manner."

"I don't think this settles the issue, but it's useful evidence," Winfield
added.

The experiment used nine standard neuropsychological tests, such as the
Stroop test and Rey auditory verbal learning test, that measure attention
and memory functions. Long-term users performed significantly worse than
short-term users on the variety of tests. On average, long-term users and
short-term users had been smoking for 23.9 and 10.2 years, respectively.
Other contributing factors, such as IQ, age and other drug use were
controlled, and subjects with prior injuries that affected the brain were
excluded.

For the University's pro-legalization group Hemp A2, the research resembles
the usual criticism against marijuana legislation and cannabis use.

"They do produce some evidence; however, other studies by Harvard and the
American Journal of Epidemiology find the opposite," Chairman of Hemp A2
Charles Goodman said.

"The fact that some studies suggest one thing and other studies suggest the
opposite shows that the effect of marijuana is tiny when compared to other
drugs, such as alcohol and tobacco, which everyone agrees are harmful."

JAMA's report of the experiment is not informative to students who already
recognize the effects of marijuana as harmful.

"I'm not surprised to hear this, actually, because the way that society
portrays marijuana users, they seem like they're mentally impaired
anyways," LSA freshman Katie Brokamp said.

"It's like alcohol abuse: People know the long-term and short-term effects
- - despite the information they're still going to use it," she added.

Nadia Solowij from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the
University of New South Wales in Sydney conducted the experiment with
departments in Washington, Connecticut, Florida, and Virginia. The
experiment's complete results may be found online at
http://jama.ama-assn.org/ issues/v287n9/abs/joc11416.html.