There has always been concern that chronic use of cannabis would physically alter the composition of the brain or other sayings like “Marijuana kills brain cells or make you stupid”, and to some extent, you might have pondered if this claim is actually true. Well, according to science, this concern was unfounded. The truth of the whole matter is Marijuana is a very complex substance with many benefits both uncovered and still yet to be uncovered.

A new, very detailed and controlled study on the effects of marijuana use on the brains of adults and minors has been published in The Journal of Neuroscience. Guess what they found. Cannabis does not change the brain as previously thought.

Proving That Ancient Research Was Wrong

This new study rebukes previous research on the subject, which found that cannabis seemed to change the brain. And all this took place by taking into account some factors that previous research failed to recognize in their results – in an attempt to show their flaws. What was that overlooked, but apparently it seems to factor in change? The use of alcohol. Oops …

That’s right, changes in the brain that have been shown as a result of marijuana use are now actually known to be the result of alcohol. Quite typical? The highly toxic substance that is perfectly legal goes unpunished, but when someone thinks that a much safer plant could be doing harm, everybody screams like it was bloody murder. This serves to show the inconsistencies of current drug policy and public perception.

The Research

The research in question took some very detailed brain images of 29 adult users and 29 non-using adults; as well as 50 teen users and 50 non-teen users. When comparing various areas of the brain, especially those thought to be altered by marijuana use, they found absolutely no significant difference between the two groups. This shows the importance of distinguishing the correlation of causality. When alcohol is eliminated from the equation, a new set of different results were obtained.

Conclusion

The main issue in which cannabis opponents are always quick to single out is that claim that weed damages the brain. However, many findings and not just the only research spoke about in this article has shown that “cannabinoids” a substance found in marijuana might actually rebuild the brain cells and assist in other protective work in the brain. Weed as we said is a very complex substance with loads of both uncovered and revealed benefits.