A cannabis cigarette is enough to change young people's brains

Some puffed up with joints are enough to change brain patterns in teenagers. This is what comes out of a study published in “Journal of Neurroscience” by researchers at the University of Vermont, in the United States, broadcasts Albania. An abnormal increase in the volume of cerebral bark, in correspondence with areas related to emotion and memory, has been observed for the first time in some 14-year-olds who had consumed cannabis in a spored manner.

The result opens new questions about legalising the substance for recreative purposes. The “appears only to consume one or two cigarettes to change the volumes of gray matter to these young teenagers”, psychiatrist Hugh Garavan noted.

They analyzed data related to brain development and mental health of young people surveyed in Great Britain, Ireland, France and Germany under the European project “Imagen”. The study included 46 fourteen - year - olds who had used cannabis only once or twice. In their brain, it turns out that abnormal growth has been discovered in the volume of certain areas of gray matter sensitive to the ʹcannabinoids: the most important changes have been observed in theʹamygdalaʹ (related to fear and other emotional processes) and the hippocampus (related to memory and space).

It remains to be understood what the extent and importance of these structural changes mean. Usually in adolescence, the brain is subject to a “shortset of” of nerve connections, which reduces volumes: hence, it is possible for cannabis to hinder this process.