Marijuana unfairly blamed for effects of ‘use’

Our love-hate relationship with this seven-pointed leaf has been going on for decades. In fact, marijuana was in the top five most controversial topics of 2014. And while it continues making headline, behind laboratory doors scientists are changing the way they study the effect of this popular ingredient on our brains, which in turn might change the way we view this ‘weed’.

Until a few months ago, researchers generally avoided recruiting tobacco users for their participant pool, but in a recent study, scientists at the Center for Brain Health at the University of Texas in Dallas, observed significant differences between the brains of individuals who use both tobacco and marijuana and the brains of those who only use marijuana. These results are prompting them to question the correlation, and move away from the current practice.

Details of the study can be found in the online version of the journal Behavioral Brain Research.

For the study, the participants were selected based on their marijuana and tobacco usage and divided into these four groups:

1. Nonusers — people who have not touched marijuana or tobacco in the past 90 days
2. Chronic marijuana users — people who use marijuana at least four times per week
3. Frequent nicotine users — those who smoke 10 or more times daily
4. Chronic marijuana and frequent nicotine users

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