Can Smoking Cannabis Damage Your Brain Cells?

A scientific insight into arguably the biggest debate surrounding the drug.

Source: Author

When Matthew went to the local Stop & Shop that warm summer morning to buy a couple of avocadoes and a Doritos packet, he returned home only with the tortilla chips, completely forgetting about the other product he went to the supermarket for. The week after, for a couple of days in a row, Matthew kept completely forgetting his appointments with his friends, his girlfriend, and his dentist.

He had always considered himself a daydreamer, which sometimes, he said, was a problem, as he wasn’t really able to fully focus on his daily tasks. However, his forgetfulness and absentmindedness had become a “glitch in his system.”

Normally, forgetting such minor stuff wouldn’t be considered a problem if it was a rare occurrence. Right?

Matthew told me back then that this had started happening daily — he would constantly forget what he had planned to do the same day, would be extremely absent-minded and not be able to concentrate on even the simplest of tasks. The biggest problem was that he was starting to feel that he was becoming dumber.

But why? I asked. It was simply because, he told me, he had been smoking cannabis daily for the past 1 year. By…