Cannabis users have abnormal brain perfusion

A November 2016 study on the brains of 982 cannabis users, with a substance use disorder, found that they all had abnormal blood flow levels, above or below average depending on brain region.

Many also had abnormal blood levels in areas affected by Alzheimer's disease such as the hippocampus.

The study was published in Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, a serious magazine devoted to Alzheimer's disease, which regularly studies the possibilities of treating illness with cannabis.

The researchers compared the brains of 982 cannabis users with those of 92 non-users. The differences in brain blood flow were sufficient (0.05%) to clearly identify whether a brain belonged to a user or a non-user. The area most affected was the right hippocampus, and could reveal at 95% the distinction between the two groups.

The hippocampus is a region of the brain that plays a key role in memory and spatial navigation. The memory problems observed in some users are often linked to this effect of cannabis on the brain. The hippocampus is also thought to play an important role in the development of Alzheimer's disease.

«Our work suggests that cannabis use influences the brain, particularly regions important in memory and learning, and known to be affected by Alzheimer's,» explained study co-author Dr Elisabeth Jorandby.

The editor-in-chief of Journal of Alzheimer's Disease stated that «regular cannabis use, through legalization, will reveal the wide range of benefits cannabis has on human health. This study shows disturbing effects on the hippocampus that could be precursors of brain problems».

Dr. Daniel Amen, creator of a clinic from which some of the study patients came, suggests that «our research shows that cannabis can have significant negative effects on brain function. The media has given the impression that cannabis is a safe recreational drug, this research directly challenges that notion. In another study [November releaseResearchers have shown that cannabis use triples the risk of psychosis. Caution is called for».

Caution is therefore called for, as with any psychoactive substance. Unfortunately, we don't have the consumption details for all 982 people, to see at what point consumption starts to have such an effect on the brain. The study also speaks of Persons with a diagnosis of cannabis use disorder by DSM-IV and DSM-V criteria,and therefore consumers with abusive and addictive habits.

A Figaro article makes the link between this study and the recent increase in the number of strokes among young subjects in the USA and Europe, the main subject of studies by Valérie Wolff, a neurologist at Strasbourg hospitals, who will be launching a study on the subject in France, which we will of course be following closely.

The only thing the Figaro could be criticized for in this article, apart from its crassly stupid and irrelevant video, is this sentence: «No clinical study has yet demonstrated any therapeutic interest in this product». We invite them to read 5 little-known health benefits of cannabis or The United Kingdom classifies CBD as a medicine. Cannabis is certainly not a miracle plant, but to totally deny the possibilities of treatment doesn't really help the prohibitionist cause in view of recent research on the subject.

The timing of this article is also intriguing. Just as the JDD was relaying the call from 150 Marseilles personalities to legalize cannabis last Sunday, Le Figaro today chooses to bring up a study from November 2016. Coincidence?