The Washington Post (4/14, Klein) reports on how cannabis impacts the brain, saying it “can affect your ability to retain information in the short term.” In a study published in JAMA Network Open, heavy lifetime cannabis “users exhibited lower brain activity during a working memory task compared with nonusers after excluding recent users.” Additionally, long-term cannabis use has “been associated with changes in brain volume,” especially “in people who started using cannabis in adolescence, when the brain was still developing.” Meanwhile, in a review published in The Lancet Psychiatry, “researchers found no help or harm from specific cannabinoids with relation to a number of mood-related concerns.” The review “also concluded there wasn’t enough data to study any potential effects on bipolar disorder or depression.”
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