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Cannabis can destroy the brain
[27 August 2008 - 09h27]
[mis à jour le 29 August 2008 à 09h28]
[mis à jour le 29 August 2008 à 09h28]
Cannabis abuse can literally destroy your brain. Heavy users of the drug –smoking more than 5 joints a day for 10 years– appear to display emotional and memory problems.
Using MRI scans (magnetic image resonancing) a team of Australian researchers studied the brains of 15 heavy cannabis smokers.Other individuals who were not cannabis users formed a control group. The results are convincing. In those who were cannabis dependent, the amygdala was smaller.
In our brain, the amygdala –not to be confused with the tonsils which were once referred to by the same term– forms part of the limbic system which is involved in behaviour, emotions and memory. The hippocampus also appears to be affected. The report’s author notes that in cannabis smokers, the volume had decreased by 12% compared with the control group. Yet worryingly, this area of the brain plays a key role in learning and memory.
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