Cannabis doesn’t lower IQ but smoking tobacco does

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January 13, 2016 1:15 PM

A new study has revealed that smoking cannabis doesn’t lower IQ or affect school grades in teenagers – but that smoking tobacco does.

Cannabis doesn’t lower IQ but smoking tobacco does

In other words, cannabis really isn’t as bad for you as previous studies might have suggested.

The researchers used data on 2235 children – mapping tobacco and cannabis use against IQ at age 15 and educational performance at age 16.

Writing in Journal of Psycopharmacology, the researchers told Metro UK that, ‘There is much debate about the impact of adolescent cannabis use on intellectual and educational outcomes.

‘We investigated associations between adolescent cannabis use and IQ and educational attainment in a sample of 2235 teenagers from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.'

The research also shows that those who had used cannabis 50 times did not differ from never-users on either IQ or educational performance.

‘These findings suggest that adolescent cannabis use is not associated with IQ or educational performance once adjustment is made for potential confounds, in particular adolescent cigarette use.

‘Modest cannabis use in teenagers may have less cognitive impact than epidemiological surveys have previously suggested.’ The research added.

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