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One of key arguments opponents of legal marijuana is underage age use going up and it is bad for kids. Everyone is in agreement, but the same can be said of nicotine and alcohol, thus age limits. While increased underage going up argument has been disproven, there still are concerns about the effects of still developing brain. No one in industry is advocating for a 10 year old to vape, just as no one is serving a 10 year old a whiskey sour. But is someone who starts using at 24 years affected, well a study weighs in on cannabis and IQ.
A large study in New Zealand found that persistent marijuana use disorder with frequent use starting in adolescence was associated with a loss of an average of 6 or up to 8 IQ points measured in mid-adulthood.43 Those who used marijuana heavily as teenagers and quit using as adults did not recover the lost IQ points. People who only began using marijuana heavily in adulthood did not lose IQ points.
An earlier study conducted in 2001 and published in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry revealed that “the former marihuana smokers did not show any cognitive impairments,” the same as a study published four years later in the journal Neurotoxicology and Teratology.
