Start Smokin'

Raw Story points to an article in The Globe And Mail which explains findings by a Calgary based team of international researchers who have found that periodic use of high potency marijuana, "could have some benefits when administered regularly."

"Most 'drugs of abuse' such as alcohol, heroin, cocaine and nicotine suppress growth of new brain cells. However, researchers found that cannabinoids promoted generation of new neurons in rats' hippocampuses.

Hippocampuses are the part of the brain responsible for learning and memory, and the study held true for either plant-derived or the synthetic version of cannabinoids.

'This is quite a surprise,' said Xia Zhang, an associate professor with the Neuropsychiatry Research Unit at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.

'Chronic use of marijuana may actually improve learning memory when the new neurons in the hippocampus can mature in two or three months,' he added."

Well, I guess that's why your old, broke college buddy who smoked the dirt cheap stuff is such a typical stoner, while your "I only smoke the good stuff" friend can still speak coherently.

It is also another nail in the coffin of the anti-pot crusaders who think that marijuana can only do harm. Now we can add neuron generation to the list of beneficial uses including addressing "pain, nausea, vomiting, seizures caused by epilepsy, ischemic stroke, cerebral trauma, tumours, multiple sclerosis and a host of other maladies."

You can read the entire article here.