A new study has found that marijuana not only has the ability to affect how you make decisions and perform other cognitive functions like problem-solving, but it can leave impacts beyond the initial high.
The study was published on Thursday in the journal Addiction and showed the impact of the drug on the brain. With more states legalizing the use of marijuana and people working to make it socially acceptable, the study attempted to restate the dangers of using weed.
Researchers recently reviewed studies and have found that weed strongly impacts a user beyond when they light up, especially for adolescents.
A co-author of the study Dr. Alexandre Dumais, who serves as a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Montreal, shared that the use of cannabis can have a significant impact on the user's ability to do everyday things.
"Our study enabled us to highlight several areas of cognition impaired by cannabis use, including problems concentrating and difficulties remembering and learning, which may have considerable impact on users' daily lives," Dr. Dumais said to CNN.
He added that for youth, it could mean issues in school and may cause them to develop bad work habits.
"Cannabis use in youth may consequently lead to reduced educational attainment, and, in adults, to poor work performance and dangerous driving. These consequences may be worse in regular and heavy users," Dumais said to CNN.
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The review looked at studies done on over 43,000 people. Researchers found that THC, the main compound that gives a psychoactive effect in cannabis, harms the brain's higher levels of thinking.
Those higher levels include the ability to make decisions, plan, organize, solve problems, remember important data, and control emotions and behavior.
When it comes to these impacts being reversal or recoverable, scientists are not sure if it's possible. Dumais said that THC could be stored in the body for months in body fat, slowly being released in the bloodstream.
Dumais said that high-quality research would need to be done to understand the effect of exposure long-term.
As for what should be done until then, Dumais shared with CNN that "preventive and interventional measures to educate youths on cannabis use and discourage them from using the substance in a chronic manner should be considered ... since youths remain particularly susceptible to the effects of cannabis."
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