When we come to the subject of cannabis use, and apart from its "recreational" aspect, we immediately have a rather negative assessment of it; especially with regard to its consequences on health. In addition to its harmful effects, would it be possible that the use of cannabis has more or less favorable effects or conditions the intelligence quotient?
Effects of cannabis use on health
As reported by INSERM, cannabis and its derivatives have long been associated with the image of a "soft" drug, recreational, with no health consequences. But besides this distracting aspect, its consumption, when it is not medically supervised, does have harmful consequences, cognitive effects as well as psychiatric consequences.
Moreover, a study conducted by INSERM, among others, clearly demonstrates that exposure to cannabinoids in adolescents suggests that these could significantly impede the structural maturation of neuronal circuits, thus causing an alteration of the cognitive function in adulthood.
But in addition to its harmful aspects of cognitive functioning and physical health by inducing cardiac or even respiratory complications, could cannabis use have a positive impact, especially on the use of IQ?
Study suggests cannabis solicits women's IQ
A study of the cause-and-effect relationship between childhood and illicit drug use in adulthood on a 1970 British cohort of more than 11,000 subjects found that high scores of 10 The study subjects in question were positively associated with the adult use of cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy and amphetamine. Associations were stronger among women than men and were independent of psychological distress in adolescence and socioeconomic status throughout life.
When the intelligence factor was taken into account in addition to age, psychological distress, socio-economic status and drug use, the study analysis showed that men with a high intelligence quotient were 5 years old were approximately 50% more likely to use amphetamines, ecstasy and several illicit drugs, including cannabis, than those with low scores 25 years later and the association was even higher among women, who were twice as likely to use cannabis and cocaine as those with a lower IQ score.
On the other hand, this study does not explain or justify why there is this association between cannabis use and the level of IQ, but it does reveal that smarter people, and in particular women, are simply more inclined to try to new experiences.
In any case, this study, contrary to what one might think at first glance, does not show that it is the use of cannabis that favors or conditions a solicitation, or even a stimulation of the intelligence quotient, but on the contrary that subjects in the study developed higher IQs that may be related to illicit drug use including cannabis, particularly among women.
In fact, the conclusion of the study is limited to the fact that a high intelligence quotient for children can increase the risk of illicit drug use in adolescence and adulthood.
Consequences of cannabis on cognitive functioning
No one is unaware that cannabis, and in particular its THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) composition, significantly induces psychoactive effects by initiating a modification of the behavior which in turn generates attention disorders and anxiety reactions that can lead to panic attacks, planning and decision-making difficulties, and even paranoia or hallucinations. Moreover, at present, brain medical imaging has actually made it possible to highlight brain morphological alterations in chronic users of cannabis, adults and adolescents alike.
But cannabis, and in particular CBD, the second predominant cannabinoid of cannabis after THC, is also being tested as part of therapeutic treatments for cannabis.
