Sheesh, I saw John L. Moseman post this first but now its all over the internet for some reason. This study has been out for awhile but now it seems to be gaining legs in the media at large since Alaska and Oregon passed their marijuana legislation last week. I anticipate a lot of misuse of the studys findings as opposed to a frank discussion of the science and ethics. A repost of what I sent John: I dont deny the findings but this particular study has been out awhile and there has been significant criticism in the methodology. The cannabis-and-IQ analysis basically compares average changes in IQ across groups with different cannabis use patterns. Since we haven’t randomized “cannabis use patterns” over the participants, we have an obvious and important selection issue: The traits or circumstances that caused some people to begin smoking pot early, and that caused some of these to become heavily dependent for a long time, can themselves be associated with (or be) variables that also affect the outcome we are interested in. The central assumption, in other words, is that the groups would have had the same IQ-development if their cannabis use had been similar. Since this is the central assumption required for this method to validly identify an effect of cannabis, it is crucial that the researchers provide evidence sufficient to evaluate the appropriateness of this assumption. Which the PNAS has not. You can read the full paper here: pnas.org/content/109/40/E2657.abstract and an overview of the repudiation here: andrewgelman/.../struggles-over-the-criticism.../ The problem with articles like this are that they villianize the user as opposed to the environment which cultivates abuse. Anyway, thought youd enjoy reading the science and could come to your own conclusions either way. Personally, Im socially liberal so anyone can do what they want but personally conservative as I prefer to abstain. Though I have been known to shrink my brain a couple times a year so theres my own bias there.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 16:19:54 +0000
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