Shocking Revelation: Cannabis Use Lowers Young People I.Q.

 Shocking Revelation: Cannabis Use Lowers Young People I.Q. By Donovan Reynolds

While growing up in Jamaica in 1974 at the age of 11 years as a child I ran away to escape the horrors of domestic violence from a physically abusive father. I spent a short period of time with one of my mother’s friend in a place called Richmond in St Mary close to a male penal institution called Richmond Prison Farm. I attended a school in Richmond briefly nestled between the orange plantation and the Prison Farm. I had my first cannabis ‘spliff ‘one day while truanting from School with other tearaways in order to medicate away the pain of missing my mother and the horrible thoughts of leaving her behind to live with such an ugly beast of a father. The puff from the cannabis took me into a dark place with psychedelic background lights that made me very paranoid. It felt as If I was having a mirage were by I was attacked by several imaginary hostile Calvary soldiers with shiny swords waving above their heads. I began hallucinating and it felt as if I was experiencing a massive panic attack. To take the edge from disturbed mental state my cohorts squeezed a few sweet oranges down my neck to tame my appetite and I was given a bath in a river nearby to sober me up.  Later I was taken home to my guardian by a prison warder and my arse received a smacking that immediately sobered me on the spot and my posterior ached for days. During my teen years I went on to flirt with other less enterprising forms of substances- I dabbled with a bit of alcohol and tobacco but no other psychotropic drugs.

 While travelling on the London underground tube to work this week I was treated  in the Daily Mail to the shocking revelation that teenagers addicted to cannabis risk damaging their IQ and show signs normally seen in early Alzheimer's.The research was carried out by a eminent international research team, including some from the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, put more than 1,000 boys and girls through a battery of IQ tests when they were aged 13 and 14. They did the same tests more than 20 years later, at the age of 38. The study found a marked drop in intelligence and attention and memory were also harmed. More sobering is the revelation from researcher Professor Terrie Moffitt, of the Institute of Psychiatry, said: 'Research has shown that IQ is a strong determinant of a person's access to college education, their lifelong total income, their access to a good job, their performance on the job, their tendency to develop heart disease and even early death.
  I reminisced mischievously after reading the article on the train that had I not dabbled in a bit cannabis at such a early age on that sordid day in 19 74 and damaged my IQ. I could have now been a rocket scientist on my way to work at the NASA space centre. But instead, I was on my way to work as a Care Manager in an unglamorous low paying job with the National Health Service. But equally I was well happy that my guardian had slapped my bum so hard was able to avoid cannabis dependence and truanting and severe learning difficulties.
For a man who had a near encounter with cannabis induced psychosis and a difficult childhood I have gone on to have a university education and a modest career as a Social Worker and part time Journalist is not a bad outcome in the scheme of things but it could have all gone potty.

The idea that Post- modernity, capitalism, the frantic Youth craze and its social trapping has caused mans insatiable appetite for drugs may be a figment of our imagination It seem as if our habit for using drugs was handed down to us  genetically by our ancestors in the caves of Africa many eons ago .Earlier this month scientists at Aberdeen University in Scotland revealed they have found a switch in the brain which may explain why smoking cannabis causes psychosis and addiction in more than one-in-ten users. The team, at Aberdeen University found a genetic difference in the switch, probably inherited from early humans who smoked the drug in prehistoric times.
The difference may also explain why some people could be more susceptible to conditions such as obesity. The chemical 'switch' discovered by researchers could explain by one in ten cannabis smokers suffer from psychosis and addiction issues.
 Meanwhile over on both sides of the Atlantic some misguided Rastafarians with their head constantly covered in a plume of cannabis smoke continue to peddle half-truths and explode various myths to young persons about the wisdom of the weed that was supposedly found on Solomon’s grave. In part it is true that the plant cannabis has medicinal values but when taken through your mouth and exhaled from the nostril , it ratchet up the case load at mental health institutions across the globe and lower teenagers IQ. As a matter of fact smoking on a whole is a dangerous and the confirmation that smoking among teenagers in the UK is a cause for concern with policy makers and health professionals.

A survey carried out In the UK for the NHS Information Centre by the National Centre for Social Research and The National Foundation for Educational Research .This survey is the latest in a series designed to monitor smoking, drinking and drug use among secondary school pupils aged 11 to 15. Information was obtained from 7,296 pupil’s in246 schools throughout England in the autumn term of 2010. In 2010, 5% of pupils smoked regularly (at least once a week), a similar proportion as in 2009. Girls are more likely to smoke regularly than boys. The prevalence of smoking increases with age; 12% of 15 year olds said they smoked at least once a week, compared with less than0.5% of 11 year olds.

The idea of a woman pulling on the end of a cannabis “spliff” unashamed is no longer a rear sighting as the statistics above has confirmed that it is a dangerous new vocation for  ‘ladetts’ living  in urban settings where the pressure to appear tough and hip like their young male counterpart. The recent new research always reveals a close relationship between increase vulnerability to mental ill-health and the use of psychotropic drugs by young people. Finally I have to admit that cannabis use in general is such a challenging undertaking as it’s the most socially accepted drug across the world I have weighed into it because of the serious health social and financial cost to our health and social and Economic wellbeing implication of its misuse. On the other hand you may be like my cousin in Jamaica called ‘Jah T’ that doesn’t care a joint and is stoned all day on the weed. He is always so high on cannabis every day - so much- that he washes his chalice more often than the dinner plates in his kitchen sink.

Donavon Reynolds is British Based Social Worker and a Human Rights Campaigner with an interest in Politics, Culture and International Development issues. Readers are invited to give a feedback on this blog at the space provided below or to e-mail him at Dannygerm63@hotmail.co.uk.You may also give your feedback on the Facebook or twitter link on this blog.