Smoking Pot Lowers IQ

Inhaling marijuana smoke may mean you’re exhaling IQ points. Research now suggests that teens who smoke regularly may have lower IQs as adults.

Before age 18 (the time when many marijuana users start), the brain is still growing significantly. And puffing pot seems to prevent the developing brain from reaching its full potential.

The same damage was not found in those who started smoking as adults.

“Quitting or reducing cannabis use did not appear to fully restore intellectual functioning among adolescent-onset former persistent cannabis users,” says a contributor to the study, Terrie Moffitt of King College London’s Institute of Psychiatry and Duke.

“Research has shown that IQ is a strong determinant of a person’s access to a college education, their lifelong total income, their access to a good job, their performance on the job, their tendency to develop heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and even early death,” she adds.