The Residual Cognitive Effects of Heavy Marijuana Use in College Students

To:                                    Lynn Gibbons-Beddow, Lecturer

From:                  Austin Burgess; Alcohol Group, English 102.40, Spring 2009

Date:                                     2/15/09

Re:                                    “The Residual Cognitive Effects of Heavy Marijuana Use In College Students,” H. G. Pope Jr and D. Yurgelun-Todd

Message:

This article was selected for this assignment because it deals with marijuana’s effects on college students.  This writing will be useful to the group for future research when compared with studies done on alcohol’s effects on college students.

·      Summary of Content

A study was done where 65 heavy marijuana users and 64 light marijuana users participated.  A series of tests were done to assess intellectual functioning, ability to pay attention, and ability to learn and recall information among other functions of the brain.  The study shows that heavy marijuana users shows much greater impairment that light users.

·      Areas of Agreement/Disagreement

In this article there is not much to disagree with; all information and data is from scientific tests.  However, this study could have been improved if non-marijuana users were included in the test groups as a control group.

·      Conclusion

In conclusion all information from the test makes sense and is what most would expect as effects from heavy marijuana use. 

·      Use in Further Research

 

This article will be useful to the group for further research.  In the future the group can research effects alcohol has on similar functions such as ability to learn and recall information and compare the effects of each substance.

Work Cited

Pope Jr, H.G., and D. Yurgelun-Todd.  “The Residual Cognitive Effects of Heavy Marijuana Use In College Students.”  The Journal of the American Medical Association  275.7 (1996).  12 Feb. 2009   .