Marijuana Use and Cognition

"Other studies have found short term residual effects of cannabis use on memory and cognition (34, 35) that are more severe among women (36) and heavy users (37). However, our data suggest that over the long term cannabis use is not associated with greater declines in cognition among men, women, or heavy users. The study design we used included several of the features proposed by Pope et al. (34) as critical to addressing the long term effects of cannabis on cognition: naturalistic follow-up, a large sample size, a population basis, comparison of light cannabis use with heavy use, and the construction of models accounting for the effects of gender and use of illicit drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. Therefore, these results would seem to provide strong evidence of the absence of a long term residual effect of cannabis use on cognition."