Study finds marijuana not "safer" than alcohol [View all]

[True Earthling]

4 decades long study published in the March 23 edition of peer-reviewed journal Clinical Psychological Science...

Heavy, persistent pot use linked to economic and social problems at midlife

https://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/publish/news/newsroom/10874

“Our study found that regular cannabis users experienced downward social mobility and more financial problems such as troubles with debt and cash flow than those who did not report such persistent use,” she said. “Regular long-term users also had more antisocial behaviors at work, such as stealing money or lying to get a job, and experienced more relationship problems, such as intimate partner violence and controlling abuse.”

The comprehensive study is important because it addresses an array of potentially confounding factors not included in past studies assessing cannabis’ long-term effects on users, and it raises awareness of the consequences that persistent cannabis use poses to families, communities and national social welfare systems.

Economic and social problems persisted in long-term, regular users of pot even after the authors accounted for other potential differences between regular cannabis users and other study participants, including socioeconomic problems in childhood, lower IQ, antisocial behavior and depression in adolescence, higher levels of impulsivity, lower motivation to achieve, criminal conviction of cannabis users, and abuse of alcohol and hard drugs.

“These findings did not arise because cannabis users were prosecuted and had a criminal record,” said Caspi, a psychologist with dual appointments at Duke University and the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London who is senior author of the study. “Even among cannabis users who were never convicted for a cannabis offense, we found that persistent and regular cannabis use was linked to economic and social problems.”

download study here (PDF):
http://cpx.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/03/16/2167702616630958.full.pdf?ijkey=PjD9gu0wSdxIDI9&keytype=finite