AMSTERDAM - Smoking cannabis does not affect the brains of young people. This emerges from research into the effects of cannabis on the brain of young people carried out by neuro-psychologist Gerry Jager. At the Utrecht University Medical Centre Jager examined forty teenagers, half of whom smoked cannabis regularly while the other half did not. Jager conducted memory and concentration tests and examined MRI scans.
The test results of the cannabis smoking youths were as good as those of the other group. "The things happening in the not yet fully developed brain of cannabis-smoking youths are similar to what happens in the brain of adults,"Jager said. She would advise young people who are suffering from a combination of problems not to use cannabis. But she sees no harm for the large group of young people who occasionally smoke a joint. "In ten years’ time they will be established citizens and won’t smoke cannabis any more."
