Marijuana use. (Horizons).

There is an ongoing debate about marijuana laws and the therapeutic benefit of cannabis for symptom management in several neurological conditions such as epilepsy and neuralgia (Mathre, 2001). More than 7 million people use cannabis on a weekly or more regular basis. Many healthcare professionals

The marijuana treatment project research group investigated the cognitive functioning of long-term, heavy cannabis users. This was a multisite, retrospective, cross-sectional, neuropsychological study conducted with 102 participants who are near-daily cannabis users. The 102 individuals who had used cannabis for 10-20 years were compared with a control group of 33 nonusers. Investigators used nine standard neuropsychological tests to assess attention, memory, and executive function prior to entry into the study and following a median 17-hour marijuana use abstinence. The results confirmed that long-term, heavy cannabis users show impairments in memory and attention that endure beyond the period of intoxication and worsen with increasing years of regular cannabis use.

Healthcare professionals who support therapeutic cannabis use need to do so with the knowledge that long-term use of marijuana, like any drug, has potential cognitive side effects. Patients also need to be educated about the potential side effects of this drug.

References

Mathre, M. (2001). Therapeutic cannabis: A patient advocacy issue. American Journal of Nursing, 101(1), 61-68.

Solowij, N., Stephens, R., Roffman, R., Babor, T., Kadden, R., Miller, M., et al. (2002). Cognitive functioning of long-term heavy cannabis users seeking treatment. Journal of the American Medical Association, 287, 1123-1131.