Health - Wellness
What Smoking Marijuana Every Day Does To Your Memory
By JENNIFER ANANDANAYAGAM
The effects of marijuana consumption on short- and long-term memory have been a topic of interest for a long time, with multiple studies done on the subject.
Dr. Sharon Levy, director of the Adolescent Substance Use and Addiction Program at Boston Children’s Hospital, says marijuana floods your brain with tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
THC, the psychoactive plant chemical, can attach to specific brain receptors and temporarily disrupt neural signaling, affecting the user’s short-term memory.
Author and university professor Matthew Smith told Northwestern Now that the effects of chronic marijuana use were seen up to two years after the participants stopped weed use.
When the same participants were tested for long-term memory, they performed poorly when compared with those who had never used cannabis.
Per CNN, a 2019 study in the journal PNAS linked just one puff of weed and "false memories" (remembering something that wasn't there or differently than how it happened).
A 2022 study in the journal Addiction found residual effects on poor verbal learning, memory, and impaired executive functioning (planning, time management, and self-monitoring).