Persistent cannabis users who started using the drug before age 18 show an average IQ decline of 8 points and other signs of impaired mental functioning by age 38, according to world-first research emerging from the University of Otago’s long-running Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study.
The Study has followed the progress of 1,000 Dunedin-born people since their birth in 1972/73 and is one of the most detailed studies of human health and development ever undertaken. The latest findings are newly published in a paper appearing in the US journal PNAS Plus co-authored by researchers from Otago, Duke University and King’s College London.
Article and photograph courtesy of the University of Otago, Dunedin.