What does smoking weed do to your brain?

As such, to do clinical research with marijuana, you need a license from the DEA and your study approved by the FDA, and to obtain research-grade marijuana, you have to go through the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Popular Science explains. read more

Long-term marijuana use appears to alter a person's brain, causing one region associated with addiction to shrink and forcing the rest of the brain to work overtime to compensate, a new study reports. read more

Marijuana smoke contains carcinogens, so it may increase your risk of lung cancer too. However, studies on the subject have had mixed results. According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), there is no conclusive evidence that marijuana smoke causes lung cancer. read more

The ability to draw definitive conclusions about marijuana’s long-term impact on the human brain from past studies is often limited by the fact that study participants use multiple substances, and there is often limited data about the participants’ health or mental functioning prior to the study. read more

The effects of smoking marijuana take place within minutes, and typically last anywhere from one to three hours. However, if marijuana is eaten in a food or consumed in a drink, the effects take significantly longer to be felt fully. It can be a half hour and up to a full hour before the user feels any kind of high. read more

While the effects of using marijuana are short term and last the duration of a few hours, prolonged and daily use can cause more permanent changes to the mind and body. Since THC stimulates the brain to release dopamine, using marijuana regularly over time can interfere with the brain’s ability to release dopamine correctly on its own. read more