Cannabis and the Teenage Brain: A Cautionary Tale The latest research on cannabis use among teenagers has yielded a disturbing finding: those who start using cannabis may experience slower growth in memory, attention, language, and processing speed compared to their peers.
The study, published in Neuropsychopharmacology, analyzed data from over 11,000 participants in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, the largest long term investigation of brain development among young people in the United States.
Researchers led by Natasha Wade found that teenagers who used cannabis showed slower improvement across several areas of cognition, including memory, attention, language, and processing speed.