A very controversial topic in today’s world is if marijuana should be legalized or not. There is many explanations for whether it should or should not be legalized. Some say that it kills brain cells while other preach its natural grown herb and is good for you. Many people in the United States use marijuana even if it’s legal in their state or not, making it the controversial topic that it is.

Marijuana is said to have many harmful effects, but many disagree. A study was done in New Zealand that convinced many people to believe marijuana kills brain cells. The study was done with a subject group of 1000 people, and they followed the subjects from age 13 to 38. This was a good factor in the experiment to accurately receive information. At the age of 13 and 38 they conducted IQ tests and compared the results. The findings were that the chronic marijuana users did worse on their second IQ test, implying the marijuana hurts brain functions. However, there is little proof that marijuana has ingredients in it that hurt the brain cells, implying that there could be other reasons for the findings in this study in New Zealand. Reverse causation could possibly imply here, it could be said people who are declining in their IQ test it is the reason they find the need to smoke marijuana, unlikely, but possible. To further help this study i believe that we should conduct an observational experiment, having many similar people maybe all from the same college, implying they have similar IQs say how often they use marijuana. Then have all the people take an IQ test, and compare to see if the outcome agrees with the hypothesis or not. The subject group should be very large, especially if the experiment conducted is observational. With a large subject group you will accurately be able to determine if there is a correlation between smoking marijuana and a decline in IQ test. If this observational experiment was done and correlation was there it would not completely prove the question, but it would support its results greatly.

http://www.drugpolicy.org/blog/does-marijuana-kill-brain-cells