Gemma Speck

This is a direct quote from the researcher.

Her name is Stacey Gruber.

She actually runs the Marijuana Investigations for Neuroscientific Discovery problem.

That is a mouthful.

And she does heaps of studies around this.

But on this study, she said, rather than getting worse, they're actually getting better because their physical symptoms are alleviated.

That means they can think more clearly and often they rely less on other substances like opioids that can disrupt thinking.

This contrasts with poorer cognitive performance seen among heavy recreational marijuana users relative to non-users.

There you go.

So basically what this is saying is that when there's a lesser THC factor, when marijuana is used medicinally, especially for chronic diseases,

pain or chronic illnesses that are otherwise clouding cognitive capacity cognitive functioning does go up so again you can't it's not all or nothing it's not any any if you touch cannabis you're immediately like 20 times dumber no it's a complex interaction with the body with our emotions with time with psychology let's turn our attention to motivation

Because of the impact of THC on reward processing and motivation, people often talk about cannabis as if it is automatically something that will turn you into this lazy zombie like person.

Of course, in the short term, cannabis use does and can reduce motivation.

especially in someone who is actively high, like things that require planning and sustained focus are a lot less appealing in that state.

Everything that is, you know, the immediate reward is a lot more tantalizing, a lot more naturally attractive during those periods.

But long term, the stereotype of like the lazy, unmotivated weed user seems to be incorrect, especially if you're not using every single day or every single week or all the time.

Like,

You are kind of allowed to have a couple of moments where you aren't heavily motivated because you can sustain motivation elsewhere and in other times of your life.

In fact, across newer studies, there is little consistent evidence that all cannabis users are generally less motivated than non-users once you actually look carefully at the data.

Some studies, including a significant paper from 2023 from researchers at the University of Cambridge and the University of Bath, found absolutely no major differences in self-reported motivation, pleasure or willingness to work for reward, especially in non-dependent users.