The results of a University of California San Diego study claim adolescents who use marijuana may be less susceptible to brain damage from binge drinking.
"I was definitely surprised by the results," said Susan Tapert, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California San Diego, and one of the main researchers in the study.
The study's goal was to research the capacity of the adolescent brain to process information efficiently after exposure to drugs and alcohol.
Between 2007 and 2009, researchers studied adolescents ages 16 to 19.
The subjects were divided into three groups: binge drinkers, binge drinkers who also used marijuana and a control group who rarely or never used alcohol or drugs.
Binge drinking is defined as having five or more drinks in one sitting for men and four or more drinks in one sitting for women.
The researchers were surprised to find the results of the study deviated from what they had hypothesized, Tapert said.
"We found that the damage to their white matter was right in the middle (of the results)," Tapert said, about the subjects who frequently used marijuana and alcohol. "Obviously, we expected them to have the highest level of damage (of all the test participants)."
There are many possibilities the adolescents who only used alcohol showed more brain damage than those who used alcohol and marijuana, Tapert said.
"This was only one study done at one time," Tapert said. "Maybe the kids who used marijuana were healthier than those who only used alcohol, or maybe one group was more candid than the other."
Tapert also said she would not rule out that marijuana could possibly have protective properties, but she said more evidence is needed.
"It is possible that marijuana might have some neuroprotective matters," Tapert said. "We will continue with our research before we pass any judgment."
However, while Tapert said she was surprised by the study's results, others were not.
Bruce Mirken, the director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, said he was not shocked by the results.
The MPP is an organization working toward loosening marijuana-related restrictions.
"(The MPP envision) a nation where marijuana is legally regulated similarly to alcohol, marijuana education is honest and realistic, and treatment for problem marijuana users is non-coercive and geared toward reducing harm," says the mission statement on their Web site,
"I'm interested, but not hugely surprised," Mirken said. "There is a fair amount of data from lab and animal testing that says that cannabinoids (the active chemicals in marijuana which also occur naturally in humans and animals) may be capable of protecting the brain from damage."
Other people see this study as a necessary step in educating the general public about marijuana.
"Based on my observations, one of the main obstacles in marijuana policy debate is that many people don't fully understand marijuana," said Steve Fox, director of state campaigns for the MPP. "I feel that by comparing marijuana to alcohol it gives the American public a point of understanding."
Fox said he did not want to get prematurely excited about the seemingly positive results of the study.
"I'm not sure this one study will make a difference, as much as I'd like it to," Fox said. "The government tends to downplay and ignore these types of studies, and that is disappointing."
Whether the government's reception of this study is positive or not, this is another addition to the marijuana policy reform debate, Mirken said.
"The sad and frustrating thing is that by-and-large marijuana policy has never been driven by data," Mirken said. "If mere fact were enough to change the laws, they would have been changed a very long time ago."
As for the scientific side of the marijuana-legalization debate, Tapert said she and her colleagues will continue researching and performing their study.
"We will continue to gather data from our test subjects," Tapert said. "We want to study a wider variety of brain functions and see how they perform under a series of cognitive tests."
Although these findings are intriguing, they still show that substance-use negatively affects the brain.
"The main result is that adolescents who don't use substances have the healthiest brain matter," Tapert said.
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