One common belief about marijuana use is that it kills brain cells.

This myth was first brought up during the Reefer Madness movement. Many believe because of the Dr. Heath/ Tulane study, that marijuana kills brain cells.

What many people don’t know is how poorly the experiment was conducted. The original plan was to pump 30 joints a day into monkeys for a year. Apparently after three months of this, the monkeys died and dead brain cells were found. Years after the experiment was conducted and everyone was convinced marijuana kills brain cells, it was released that the experiment was done much differently. Instead of 30 joints a day, Dr. Heath suffocated the monkeys for five minutes. He put gas masks onto the monkeys and gave them 63 joints worth of colombian marijuana smoke. Without any oxygen the monkeys slowly suffocated. With lack of oxygen any organisms’ brain cells will die. So we see that marijuana didn’t kill the brain cells or monkeys, and that it was actually a result of a cruel, poorly conducted experiment.

In fact, some recent ideas from scientists are that marijuana may promote brain development and growth. Of course, this research recieves far less attention and probably no funding.