American (Continents, not country) War on Drugs

Detoxified alcoholics often have visuospatial and visuoperceptual deficits, characterized by difficulties completing tasks such as putting pieces of a puzzle together or map reading. A new study has found that, even with prolonged sobriety, alcoholics show deficits in visuoperception and frontal executive functioning of the brain.

http://alcoholism.about.com/od/brain/a/blacer041115.htm

Results of autopsy studies show that patients with a history of chronic alcohol consumption have smaller, lighter, more shrunken brains than nonalcoholic adults of the same age and gender (1).

This finding has been repeatedly confirmed in living alcoholics using structural imaging techniques, such as computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Structural imaging reveals a consistent association between heavy drinking and physical brain damage, even in the absence of medical conditions previously considered to be clinical indicators of severe alcoholism (e.g., chronic liver disease or alcohol-induced dementia).

http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/alerts/l/blnaa47.htm

About 2 million Australians - one in eight adults - are at risk of permanent brain damage because of the amount of alcohol they drink, a new survey says.

Another 200,000 Australians are already suffering from alcohol-related brain damage but do not know they have the problem, the report says.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/06/1997173.htm

Long-term and even daily marijuana use doesn't appear to cause permanent brain damage, adding to evidence that it can be a safe and effective treatment for a wide range of diseases, say researchers. 

The researchers found only a "very small" impairment in memory and learning among long-term marijuana users. Otherwise, scores on thinking tests were similar to those who don't smoke marijuana, according to a new analysis of 15 previous studies. 

In those studies, some 700 regular marijuana users were compared with 484 non-users on various aspects of brain function -- including reaction time, language and motor skills, reasoning ability, memory, and the ability to learn new information. 

Surprising Finding

"We were somewhat surprised by our finding, especially since there's been a controversy for some years on whether long-term cannabis use causes brain damage," says lead researcher and psychiatrist Igor Grant, MD. 

"I suppose we expected to see some differences in people who were heavy users, but in fact the differences were very minimal." 

The marijuana users in those 15 studies -- which lasted between three months to more than 13 years -- had smoked marijuana several times a week or month or daily. Still, researchers say impairments were less than what is typically found from using alcohol or other drugs.

http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/news/20030701/heavy-marijuana-use-doesnt-damage-brain

That company, Stepan, has the same owners than Coca-cola. That makes the coca leaves stuff to look less serious.

It is so ridiculous that not even the charango that Evo Morales gave to Condolezza Rice could enter the U.S. (because it has a cover of plastified coca leaves)  

Coca leaves are supposed to be a good way of getting people off cocaine ... or so I've heard. 

Maybe the Cocaine Importing Agency has an objection to the leaves being imported ...

He said Tobacco is more harmful because it is the most used. One to one, there is no comparison between a cigar and cannabies.

Plus, if cannabis even remotely damage the brain should't they be banned altogether?