Regarding the letter "View cannabis legalization as a moral issue" (Feb. 14):

I personally do not find anything of value from the legalization of marijuana for recreational purposes. Marijuana use is associated with working memory impairment. Researchers at Northwestern University in Illinois did MRI brain scans of young adults who had smoked pot daily in their teens but then abstained for at least two years. The scans showed changes in the areas responsible for working memory, which appeared to shrink and collapse inward compared with the brains of subjects who had not used marijuana. The marijuana users also did worse on memory tests, and the abnormalities in their brain scans were similar to those of people with schizophrenia, the authors concluded.

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