Many still believe that marijuana has no real long-term dangers associated with it, this is still one of the main reasons so many people abuse the drug all around the world today.

This perception of marijuana and attitude of apathy is slowly changing over time with modern research and a stronger understanding of the drugs effect on the brain in the wider community.

People are starting to recognize first hand that marijuana does have a long-term negative effect on the human brain.

What Long-Term Effect does Marijuana have on Your Brain?

It depends on how much you smoke, and how often. I’m not going to go into how much is too much, but if you think you might smoke a little too much weed – you probably do.

Here are some of the long-term effects marijuana can have on your brain if you continue a regular habit of abusing the drug:

Memory Loss. Short-term and long-term memory can become scattered after long periods of smoking marijuana, and it takes a lot longer to get your memory back to normal once you lose it. Weeks and months that pass while smoking can become a blur, and it gets difficult recalling important events in life.

Psychological Dependence. A psychological dependence to marijuana is an addiction that gains strength over time. Users often find that they need to smoke more of the drug in order to get the same feeling. This results in smoking marijuana more often and can make it very difficult to quit.

Impaired Coordination. Over time marijuana will cause negative effects in your balance, reflexes and physical performance. This is something that will improve dramatically once a user quits weed completely.

Psychosis. This generally refers to a condition in which a person experiences some loss of contact with reality. This can include hearing voices and hallucinations, although they are most often only caused by marijuana in extreme cases of over-use.

Learning Ability. Researchers have found that the long-term effect marijuana has on the ability to learn and solve problems can be significant and last for many weeks after smoking. As a result of this, a person that smokes weed regularly might be performing at a low intellectual level almost all of the time.

Anxiety. The addiction of marijuana can cause a long-term effect of increased anxiety in users. This could be in the form of a full-blown panic attack or just a feeling of being uncomfortable around many people.

Depression. Researchers have now linked the act of smoking marijuana often for many years to an increased risk of depression. Quite often hitting rock bottom is what a person needs, before they can decide to take action and quit an addiction such as marijuana.

Many people disagree on the effect marijuana has on the brain in the long-term. Although as modern day research continues to study this addiction, the attitude is slowly changing to recognize that marijuana, although different, presents many similar dangers when compared to other drugs of abuse.