While most of the human population is well aware that doing drugs is a sure fire way to ruin your health and your life, not so many young (and not so young) people are worried about a little weed. If a study, published recently in the Journal of Neuroscience, is to be believed there is simply no way that human beings should smoke cannabis if they don’t want to harm their brains.

Hugh Garavan, a professor at the University of Vermont, US, said that consuming just one or two joints seemed to change grey matter volumes in the young adolescents in the study. Researchers found evidence that an increase in grey matter volume in certain parts of the adolescent brain is a likely consequence of low level marijuana use.

In studies so far the research has been based on subjects who have been using marijuana for a while and are heavily addicted. These subjects are then compared with non-users. This new scientific research is not following the old pattern. It’s focus is on the young people who tend to indulge in a joint or two infrequently. Not surprisingly the grey matter in their brains is affected even with this seemingly low level of consumption.