This is your brain on drugs

As if the brownie-bingeing, looking-over-your-shoulder-for-the-cops effects of old-fashioned marijuana weren't bad enough, today's stronger version of pot comes with a much heftier price tag: Apparently it can contribute to the onset of psychotic symptoms and can increase the risk of schizophrenia.

Researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry in London found that marijuana reduces the function of the part of the brain that controls emotional and behavioral responses to situations. Essentially, the stronger the pot (and today's version is twice as strong as it used to be), the lower the function of that response, which affects how paranoid a person becomes. With continued exposure, this effect appears to contribute to long-term schizophrenia-like symptoms in some people.

One more reason to "just say no."

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