I was one of the people who used the number 4 IQ points at the meeting, but we were all answering slightly different questions. Since I haven’t used cannabis in a long time and didn’t expect to use it regardless of the study, what I answered was more like “a 4 point IQ drop would significantly lower the upper bound of what cannabis use I’d consider trying”.
I was tempted to point out the reasons to doubt the study, but I decided it’s hardly news to say that cannabis impairs short-term memory (which ought to lower IQ) over some nonobvious time period, so the conclusion ought to be taken seriously even if the study is weak. In hindsight, it would have been more interesting to discuss the strength of the study’s evidence.
I was one of the people who used the number 4 IQ points at the meeting, but we were all answering slightly different questions. Since I haven’t used cannabis in a long time and didn’t expect to use it regardless of the study, what I answered was more like “a 4 point IQ drop would significantly lower the upper bound of what cannabis use I’d consider trying”.
I was tempted to point out the reasons to doubt the study, but I decided it’s hardly news to say that cannabis impairs short-term memory (which ought to lower IQ) over some nonobvious time period, so the conclusion ought to be taken seriously even if the study is weak. In hindsight, it would have been more interesting to discuss the strength of the study’s evidence.