Tune in, turn on...and I forget the rest

Sure, we're getting older, and the occasional fumble-mouthed moment in search of the right word is to be expected. Some overindulgent baby boomers, however, may find that their short-term memory is slipping away much faster than it should. If you picked up the marijuana habit in your youth--and never put it down--you'd better read on before your mind drops out.

Researchers studied brain function, specifically the ability to learn, retain, and retrieve new information, in nearly 150 adults. Over 100 of these subjects regularly inhaled, and we're not talking tobacco. The other folks smoked nothing illegal at all. Compared to the abstinent, long-term users, averaging 24 years of illicit highs, performed significantly worse on all tests. Shorter-term users, smoking 10 years or less, performed quite normally on most mental tasks. Along with the long-term users, however, they displayed a distorted sense of time passing as they puzzled over a problem.

If you want to remember your engagements, and arrive there on time, best stub out the joints.