How it really is never too late to stop: Snoop Dogg quitting smoking at 52 can expect a higher IQ and better memory

Rap megastar Snoop Dogg, a long time marijuana devotee, shocked the public with his announcement that he would be quitting smoking the drug. 

Snoop, rumored to have a dedicated member of his team roll between 75 and 150 joints for him per day, posted he was giving up smoking after discussions with his family.

His love for the drug has translated to a variety of business ventures including a media company and a venture capital firm that funds cannabis startups. 

Giving up smoking, particularly after decades of continuous use as in Snoop’s case, has a range of promising health benefits, including increased energy and ability to focus, better memory and higher IQ, and healthier respiratory and cardiovascular systems. 

Whether Snoop also gives up marijuana consumed in other forms, such as edibles and vapes, remains unknown but doing so will likely cause withdrawal symptoms including anxiety, irritability and restlessness. 

‘I’m giving up smoke,’ the rapper – born Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr – claimed in a social media post.

It continued: ‘After much consideration with my family, I’ve decided to give up smoke. Please respect my privacy at this time.’ 

The public was skeptical though, questioning whether he was serious and would stick to the resolution or if it was serious to begin with.  

Snoop has said in the past marijuana boosts his creativity to help him churn out award-winning music. But his level of constant use comes with some major costs to his health. 

Smoking involves breathing in a medley of toxins and chemicals. Smoke from marijuana has even been shown to contain some of the same toxins, irritants and carcinogens as tobacco smoke. 

Because marijuana smokers tend to inhale more strongly and hold the smoke for longer, it leads to greater exposure per breath to chemicals.  

A 2013 report in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society showed because smoke causes ‘visible and microscopic injury’ to the lungs, there is a consistently higher risk of developing chronic bronchitis.                

Another study published in the Expert Review of Respiratory Medicine in 2011 reported chronic marijuana use damages the cells that line the large airways, which researchers believe might explain why smoking can cause chronic cough, phlegm production, wheezing, and severe bronchitis. 

And in 2015, researchers reported in the European Respiratory Journal the symptoms most strongly associated with cannabis were cough and a build up of phlegm. 

These two symptoms also showed the greatest decline among people who quit frequent smoking. 

Those who had stopped using cannabis frequently did not have a higher prevalence of cough or phlegm than nonusers, whereas frequent cannabis use was associated with an increase in these symptoms

Only one study has looked at the the impact of changing cannabis use and repairing the damage done to the pulmonary system. 

That study, conducted by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles’ David Geffen School of Medicine, reported symptoms of bronchitis improved after a person quit smoking.

Speaking to DailyMail.com in March, Snoop said his personal use was scrutinized after eldest child Cordé became a father to son Zion in 2015.

‘Being a grandfather has changed me in multiple ways,’ he said.

He added: ‘The main way is being concerned with how I live, how I move, the kind of people I’m associated with, because I want to see my grandkids grow old. The only way I can do that is to take precautionary steps as far as how I move, who I hang out with, where I go out, my intake, what am I intaking?’

Smoking weed, especially on an everyday basis, can also negatively impact cognitive function in the long-term and people may develop brain fog as well as learning and attention difficulties. 

Marijuana has also been shown to ‘impair cognitive functions on a number of levels—from basic motor coordination to more complex executive function tasks, such as the ability to plan, organize, solve problems, make decisions, remember, and control emotions and behavior’, according to a 2011 report in the Journal of Addiction Medicine. 

Meanwhile, a recent study in the American Journal of Psychiatry looked at more than 1,000 New Zealanders born in the 70s and followed to age 45 with their cannabis use assessed at ages 18, 21, 26, 32. 38, and 45. 

Researchers also took measures of their IQs during childhood and again at age 45. 

Long-term cannabis use was shown to cause a 5.5-point decline in people’s IQs, as well as poorer learning and processing speeds as well as memory problems. 

Whether that lost cognitive ability can be recovered remains in question. 

An Australian researcher said in 1995 results of a survey in long-term cannabis users ‘suggested a partial recovery of function but the past duration of cannabis use continued to have an adverse effect on the ability to effectively reject complex irrelevant information. 

‘There was no indication of improvement with increasing length of abstinence.’

A study from Massachusetts General Hospital in 2018 was more firm in its findings. 

Researchers there enrolled 88 participants ages 16 to 25 from the Boston area, all of whom acknowledged using cannabis at least once a week. 

Investigators compared weekly cognitive performance between a group of young users who agreed to stop smoking for 30 days and a group that continued to use cannabis.

Cognitive testing found memory — specifically the ability to learn and recall new information — improved in participants who stopped using cannabis, and this improvement occurred largely during the first week of abstinence.