Residents of the state of Colorado are realizing that legalizing marijuana is opening a whole new can of worms when it comes to public safety. Just last November, the state voted to make the drug legal for consumption.

It is still illegal to drive while under the influence of marijuana in Colorado, but prosecutors must prove impairment in every case. A bill that would set a legal limit for the amount of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, allowed in a motorist’s bloodstream cleared its first hurdle and passed unanimously in the Colorado House Judiciary Committee in February 2013.

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Memory is the general term used to describe the ability to store information about people, facts and events, and then recall that information at a later point in time. In order to make memories, the brain relies on lasting connections between nerve cells called neurons. The active ingredient in marijuana, called tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), can disrupt the neuron connections required to form short-term memories.  However, much of this disruptive ability is unrelated to THC’s direct effects on neurons; instead, it comes from THC’s effects on other cells in the brain called astrocytes, which play a supporting role in several key aspects of brain health.

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