---
title: "New Research: Marijuana Can Lead to False Memory Formation"
description: "New research shows that marijuana use makes people more susceptible to believing a false memory, a troubling development for the legal system."
date: "2020-02-11"
modified: "2020-02-11"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/marijuana-false-memory-formation"
categories:
  - "Brain"
  - "Health & Medicine"
  - "Neuroscience and Brain"
tags:
  - "drugs"
  - "law"
  - "memory"
  - "neuroscience"
---

# New Research: Marijuana Can Lead to False Memory Formation

![New research shows that marijuana use makes people more susceptible to believing a false memory, a troubling development for the legal system.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/marijuana-false-memory-formation.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Image via NeedPix/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

It's a common trope of stoner comedies that smoking weed makes users forgetful — but now it turns out it can also make them "remember" things that never happened.

New research showed that people who vaped THC were more susceptible to developing false memories than those who didn't, *[Inverse](<https://www.inverse.com/mind-body/vape-study-reveals-link-marijuana-false-memories>)*[ reports](<https://www.inverse.com/mind-body/vape-study-reveals-link-marijuana-false-memories>). The finding is troubling, and not just from the existential angst of knowing one's [memories aren't perfect](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/memories-reconstructed-reverse-order>): Experts told *Inverse* that the phenomenon could lead to wrongful criminal convictions resulting from inaccurate eyewitness testimonies or confessions.

An international team of researchers, most affiliated with the Netherlands' Maastricht University, tested the impact of weed on 64 participants' memories. They found the participants experienced both spontaneous false memories and those that the [researchers actively suggested](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/zap-birds-brains-implant-memories>).

In other words, if a witness was high during whatever event they're being questioned about, they may believe — or become convinced — that things that never happened actually did.

As the [team's research paper](<https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/02/04/1920162117>), published Monday in the journal *PNAS*, reads, "the current study shows that intoxicated individuals might be at high risk to form all kinds of memory errors, which can be perilous in investigative interviewing settings."

"The next step for us is to investigate the effects of cannabis in a 'false confession' paradigm," lead researcher and Maastricht University psychopharmacology expert Lilian Kloft told *Inverse*. "False confessions are a major contributing cause to wrongful convictions and we cannot exclude that drug influence can magnify vulnerability for making a false confession."

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)