10 Facts You Need to Know About Angoorlata

Once she portrayed the character of Benazir Bhutto in Assamese Mobile Theatre and now she has won the election against a former minister. Here is ten facts you must know about the actress turned politician Angurlata Deka (Angoorlata).

1. Dance is Her Passion

Dance has always been her passion. At her young age Angoorlata was guided under Barnali Mahanta. At that time her only dream was to master at Kathak.

2. Her First Film Offer

One day in her dance class she met Chakrahar Deka, the director who was astonished with her performance and offer her “Prembhora Sokulu”. But her family environment was not such that they will allow to act in films.
Angoorlata was born in Nalbari.

3. The Turning Point

The Turing point was when Angoorlata met internationally acclaimed actor Seema Biswas. One day Seema Biwas came to her home and talked with her family. Angoorlata was greatly inspired by her, especially with the fact that despite being a small village girl, Seema Biwas got recognize internationally and also able to broke the stereotypes of society. Seema Biswas is also form Nalbari.

4. Angoorlata has been one of the most popular actresses of Assamese mobile theater for last 8 years.

In 2008, she portrayed the character of Benazir Bhutto in theatre and that was the starting. After than she did various short films (popularly known as VCD then) some feature films and many plays. For last eight years Angoorlata has been one off the most popular actresses of Assam.

5. Her Inspiration – Tapan Das

She adores Tapan Das, one the great actors. In an interview she said that after meeting Tapan Das, she discovered herself again. She also mentioned that the newcomers those are willing to take steps in the industry must visit him once.

6. Her Powerful performances in Assamese feature Films

Do you remember Chanda Mudoi’s Junda Emaan Gunda? Angoorlata was the lead actress on that film.

Watch the song Jilmil Bil Oi from Bakor Putek.

You can watch the full Assamese film Bakar Putek on Magical Assam

7. Life with Akaashdeep

She got married with Akaasheep, one of the finest actors of the Assamese entertainment industry. Now they live in Batadraba (Nagaon) form where she fought election and win this year.

8. Mobile Theater Performance

She has been associated with mobile theater for 8 years now where she portrayed various characters. Her every season was a hit. Take a look at the promotional music video of Akou Ein fom Hengool Theatre.

9. Her Entry to Politics

Her entry into politics was as normal as the other news like when other celebrities like Jatin Bora, Krishnamoni and Pobitra Margherrita. But getting a ticket for MLA and fight against a former minister was something that shocked everybody, but the story does not end here, she fight and she won.. she won the hearts of people as she did in her acting career.

10. Message from Angoorlata

AND at last here is a quote from her..

Film Review: Sarbjit

Once upon a time there was Sunny Deol's dhai kilo ka haath, which uprooted a hand pump to scare off the entire Pakistan Army. Today there is Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's index finger.

To be fair, Sarbjit is not the unrelenting screamfest that Gadar was, but Deol's film came to mind as the former Miss World held up her famous slender digit to intimidate an armed Pakistani security official. She did this right after delivering a loud speech to a Pakistani mob about how Pakistanis stab us Indians in the back while we bravely fight them face to face. As expected, the gun-bearing Pakistani meekly moves aside, and she proceeds to grandly walk past him as only Indian movie stars can when up against the dreaded dushman from across the border.

Sarbjit

Director: Omung Kumar

Cast: Randeep Hooda, Darshan Kumar, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Richa Chaddha

Rating: 1.5/5

   That Sarbjit favours emotional manipulation over restraint or logic is evident at several points, but one moment in particular stands out. After years of incarceration in a Pakistani jail, Sarbjit Singh is finally to be set free. We see him emerge smiling from behind the guards at the border and cross over to the Indian side. As his sister, Dalbir (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan), wife, Sukhpreet (Richa Chadha) and daughters rejoice, he kisses the ground. Then, without any noticeable change of perspective, we see a different person standing where he was. The Pakistanis have released another prisoner in his place, Sarbjit’s still in prison, and the scene we’ve witnessed is a lie.

Based on the life of Sarabjit Singh, a farmer who was wrongfully convicted in Pakistan and died after a fatal assault inside jail, the movie Sarbjit focuses on his sister Dalbir Kaur’s fight against the system to prove his innocence.

However, given the very real context of the plot, the movie is an almost fictitious, drum-beating melodramatic saga that suffers from an overly-worked-up lead actor.

Applause is due for Aishwarya Rai Bachchan who plays the struggling Dalbir. But, in the same breath, the 42-year-old actor doesn’t manage to bring alive the character. Her lip-twisting, chest-thumping and shouting does not help either. Instead, the melodrama alienates us from an otherwise evocative character.

The constant harping on Indo-Pak relations – mostly about the sympathy people should show for innocent people, but at times digressing to more political and subtle anti-Pakistani sentiments – loses the plot. Simple humane moments focusing on the struggles of a family that has lost a member to an unfair system would’ve taken the movie much further.

It’s a movie, so melodrama and fiction is all right, but it does take some doing if the audience is expected to identify with characters using phrases like ‘Khauf ki badboo’ or burning their own effigies. Or accept the Pakistani advocate who faces attack for supporting Sarbjit (played by Randeep Hooda) and decides to join the violent crowd protesting against him! Because, apparently nobody knows what he looks like.

Randeep as Sarabjit evokes pity and sympathy. He is sweet as the brother and brings a smile on our face when he is with his family. The movie would have been much better, had director Omung Kumar given Randeep a little more space. The few sequences where we do see him make us teary-eyed, but the movie quickly moves on.

One of the rare engaging scenes is where Sarbjit’s family goes to meet him in jail. The frisking of the women in his family is disturbing and also offers a moment where Aishwarya looks authentic in the movie.

Richa Chaddha, yet another talented actor wasted in this star-driven plot, leaves her mark as the silent wife who painfully waits for her husband.

'X-Men: Apocalypse' movie reviews

There are two kinds of superhero films being made right now. The ones with the dark, gritty and 'end of the world' themes, and the good ones.

With so much superhero content out in theaters it becomes more a monthly exercise and less a 'movie event' for a film buff to watch a film from the genre.

X-Men: Apocalypse
Director - Bryan Singer

Cast - James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Oscar Isaac

Rating - 2.5/5

X Men: Apocalypse is yet another dark and gritty superhero film with a villain proclaiming the end of the world, but thanks to Bryan Singer's direction and some unexpected horror themes it becomes a passably entertaining watch.

The long answer is that the rights to Quicksilver lie with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is why he’s referred to by his human name, Peter Maximoff, in this, an X-Men Universe film. The short answer, of course, is that no one in their right mind should care. I’m glad they featured him in some form, because Peter is responsible for the best sequence in the movie, in which time seemingly freezes as he zips around saving people from a collapsing building. It’s an expanded version of a similar scene from X-Men: Days of Future Past—not the only borrowed idea in the movie, but done with humour and some style.

Picking up a few years after the events of Days of the Future Past, X Men: Apocalypse is both the final installment of a trilogy and the first installment of a new trilogy. Singer has probably realized that audiences are kind of tired of seeing Xavier, Magneto, Mystique and Wolverine so there's a whole new set of young mutants in this film, with an unsubtle hint towards future films with the new kids on the block.

En Sabah Nur, an ageing, ancient Egyptian mutant (hinted to be the world's first mutant) indulges in a weird occult ceremony inside a pyramid. With the help of some chants and four other mutants his soul is to be transferred to a young body. Right before the transformation takes place the pyramid collapses and the mutant is buried underground, until someone awakens him in the modern world.

Hard boiled film buffs will realize that this is the exact same plot as The Mummy. The awakened Sabah Nur rebrands himself as Apocalypse and like the Mummy, vows to destroy the entire human civilization with mystic powers.

As long as the story of Apocalypse continues, the film is a riveting watch. Horror film fans will appreciate the body horror and surprising amount of gore and brutality in the film. This is a monster film, quite different in tone from the previous X Men movies, in a good way. Apocalypse's powers are insane and his presence, despite his crappy blue costume makes an impact. He turns some teenage mutants into ninja mutants by giving them greater powers. This guy has some serious amount of power and looks invincible.

The problems arise when we're taken away from Apocalypse and back to the rusty relationship between Xavier (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Fassbender). Once again there's Magneto dealing with contrived hate for humanity, Xavier once again unsuccessfully trying to persuade him to join the good side, and Mystique once again hogging unnecessary screen time because she's played by Jennifer Lawrence.

This story has been told five times before and going back for the sixth time is a real stretch, no matter how good the visual effects are. Both McAvoy and Fassbender are terrific actors, but you can't help but wish the film focused more on other superheroes in the X Men universe.

The younger set of mutants are a bit more interesting. It's nice to see Sophie Turner (aka Sansa Stark from Game of Thrones) as Jean Grey, Tye Sheridan as Cyclops and Kodi Smith as Nightcrawler. All three characters were given lousy screen time in the previous X Men films and it looks like they'll finally get their due in the future films.

Evan Peters as Quicksilver is once again the highlight of the film. If you enjoyed his slow motion Deus Ex Machina in the previous movie you'll be satisfied with an extended version of the same trope in this one. If the makers of X Men are smart enough, they'll put Deadpool and Quicksilver in the same film some day.

Salman Khan to tie the knot on December 27

After the pictures of Salman Khan and Iulia Vantur at Preity Zinta-Gene Goodenough's reception went viral, Salman's relatives and near and dear ones started sending him congratulatory messages at his home.

Salman Khan and Iulia Vantur might have not made it official, but speculations are rife that the Sultan actor is all set to get married to his rumoured girlfriend by the end of this year. Salman's entry with Iulia at Preity Zinta-Gene Goodenough's wedding reception sent the fans into a tizzy and further added fuel to the rumours.

After the pictures of them at the reception went viral, Salman's near and dear ones started sending him congratulatory messages at his home. According to a report in Pinkvilla, the Bajrangi Bhaijaan actor's house has been filled with bouquets and gifts and he is quite embarrassed about the attention he has been getting.

There were reports that Salman has also introduced Iulia to his close friends at Preity's reception including Shah Rukh Khan and Abhishek Bachchan. The rumours of them getting married first sparked when a blind item in Mumbai Mirror suggested that Salman's mother has not been keeping well and wants him to get settled by the end of this year.

And Iulia was also recently been spotted with Salma Khan at the airport taking care of her. Salman's relationship with Iulia has been the daily fodder for the gossip mills for quite some time now. But Salman has always remained tight-lipped about his relationship status all this while.

On the work front, Salman Khan will next be seen in Ali Abbas Zafar's Sultan. The film will hit the screens on Eid this year.

source : http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/salman-khan-iulia-vantur-marriage-is-salman-embarrassed-with-congratulatory-messages/1/670308.html

Punjab orders cow protection cess on cars, liquor

Punjab local bodies minister and Amritsar BJP MLA Anil Joshi ratified a landmark decision by municipal council... Read More

CHANDIGARH: Shoring up the saffron party's cattle protection programme, Punjab local bodies minister and Amritsar BJP MLA Anil Joshi on Wednesday ratified a landmark decision by municipal councils and corporations to introduce a cow cess on nine items in the state, including purchase of cars and two-wheelers. 

Approved in 2014, the cess was yet to be implemented in all 154 municipal councils and 10 corporations in the state. 

On Wednesday, the government asked 33 councils and corporations, barring Amrtisar, to issue a public notification regarding the imposition of cess by May 25. 

Two corporations -Bathinda and Mohali -have been collecting the cess since 2014. The rest of the municipal bodies have been told to complete the approval process by June 30. Out of the 10 corporations, Amitsar MC is yet to give its consent for this. Punjab local bodies minister Anil Joshi said, "Our aim is to creat more awareness about cattle protection and the menace. This money will be used for welfare and feed purchase for cattle."   

In MCD By-Election, BJP loses ground to Congress, AAP

The MCD by-elections were held on Sunday to fill 13 seats that had fallen vacant after councilors contested Delhi assembly polls and won. Aam Aadmi Party and Congress have gained some ground in the by-elections.

New Delhi: 

Highlights

1. AAP, making its civic poll debut, won five seats in the MCD by-polls
2. Congress won 4 of the 13 seats in Delhi's civic body by-polls
3. BJP, which dominated MCD, left with only 3 of the seats that voted

A day after exit polls predicted gloom for the Congress in state elections, it drew some cheer by wresting seats from the BJP in Delhi's powerful civic body MCD.

The Congress has won four of the 13 seats in the MCD or Municipal Corporation of Delhi for which by-elections were held on Sunday. An independent who won is also likely to join the party.

Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), making its civic poll debut, won five seats, which is disappointing for the party as it was hoping to replicate its assembly election success and win all 13.

The BJP, which dominates the 272-member civic body, has been left with only three of the seats that voted to fill vacancies after councilors contested and won the state election.

"MCD ruled by BJP-Cong. Outsider AAP wins max seats in by-election. Thnx Delhi for reaffirming faith. Ab MCD election mein sabhi seat jeetni hai (Need to win in MCD election too)," Mr Kejriwal tweeted.

His party, however, admitted that it was hoping for more. "We will discuss the results in detail with those who were contesting and analyse where we fell short," said AAP leader Dilip Pandey.

The BJP held seven of these seats and the rest were with independents.  BJP leader Vijay Goel was quoted as telling ANI: "I do not give much importance to these elections."

The MCD was trifurcated in 2012 and has been ruled by the BJP for nearly a decade.

The by-polls were seen as a test for all three parties ahead of the municipal polls due next year.

Exit polls on Monday after the final round of voting for state elections projected a grim outlook for the Congress. The poll of exit polls indicates that the party is set to lose Assam to the BJP and Kerala to the Left. Its only hope is in Tamil Nadu, where it has an alliance with the DMK, the party given the best chance of winning

Azhar movie review

If you go by the initial disclaimers (yes, there are several, filling the entire screen) you will know that what you are about to watch is a ‘kaalpanik chitra’ (imaginary film) which is based on the ‘vibhinna ghatnaon’ (many episodes) of the life of a disgraced captain of the Indian cricket team; that any resemblance to any real event is ‘matra ek sanyog’ (a mere coincidence), and that it doesn’t intend to ‘hurt’ any ‘sanstha’ (organization) or ‘corporate’.

Phew.

Why bother calling it ‘Azhar’ then? Why not Sachin or Ajay or Manoj or Ravi, or any of the other ‘imaginary’ players of the Indian cricket team, who were compatriots of the cricketer who faced a `life-time ban’ on the charges of match-fixing?

Using only first names as a dissembling tactic while referring to actual events and dates and places and times, is silly enough. Such is the extent of craven-ness on display that one of the most gripping cricketing stories of our time, featuring one of the most colourful captains of the Indian cricket team, is turned into a dull, dispirited tale.

‘Azhar’ was presumably made because it had such a controversial figure at its centre, arising out of the fixing-matches-for-money controversy itself, which had such a deep-seated impact on the game not just nationally but internationally.

You can also see that it’s been made to clear the real player’s name: a court did over-turn the ban but the whole process took so long that it became besides the point. The film remains strangely ambivalent about its hero while mouthing ‘seeti-maar’ dialogue about ‘desh’ and ‘qaum’: to have made the point the way it needed to be made, the film needed to have been braver and sharper. Alas, this bio-pic has no teeth. Oops, sorry, this ain’t no bio-pic, ‘coz, look momma, it names no names.

Not only is there a parade of Kapils and Sachins (no, gasp, Dev or Tendulkar), the eponymous hero is not, double gasp, Mohammad Azharduddin but `Azhar Mohd’ who just happens to be a Hyderabad lad, whose affections for a Bollywood starlet lead him to abandon his first wife, and whose accidental dealings with a bookie leads him into abyss.

Emraan Hashmi, usually so watchable, is buried under the inept script, which hints at shadowy dons and the guilty parties in a fuzzy, indistinct manner. But Hashmi is earnest, and the only saving grace here. Prachi Desai is rouged and demure and distressed, Nargis Fakhri as Sangeeta (not, never, Bijlani) is pouty, Lara Dutta as the lawyer for the cricket council (not, never, BCCI), is svelte but miscast, and Roy Kapur struggles with a bad wig and exaggerated accent.

This could have been a great cautionary tale about a great sport at a time when it was just becoming the arena it has grown into—full of big money and glamour, bigger endorsements and never-ending temptations: it is, instead, an inept ‘tamasha’, not very different from the stuff Bollywood churns out, the cricket just the superstructure for tired song-and-dance and melodrama, in living rooms and courtrooms.

Nope, this ‘Azhar’ doesn’t hit it out of the stadium.

Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Kunaal Roy Kapur, Prachi Desai, Nargis Fakhri, Lara Dutta, Kulbhushan Kharbanda

Director : Tony D’Souza

One and a half stars.

Delicious Sports Snacks Approved by Athletes and Scientists

You don't have to stock up on sports drinks and protein bars to power through a tough workout and refuel afterward. A lot of foods you have in your cupboard actually make great training fuel, and some of them are downright delicious. Read on for tasty foods and drinks that have been proven to help you go longer or faster—and get more out of your trip to the gym.

1. COFFEE

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Caffeine is known to give a boost to athletic performance, but caffeinated coffee in particular is a helpful source of energy for athletes, according to new research from the University of Georgia. Reviewing nine previous studies about coffee and endurance, researchers found that consuming 3 to 7 milligrams of caffeine from coffee per kilogram of body weight improves endurance performance by an average of 24 percent. (To give an idea of how much that is, the amount of caffeine in a cup can range from 75 to 200 mg.) All the more reason to let yourself have a cup—or a few—of joe before you hit the gym.

2. DARK CHOCOLATE  

Got a sweet tooth? Good news for you: According to a new study from Kingston University in England, eating a couple squares of dark chocolate daily was shown to up recreational cyclists' endurance. Study participants who nibbled on dark chocolate also covered 17 percent more distance in a time trial than those who didn’t. Researchers think the candy aids performance by making your body use oxygen more efficiently..

3. CHERRY JUICE  

  Provided by Mental Floss

Drinking some tart cherry juice every day can help you recover faster after a lengthy workout, according to a study in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports. Researchers found that amateur marathon runners who downed the juice for five days before and two days after a race showed less inflammation and bounced back faster afterward than those who didn’t.

4. ALMONDS 

 

Eating almonds for four weeks helped cyclists pedal a longer distance in a timed trial during a study published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. The nuts’ fatty acids help contribute energy during endurance training, say the researchers. They suggest eating almonds on a regular basis, not just on the day you’re going out for a long run or ride, as it’s key to have a store of the fatty acids preloaded for muscles to pull from.

5. BANANAS

The fruit is already a favorite of endurance athletes because it packs a mega dose of potassium. But they might provide a bigger training boost than runners, cyclists, and triathletes realized: Eating the fruit improves cyclists’ performance during a 75-kilometer ride as much as a sports drink does, according to recent research in PLOS One. Even better, say scientists, bananas have a healthier combination of sugars and provide athletes with antioxidants not found in sports drinks; they also have more fiber and vitamin B6 (which helps your body convert food to energy).

6. WATERMELON JUICE 

 

Downing half a liter of this refreshing drink prior to exercise led to a lower recovery heart rate and less muscle soreness the next day, a recent study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found. Researchers suggest that the fruit has an amino acid, L-citrulline, that has this muscle-repairing effect. Try sipping the juice an hour before you work out to get hydrated and avoid achiness later.

Nutritious recipes for growing children by Indian Chefs

Here are two recipes which will provide adequate nutrition to your growing child.

1. Tava Rice ( Growing Kids Recipe) by Chef Sandeep Kumar
Your little ones will surely love this dish as it is both colourful and yummy! and you will love it too, because it is quick to make and easy to serve.

Ingredients:
1 tbsp oil
1/2 cup finely chopped spring onions with the greens
2 tsp ginger-garlic (adrak-lehsun) paste
2 tsp ginger-garlic (adrak-lehsun) paste
1/4 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
1/4 cup thinly sliced capsicum
1/4 cup chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp fresh curds (dahi)
3/4 cup boiled rajma (kidney beans)
3 cups cooked rice (chawal)
salt to taste
2 tbsp chopped coriander (dhania) for the garnish
Steps:
Heat the oil in a non-stick pan, add the spring onions and sauté for 1 minute.
Add the ginger-garlic paste and sauté again for a few seconds.
Add the chilli powder, turmeric powder, capsicum, tomatoes and curds and cook for 5 minutes while stirring continuously.
Add the rajma, rice and salt.
Mix well and cook for another minute.
Serve hot garnished with coriander.

2. Beetroot Halwa on Saffron Toast by Chef Saransh Goila 
Unusual yet tasty. Beetroot is not a common favourite, though this halwa will change your perception!
Ingredients for Halwa:
500 grams Beetroot, peeled and grated
3 cups milk ½ cup Khoya / Dried whole milk solids
½ cup sugar
2 tablespoons ghee (Clarified butter)
1/2 tsp cardamom (elaichi) powder
4 drops rose water / essence
Ingredients for Rabdi:
100 grams Readymade Rabdi
10 strands Saffron
3 teaspoons milk
Ingredients for Chocolate Almonds:
100 grams White Chocolate 10 pcs.
Almonds: 10 nos.
10 pcs. Cashewnuts
Ingredients for Toast:
10 pcs. Bread slices
2 tablespoons Ghee/Clarified Butter
2 tablespoons Sugar
Steps for Halwa:
Heat 1 tbsp ghee in a pan, Add the beetroot to the pan and saute on medium flame for 8 – 10 minutes.
Once it is tender, add the hot milk and keep stirring till it reduces and becomes thick.
Add the sugar, mix well and cook, till it reduces.
Add the khoya, 1 tbsp ghee and cardamom powder and mix well.
When the halwa is cooked and becomes thick, add the rose water and mix well and keep aside.
Step to make Rabdi:
Now in 3tsp warm milk mix saffron strands. After 5 minutes add Rabdi to this saffron milk and simmer for 2 mins. Rabdi will get a beautiful saffron colour.
Step to make Chocolate Almonds:
Melt chocolate on a double boiler. As soon as it melts add cashewnuts and almonds to it. On a greased tray place these chocolate coated almonds one by one.
Keep it inside the fridge for 5 – 7 mins or until the coating has set.
Step to make Toast:
Cut bread slices into bite sized round/ square shapes.
Heat 2 tbsp ghee in a pan and add 2 tbsp sugar to it. Once it’s hot and sugar starts to melt.
Start cooking the bread slices until they’re golden brown from both sides.
Assemble the dessert, spread saffron rabdi on toast, place beetroot halwa quenelle on top of it and garnish with chocolate almonds.

Does Marijuana Make You Stupid?

The stereotype of an avid marijuana smoker is not flattering: slow, unmotivated, a little bit dulled by all that weed. But the science to back up this stereotype is far from clear.

Research is mixed as to whether marijuana causes declines in intelligence and functioning over time. Animal studies and some brain scans in humans provide reason for concern: Marijuana is psychoactive, and may cause structural brain changes. In people, weed's cognitive effects seem to last at least several weeks after use, long after the person stops feeling intoxicated. But only a few studies have revealed insight into whether pot lowers IQ in the long term, and those studies have returned conflicting results.

Hazy research

The recreational use of marijuana is now legal in four states (Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington) and the District of Columbia. Many other states have decriminalized the drug, and some also allow the use of medical marijuana. And a 2013 Gallup poll found that 58 percent of Americans support marijuana legalization, up from a mere 12 percent in 1969. In other words, the drug has never been more mainstream.

Despite the loosened regulations, however, marijuana research has lagged. Much of the reason has to do with the difficulty of getting marijuana for study, said Nick Jackson, a statistician at the University of Southern California and a co-author of one of the few longitudinal studies (which follow people over time) on marijuana use. In fact, there has been about three times more animal research on cocaine than on marijuana.

"You didn't need to jump through the same number of hoops to get cocaine to test on your animals as you do to get marijuana," Jackson told Live Science. The National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Drug Enforcement Administration contract with only one lab (at the University of Mississippi) to make marijuana available to researchers.

The Food and Drug Administration recently relaxed its rules for approving marijuana research, Jackson said. "Things are changing slowly but surely," he told Live Science. "But our research in this area is far behind where it needs to be." [The Drug Talk: 7 New Tips for Today's Parents]

That's why the answer to the question, "Does pot make people stupid?" is more complicated than it might seem.

Animal studies suggest that pot is not necessarily great for the brain. Rats exposed to marijuana's active ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), experience brain changes and cognitive impairment. And short-term studies with human subjects clearly point to impacts on memory, learning and attention even once a user has sobered up. One 1996 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, for example, found that daily marijuana users did more poorly on tests of attention and executive function (such as planning and self-control) than people who'd smoked pot only once the month before, even though both groups abstained for at least 19 hours before the testing. The drug's effects may persist at least 20 days after smoking, according to a 2011 review on the topic.

But the burning question is whether pot hurts the brain in the long run. Does smoking the occasional joint as a teenager mess up your cognitive abilities for life? What if you pick up a pot habit as an adult, after the brain has completed its adolescent growth spurt? Does the dose make a difference?

Here, the answers are a lot fuzzier. Brain-scan studies in humans suggest that pot may be linked to anatomical brain changes, such as shrinking of the amygdala, a brain region that processes emotion, reward and fear. In some people with genetic vulnerability, such brain changes might be enough to tip someone into schizophrenia, which is more common in people who have used marijuana. However, the genes in question may lead people to smoke more pot and to be more prone to schizophrenia, rather than directly causing the link between pot and psychosis.

And that's the problem with trying to tease out pot's effects: People who use the drug are likely different from people who don't. Thus, studies comparing smokers with nonsmokers at a moment in time are of limited use: Maybe pot caused the cognitive effects you might find, or maybe some other factor explains the difference.

Looking long-term

To truly tease out the effect of marijuana alone, researchers have to follow people over time, ideally gathering information about their cognition and intelligence before they began using pot. Only a handful of studies have done this so far.

The first, published in the journal Neurotoxicology and Teratology in 2005, found that being a current regular user of marijuana led to deficits in memory, IQ, processing speed and memory, but people who had used the drug in the past but had since stopped did not show long-term effects three months after quitting. However, that study followed 113 teenagers who used marijuana for an average of only two years.

A bigger, longer-term study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in August 2012, did not bode well for pot connoisseurs. Researchers followed 1,037 New Zealanders from birth to age 38, assessing their cognitive function at age 13 (before any participants had started using cannabis) and again at age 38. Participants reported their cannabis use at age 18, 21, 26, 32 and 38, giving researchers an opportunity to determine whether cognitive effects differed depending on when a person started using marijuana and how long he or she continued to use it.

That study found global declines in cognition, including an average drop in IQ of about 6 points in people who had used marijuana. The biggest effects were seen in persistent users — people who reported having consumed marijuana in at least three interviews between the ages of 18 and 38. Notably, the deficits were not found in people who started using marijuana as adults, but were strong in people who took up the habit as teens. The researchers also had participants' close friends or family members fill out questionnaires on the participants' daily functioning, and found that those who had used marijuana were worse off than those who had not.

"Marijuana is not harmless, particularly for adolescents," study researcher Madeline Meier, now a psychology professor at Arizona State University, concluded in a statement sent to Live Science. [10 Facts Every Parent Should Know About Their Teen's Brain]

Not all of the longitudinal data agrees, however. For a study published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology in January 2016, researchers followed 2,235 British teenagers, about a quarter of whom had tried pot at least once by age 15. The researchers found no link between cumulative marijuana exposure at age 15 and IQ or educational performance at age 16.

The study was based on a short time frame, but even longer-lasting investigations returned conflicting results. In February 2016, researchers published the results of a study following marijuana users and nonusers into middle age. They analyzed the verbal memory, processing speed and executive function (planning abilities and self-control) in 3,385 participants in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study. About 84 percent (2,852) had used marijuana at some point, but only 11 percent (392) had used it in middle age. The study showed that after the researchers accounted for other factors that could have affected the results, such as other drug use and demographics, cumulative pot use was linked to worse verbal memory. For every five years of marijuana use, a person would remember one less word, on average, from a list of 15 they were asked to memorize. However, no declines in executive function or processing speed were found.

Turning to twins

Although all of these studies controlled for factors that might influence cognition — demographics, other drug use, education — those statistics aren't an exact science. Jackson, along with University of Minnesota Twin Cities researcher Joshua Isen, came up with a way to control the comparison.

The researchers were working with two data sets of more than 3,000 identical twins, meaning they had the same genetic makeup and the same home environment. The pairs of twins had undergone intelligence testing between the ages of 9 and 12 (before using marijuana), and between the ages of 17 and 20 (after some had started using the drug). By comparing marijuana users with their non-using twins, the researchers were able to control for the home and environmental factors that aren't necessarily captured in traditional statistical adjustments.

The analysis revealed that, overall, marijuana users were indeed cognitively worse off than nonusers in late adolescence. But the users were also worse off before they started using pot. And when researchers compared the pot users to their own non-using twins, they found that the sibling pairs ended up in the same place, cognitively speaking. Thus, it wasn't the pot use that was causing the differences between the group of pot users and non-users. It was some unexplored factor that affected both twins, whether they smoked pot or not.

"We believe that what we're looking at has something to do with the common environment that these twins share, something about their family environment or peer environment or school environment," Jackson said.

That does not mean that marijuana is harmless, Jackson said. Animal studies do show physiological effects of the drug, and it's likely that something similar is going on in the human brain. But it's not clear how strong the effects are, he said — if an animal exposed to pot runs a maze a few seconds more slowly, how does that translate to points on the human intelligence scale?

Jackson and Isen's research, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academyof Science in February 2016, suggests that whatever marijuana's impacts are, they're dwarfed by the environmental factors that caused the pot use in the first place. Jackson said he suspects the results conflict with the 2012 study in New Zealand because in that study, researchers were following heavier users over the longer term, so the results reflect the problems those users had in childhood rather than problems caused by the pot use itself.

"I think the real question ends up being for kids, 'Should I be more concerned about how marijuana is affecting their brain, or should I be more concerned about what are the things that have led that person to seek refuge in marijuana?'" Jackson said. "What is going on in that 14-year-old's home life?"

Nevertheless, the research in this area is too nascent to draw firm conclusions about whether marijuana use is safe over time, all other things being equal. The National Institutes of Health announced last year that it is launching a longitudinal study of 10,000 children to track the effects of substance abuse, including marijuana exposure, over time. The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study will use neuropsychological testing, as well as brain imaging, to delve into these questions.

The answers are likely to be complicated by ever-changeable factors, such as the strength of marijuana being cultivated, Jackson said. Modern weed has been bred to be higher in THC than strains smoked in previous decades, and those concentrations could matter to the brain.

"I think it's going to be a very long time until we know,"Sandeep said.