Two Worcester medical experts who work with adolescent substance abusers are expressing appreciation for a study released last week by researchers from Northwestern University in Chicago and Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Boston, and published in the Journal of Neuroscience that found abnormalities in the brains of young adults who regularly smoked marijuana.

The study suggests that recreational marijuana use may lead to previously unidentified brain changes, highlighting the need for more research to understand the long-term effects of low to moderate marijuana use on the brain.

Dr. Edward Boyer, a toxicologist at the UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, said the study supported a clinical observation that had been made for a long time that adolescents into their 20s who smoke pot even moderately are at risk of "honest to goodness" consequences with neurocognitive development.

"Even if you don't like the doctor talk," he said, "it kind of proves what we've already known that if you smoke a lot of dope you wind up being a stoner."

Patrice M. Muchowski, vice president of clinical services at AdCare Hospital in Worcester, said she found it interesting that the study found some evidence of differences in adolescents who would not be identified as problem users.

Any time young people use substances that have impact on their brain, she added, "The concern is where is it going from there?"

Nearly three dozen medical marijuana facilities are set to open statewide this summer, and Ms. Muchowski said this is a concern for the substance abuse field because it will increase access, which will likely increase use.

Meanwhile, others assailed the study, which was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Counterdrug Technology Assessment Center, and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Dr. Joseph W. McSherry, a neurologist and University of Vermont professor, referred to it as "jibberish from NIDA."

Dr. McSherry said there's old research that shows London taxicab drivers have large map areas in their brains, while musicians have unusually large areas around their finger motor cortex, and this minimizes the marijuana study.

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Worcester doc: New study proves pot can make you a stoner