Short-Term Memory Loss is a Feature, Not a Bug

Everyone jokes about stoners forgetting things. It's the oldest cannabis stereotype in the book. Short-term memory loss—the classic "side effect."

But what if it's not a bug? What if it's a feature?

Dr. Bob had a radically different take on this. And once you hear it, you'll never think about memory the same way again.

The Case for Forgetting

"People make fun of short-term memory loss," Dr. Bob would say. "But you WANT to forget a lot of things! You don't want to remember everything. If you remember all the trauma in your life, you have PTSD."

Think about that. PTSD is essentially a failure to forget. The traumatic memory stays vivid, intrusive, present. The person can't move past it because they can't stop remembering it.

Healthy psychology requires forgetting. Not everything—but the right things. The painful things. The outdated things. The things that no longer serve you.

The Morris Water Maze

Dr. Bob loved citing the Morris Water Maze experiments. Here's what they found:

Normal mice learn where a hidden platform is in a pool of water. Then, when researchers move the platform, normal mice can forget the old location and learn the new one.

Mice without functional cannabinoid receptors? They can learn the first location just fine. But they can't forget it. When the platform moves, they keep swimming to the old spot. They're stuck with outdated information.

The endocannabinoid system isn't just involved in forming memories—it's essential for erasing them. For updating them. For letting go of what no longer applies.

What Forgetting Enables

"We need to forget as well as remember things," Dr. Bob explained. "And it's your cannabinoid system that's involved in that regulation."

Forgetting enables:

Updating beliefs. If you

can't forget your old beliefs, you can't adopt new ones. You stay stuck in outdated worldviews.

Releasing trauma. Healing from painful experiences requires the ability to let them fade. To stop reliving them constantly.

Learning new skills. Sometimes you have to unlearn before you can learn. Old habits have to fade before new ones can form.

Adapting to change. The world changes. If you can't forget how things used to be, you can't adapt to how they are.

The Personal Connection

Dr. Bob was characteristically honest about his own experience: "I have the world's worst short-term memory—it's always been that way. I think people with bad short-term memory like cannabis even more because it's compatible with how they think."

And then the insight: "You're not hardwired. If you're hardwired, you don't have creation—you're stuck."

People who remember everything perfectly are often rigid. They have trouble changing their minds, updating their views, letting go of the past. Their perfect memory becomes a prison.

People with "bad" short-term memory are often more creative, more flexible, more adaptable. They're not weighed down by every detail. They can see the big picture because they're not drowning in the small ones.

Reframing the "Side Effect"

So when someone jokes about cannabis causing short-term memory loss, remember: that's not a malfunction. That's the endocannabinoid system doing exactly what it evolved to do.

It's helping you forget what needs to be forgotten. Clearing out the mental clutter. Making room for new information, new experiences, new possibilities.

The ability to forget is the ability to change. The ability to change is the ability to grow. The ability to grow is the ability to live.

Short-term memory loss isn't a bug. It's a feature.

And it might be one of the most important features you have.