Study Says People With Higher IQ's Are More Likely To Use Cannabis

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A study conducted by the British Medical Journal found that individuals with higher IQs in childhood may be more likely to use cannabis by the age of 30. Researchers tested the IQs of approximately 8,000 men and women, four times each, between the ages of 5 and 30 and concluded that the higher the IQ, the more likely it was that the participants would eventually get high in the future.

Hmmm...interesting how this study blows the whole "stupid stoner" stereotype out the window and it's about damn time.

The British Cohort Study sought to examine lifetime drug use and its relationship to socioeconomic and educational factors.They ultimately found that IQ seemed to be inextricably linked to cannabis use, even more so than the appearance of mental disorders, social standing and family income levels. It turns out that women with high IQ scores were twice as likely to use cannabis as those with low IQ scores

So it seems that a person's IQ is the dominate determining factor in ones willingness to partake.

Researchers don’t know exactly why high IQs are linked with cannabis use, but the authors believe that people of high intelligence are “open to experiences” and are “keen on novelty and stimulation.”

Well look at that, smarter people tend to be more open minded to new experiences. If I can reasonably determine that the risk factors involved with any given action are acceptable then I'm willing to try almost anything once.

Cannabis use, in particular, could also be popular among people with high IQs because the plant itself simply isn’t harmful and can be seen as a way to enhance certain mental processes. The authors also believe that the boredom that many gifted children experience may be another reason why pot use is likely.

Totally relate to this and a person's first toke is often a gateway to critical thinking/asking questions instead of just accepting what the establishment tells you to think. A person's first time more often than not leads to a mindset of "hey this isn't so bad, all those commercials and DARE cops lied. This stuff is awesome!!"

I also understand the boredom angle as I often found myself bored with standard school curriculum. I would often skip class to go to the library and read books on subjects more to my liking. I still managed to keep my grades up enough to graduate on time. If I wasn't skipping to go to the library I was skipping school completely to go partake.

The authors began with the premise that individuals with lower IQs would be more prone to drug use as a way to cope with environmental or socioeconomic struggles. But after the study concluded, White said: “It rules out the argument that the only reason people take illegal drugs is to self-medicate.”

It’s counterintuitive. It’s not what we thought we would find.

Only if you believed the propaganda and BS revolving around this miraculous plant in the first place.

Isn't it just that most people unless they live in a dictatorship have tried weed by the time they're thirty?
I mean really?

A study conducted by the British Medical Journal found .... Researchers tested the IQs .... the more likely it was that the participants would eventually get high in the future.

Duh-huh. I went to high school once. A very good, expensive cosmopolitan one. The biggest deala-gangsta in the school was...one of our valedictorians, Ivy-League bound. Yeah. Smart kids were into weed and C20H25N3O. Still true forty years later ... this year's valedictorian of the local high school is just such a young lady, and a gangsta-mol.

originally posted by: Sillyolme
Isn't it just that most people unless they live in a dictatorship have tried weed by the time they're thirty?
I mean really?

Well in North Korea (which is a dictatorship of the highest degree) they are totally cool with the consumption of cannabis. I also would not say that is true, I believe more people are open minded about cannabis consumption than those that have actually tried it and furthermore stuck with it. Some people only ever did it to "be cool" or fit in to be social.

Anything, that for a little while, let's you step outside of yourself and the conditioning we're all raised with and see things from a different perspective is a good thing.

I'm not saying there's nothing to the study. My own experience with people who were partaking was that they were college educated. But that was just my crowd. I never put the two together.

a reply to: RainbowPhoenix

Obviously that's not the case with most dictatorships. But of course there are exceptions.

a reply to: RainbowPhoenix

From your linked article:

They also believe that highly intelligent people may also be prone to anxiety disorders and/or may not fit as well into their surrounding environment, which may factor into the desire to escape or relieve these tensions through pot use later on in adulthood.

Hopefully, these higher IQ people with anxiety disorders will do their research first because studies prove that high level CBD medical marijuana is what will be an effective treatment.

Certain medical marijuana strains with higher levels of CBD have proven to help treat anxiety disorders. The CBD produces therapeutic affects for patients and can also help patients with Crohn’s Disease or glaucoma. Animal studies suggest that CBD present in cannabis lessens anxiety and reduces the severity and frequency of seizures. According to a study published by the Institute of Psychiatry, CBD proved to offer great psychiatric potential, including uses as an antidepressant-like and anxiolytic-like compound. During the study, animals who had been given CBD experienced lower levels of anxiety and depression in a series of tests, such as swimming and puzzle mazes, than animals who had not been given CBD. Another study aimed to investigate the use of CBD for treating a social anxiety disorder. The study, published by the Department of Neurosciences and Behavior, Division of Psychiatry, found that CBD was associated with significantly decreased subjective anxiety. The study states that in the first session, subjects were given an oral does of CBD or placebo. Results suggested that CBD reduced anxiety in social anxiety disorder patients because it is related to CBD’s effects on activity in specific mood-altering brain areas. (PubMed)

www.anxietysocialnet.com...

originally posted by: Sillyolme
I'm not saying there's nothing to the study. My own experience with people who were partaking was that they were college educated. But that was just my crowd. I never put the two together.

College educated does not equal high IQ.

My experience is the people who used it went on to not graduate high school and now work at a gas station and still live with their parents.

a reply to: InTheLight

Hopefully, these higher IQ people with anxiety disorders will do their research first because studies prove that high level CBD medical marijuana is what will be an effective treatment.

In my experience people that are using for therapeutic/holistic purposes know whats what and aren't using that Mexican cartel grown dirt garbage. I mean really, who buys dirt these days?

a reply to: RainbowPhoenix

And the study started with that premise, that people did it to be cool or fit in. I would have thought the same.
In high school the druggies were mostly the underachievers.
But it seems that they were surprised when the results showed them something different.
I have a friend that lives on weed and he thinks he's the smartest kid on the block. Maybe he is...

Similar studies were done in the 1970's with the same results.

originally posted by: jjkenobi

originally posted by: Sillyolme
I'm not saying there's nothing to the study. My own experience with people who were partaking was that they were college educated. But that was just my crowd. I never put the two together.

College educated does not equal high IQ.

My experience is the people who used it went on to not graduate high school and now work at a gas station and still live with their parents.

My experience is the exact opposite. I dropped out of high school and enrolled in college and was working toward a degree while all my friends were still in high school.

Everyone in my circle of friends went on to do good things, and most still smoke. One graduated with a BS in Horticulture and now owns a large landscaping and horticultural company, another owns a chain of restaurants, and another owns a big woodworking company.

But then again, any personal experience is anecdotal..

originally posted by: jjkenobi

originally posted by: Sillyolme
I'm not saying there's nothing to the study. My own experience with people who were partaking was that they were college educated. But that was just my crowd. I never put the two together.

College educated does not equal high IQ.

My experience is the people who used it went on to not graduate high school and now work at a gas station and still live with their parents.

Well you seem to have a very limited scope of experience with the subject at hand and rely solely on your own anecdotal experiences to blanket policy a counter culture that you do not agree with let alone thoroughly understand.

a reply to: InTheLight

There certainly is more to that plant than originally believed.
It's not legal here in Virginia but some of my veteran friends self medicate because they've seen the studies. (Or so they claim lol )



Note to mods
Please if this post is in violation tell me and ill delete it. Don't send me packing...

a reply to: RainbowPhoenix

While I would be the first to recommend against over reliance on generalisation, I can well understand the conclusions of this report.

Put simply, people who are capable of higher reasoning and operating at a different level of aptitude to those around them, are more prone to significant stress than those who do not operate at that level. The reasons for this are many fold, but two which spring to mind extremely readily indeed, are the following:

First, those who have a higher aptitude and flexibility, where intelligence and its application are concerned, are more likely to be working in fields which force them into high pressure situations, where critical reasoning has to be applied and good conclusions reached, in a limited window of time. Although people of this sort are better suited to that pressure than many, it does mean that they have a harder time climbing their brain chemistry down, from that peak useage. The occasional toke therefore, may make that process somewhat less lengthy, permitting better sleep, or at least more of it, as well as other effects which are best appreciated, when one is operating at a higher than average mental level.

Second, people who have a higher than average intellect, are living in a world which is largely speaking being run by the second or third rate minds on the planet at best, and in the case of some superpowers, particularly in this period in history, by individuals who have all the wit of a frozen goldfish. Being five steps ahead of the pack may seem like an advantageous position, but when one constantly has to wait for everyone around one to catch up, it does not actually FEEL like much of an advantage, because one still relies for many things, upon everyone elses maximum processing speed, which is not always optimal. This means that processes which seem simple to one, can take days, weeks and months, despite being very, VERY easy, small matters. This is often a result of company policy which has been written by a moron, and punctuated by the sort of person who thinks that everything, including the insides of a battle tank, would be improved by the application of scatter cushions. Even worse, is when you happen to have a greater than normal reserve of intelligence and learning, and you are getting letters from a local council, which prove beyond doubt that not only did the sender lie to someone to get their job, but they cheated quite badly to attain their pass grades at school as well.

All these things lead up to frustration, and the greater ones intelligence, the greater ones ability to get from stimuli to conclusion, and the greater the wait one has to engage in between arriving at a conclusion, and having those around one reach that same conclusion, the greater the frustration. Again... I can WELL understand that an occasional toke may take the edge off the unavoidable frustrations and burnout that can sometimes affect intelligent persons, especially when they are constantly surrounded by people whose thought process seem to operate about as effectively and speedily as a man might march through a treacle filled bog.

a reply to: RainbowPhoenix

I knew I was cmart.

Having a high IQ doesn`t equal being smart so the stupid stoner label could still be applied to people with high IQ`s

how smart is it to use an illegal drug and risk getting a criminal record or even going to jail?

what good is their high IQ going to do them when they are working at McDonalds flipping burgers because nobody else will hire them due to having a criminal record for illegal drug use and possession?

I suppose they could move to California and get a job as a college professor,i hear California colleges aren`t very picky about who they hire,but a government job would be out of the question for a convicted drug offender.,no matter how high their IQ is.

a reply to: Tardacus

I think everyone that does not smoke pot is stupid.

a reply to: RainbowPhoenix

Damn effffffffing right! I'm a jenius and I smoke!

But in all seriousness, I do smoke, and I am a genius!