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Pot Smokers Might Not Turn Into Dopes After All

Posted by Soulskill on from the i-see-what-you-did-there dept.

ananyo writes "Back in August last year, we discussed a study reportedly showing heavy marijuana use in teenagers had been linked to a decline in IQ in later life. Now, a new analysis suggests that the study may have been flawed. Using the same data, the researchers found that they could explain the IQ drop by properly accounting for socioeconomic factors — such as individuals from poorer backgrounds being more likely to smoke cannabis as well as having reduced access to schooling."

11 of 332 comments (clear)

  1. lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I realized this when i met someone who had smoked for about 2 years. He was border line retarded. Then I met someone else who had been smoking since he was 14, and he was an engineer. Different strokes for different folks. Dont blame the drugs.

    1. Re:lol by tool462 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      In my experience (which is extensive), the theoretical physicists smoke a LOT more pot than the engineers.
      The genesis of the membrane extension of string theory came about in the mid-90s due to a late night bake-out and some Cypress Hill. Who else would come up with an 11 dimension "solution" to the problem of string theory?

    2. Re:lol by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 4, Interesting

      LSD. Honestly, all this time I thought that was LSD talking.

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    3. Re:lol by Xtifr · · Score: 4, Interesting

      In my experience LSD makes you THINK you are having great epiphanies but if you actually record yourself or write them down they aren't very wondrous and usually not even coherent in the morning.

      Generally true, but back in late seventies or early eighties, I actually designed and implemented a debugging tool while tripping balls. It was in use throughout the company within a week. It actually came to me in a vision. :)

      Of course, when it comes to psychedelics, "You Mileage May Vary" has never been more true. There seem to be no consistent effects from person to person. Even dilated pupils turn out not to be universal (although it's the closest that's been found). Just because I was (at least once) able to direct my hallucinations in a useful direction doesn't mean someone else will.

  2. What about the other way around? by parallel_prankster · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How about whether high IQ folks are more likely to smoke pot or dumb ones? That would also be an interesting study. Does pot smoking have enough of a stigma attached to it that people who are considered "smarter" are less likely to smoke it. Also, how does it compare with alcohol ? I did not read TFA btw!

    1. Re:What about the other way around? by Splab · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I have an IQ between 128 and 140 depending on the test. I smoke pot from time to time. I'm part owner of a company and work full time as a consultant.

      I have never suffered from loss of memory from smoking pot, I have only once experienced "the munchies", I have never lost control while being high. Drinking alcohol however, I've experienced massive blackouts, I've lost entire evenings in the haze of strong booze, I've woken up in my own bed, only to wonder how the fuck I got home. I have experienced hangovers lasting more than a day with exhaustion lasting a week. Pot on the other hand last for a couple of hours and leaves my body in a relaxed state for up to a week.

      In the circles I move, I meet a lot of the higher echelons of our society and a lot of them smoke weed or do harder drugs.

      Does this prove anything? Heck no. I doubt there will be any useful data, until experiments are run under proper control. Data based on peoples own perception will be flawed.

  3. And .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You realized that there wasn't a statistically significant correlation based on a sample size of two?
    What have you been smoking?

    And most people will focus on the person in the above stories that confirm their bias.

    Like pot? Then it'll make you an engineer!

    Hate drugs? Then it makes you a retard!

    My doctor likes to point out that many of these studies aren't randomized controled trials - RCT - because it's a bitch to do any study on "recreational" drugs in the US because of our Puritanical laws and this whole "War on Drugs" horseshit.

    Of course, there aren't any studies of whether smoking pot causes the same instances of emphysema, cancer, and other diseases that can happen from smoking anything.

    Yeah, yeah, yeah, there was a study years ago (not RCT either) that showed that there may be a link with smoking pot and slowing tumor growth.

    It hasn't been repeated as far as I know so the results haven't been verfied.

    Anyway, there are plenty of folks out there in the internet peanut gallery that cling to that one study and came to the conclusion that pot stops cancer.

    Oy!

    1. Re:And .... by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Given the massive quantities one can produce on the back 40 of even one farm cannabis should be sold by the pound right next to flour.

      And that's a big problem to forces that block it's legalization. 'They' want to control it yet unlike Tobacco, for instance, it's really easy to grow at least baseline quality pot that will get you stoned. Which makes it difficult to regulate and tax. Similar problems with Alcohol emerged which led to things like the Gin Tax in the 19th century.

      It's too easy to find chemical vices that satisfy and demotivate, I guess.

    2. Re:And .... by dryeo · · Score: 3, Interesting

      How long before store bought pot also has 600 or so additives? I'd guess at that point pot induced lung cancer will go up just as it did with tobacco.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
  4. The Answer by segedunum · · Score: 1, Interesting

    ....individuals from poorer backgrounds being more likely to smoke cannabis as well as having reduced access to schooling.

    There you have your answer about cannabis and drugs in general.

  5. Re:In my experience, yes it does by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'll take your anecdote about your friend, and respond with my anecdote about how it has saved my life. Between my intense migraines that I suffered from for 20 years with no pharmacological relief, and my severe depression, I'm positive that I would have killed myself without it. It eases the depression and goes a long way to reduce the occurrence and intensity of my headaches.

    Somehow your friend sounds like he had other problems that the weed just compounded. I'm sorry for him, but your anger is misplaced.