Contrary to popular belief, marijuana doesn’t make you stupid

We all know the way marijuana works in pieces of fiction. A single hit from a bong is enough to make a person giggle uncontrollably or lose all inhibition. Even the blockbuster action flick Transformers 2 showed people going from regular to loony in the span of a minute after eating a space cake. Whether hilarious or not, pop culture more often than not portrays potheads as lazy, unemployed and dumb.

The idea that smoking marijuana makes one stupid seemed to be accepted in real life as well, until Robert Tait looked at the long-term cognitive effects of marijuana. His study at the Australian National University involved almost 2000 subjects between the ages of 20 and 24. The study was performed over the course of 8 years and sought to test the scores in intelligence, working memory and verbal memory between smokers and non-smokers.

Tait discovered that there were no significant differences between the test groups, as long as he accounted for the generally higher male population. Smoking marijuana did not have a measurable impact on cognitive abilities.

Another study actually scientifically proves what real potheads already know; cannabis can be used as a creative fuel, increasing the powers of imagination. It allows what the study calls ‘hyper-priming’ which is the connection of distant concepts, a kind of mental leap.

The summary conclusion when putting these studies together: heavy use of marijuana does not take away IQ points. There are temporary side-effects but they don’t extend to the long term. Heavy alcohol use can actually be considered to have far more damaging effects.

You can read the full article here: Wired: Does Marijuana Make You Stupid?

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Commenti

Vagabond Inconnu - 2011-09-16 12:24:51

Haha, this is a great news ! Alcohol is legal all over the world, but Marijuana is still forbidden. Even if you you use it making tea. Thanks to Robert Tait !

Tarzan - 2011-09-16 23:01:49

+10

Of course it doesnt.Stay away from alcohol man...

Tint93 - 2011-09-18 20:33:52

Agree with Tarzan! Alcohol is a very bad drug! i'd rather smoke some weed =)

blub... - 2011-09-19 17:18:16

true true

azarius the lia - 2011-09-20 02:00:56

-4

Azarius deletes posts if these are not similar to theires ! Freedom ....piece out.

{Azarius: Sorry if we deleted your post by mistake. We deleted posts we consider spam or ones that don't follow general etiquette (swearing, trolling etc). We don't delete opinions :) }

Truth - 2011-09-20 16:52:24

That's the whole reason why it's illegal...

scientist - 2011-09-21 02:50:04

-4

Possibly, when THC works in the brain, there is an increase in intelligence. when the effect run down, intelligence decrease. Smoking is damaging the lungs! Smoking cannabis increases the chance for pneumothorax. Little rupture which lead to partly collapsing of the lung. 1 joint with 0.3 gr cannabis can be compared as 5 of the same joints but with only tabaco.

scientist - 2011-09-21 02:54:22

-2

When smoking cannabis on the long term you should consider the negative effects like pneumothorax. Cannabis stimulates the dopamine system which possibly results for a subconcious drive which leads to increasing the dose over the long term.

scientist - 2011-09-21 02:59:11

vaporizing is more than 10 times healthier than smoking, so I think it's no problem to find a healthy dose for vaporizing, but when smoking I recommand not more than 1 joint in a day.

Truth - 2011-09-21 12:45:21

@ scientist: All I'm reading is speculation and theory. I don't believe in science as being rock-hard truth. Science is a myth, a model, a trend, just like fashion. It's "facts", views and beliefs are subject to change over time. It's not different from say the dominant Christian model we've had in the West up until the 19th century. This so called Ceramic Model, where "God" was the ultimate architect of the Universe, has become "out of fashion" for most people nowadays, hasn't it? Just like that model, so will our current scientific views become "out of fashion" over time. Scientists have taken over the role of the priests and science is our current major belief system.
Now from my own experience I can say that the longer I've been smoking, the smaller the dose and the more uneven the frequency has become. I smoke pure and that's the whole key. You need to cut the highly poisonous and addictive tobacco out and then you're left with a non-addictive substance.
Ofcourse, people looking for a way to get away from their "problems", emotions or themselves will always find something to use in an addictive way. Hell, even food can be used addictively in this sense. And what about the air quality in our major cities? Surely that can't be beneficial to our lungs?
Living implies dying, it's 2 sides of the same coin. We don't want to be eternally preserved as perfect wax figures, now do we? However science has obviously made this a definite goal of it's practice...

Dinges - 2011-09-21 15:43:54

@ Truth
While I agree that even science is subject to trends and propaganda, in essence science is nothing more than chasing facts, and you can't argue with facts. Facts don't change, god wasn't a fact back then, and it isnt now. Tobacco being unhealthy is a fact, and it'll still be unhealthy in 200 years no matter what people want to believe.
Fact is, it's not healthy to smoke, we all just need to accept that and come to peace with that instead of trying to speculate our way around it. I smoke about 6 joints a day (with tobacco), you'll never hear me say that's healthy, but I don't have a problem with it. I'm not trying to justify my use with speculation.

blub... - 2011-09-21 22:26:03

^this is not a dumb discussion

Zenith - 2011-09-21 22:49:52

@ Truth and all the rest: yes a centimeter (consider it a metaphor for science in general) is something you cant just pick up, it is however a standard entity and it really doesnt matter wether its a centimeter or an inch or any other length (or mass or whatever) you may want to give a name... the point is that these standards allow us to make a chain of discoveries that is pretty similar to the chain of thoughts you may encounter while being on cannabis or really any other substance (dont call it drugs its so damn negative), once you understand this just imagine the endless possibilities due to the way we define all this ("science") and realize that because one person once said how long a centimeter was we are now stuck within this system unable to think of it any other way... long story short i believe in science and i think the empirical method is much more honest than previous beliefs (yes i also think science is somewhat of a religion) but most of all science is more powerful: you may be a fanatic muslim (just an example not pointing any fingers at all) but without science you wouldnt be running around with a kalasjnikov... like everything science can be abused and therefor its very dangerous as well, but in the end its just the next step towards actual knowledge and understanding, again not quite unsimilar to hyper priming... ah screw it this will take ages, just dont go doomthinking to much, enjoy life while it lasts (rather than making it last so you can grow old and not enjoy it as much anymore, but thats yet another discussion) and i hoped you enjoyed this rather fine example of hyper priming, sorry if you think i wasted your time

cas_09 - 2011-09-23 06:38:38

A centimeter is something you can't see, but you are aware of the estimated distance between the beginning and the ending of such a thing. That estimation is based on what you see. Something you see is based on the information that you are getting, and information can be altered.
Just because our system (our time-table, which is based on the rotation of earth, although not perfect) tells us now it's one A.M. and an hour later it's,2. A.M. that doesn't mean that on Jupiter one hour has passed as well (theory of relativity).
Time may not be universal, but it's shaped in our image of THIS cycle.
Thus, men can say that one centimeter here can be a solid piece of information, but there's no way that it HAS to be this way in a universal way of speaking?
That being said, all sience could be partially referred to as science fiction, if you'd ask me. It's based on facts which don't ALWAYS have to be true, thus cannot be Universal.

Abraracourcix - 2011-09-24 19:30:24

From this discussion, I think we can surmise that cannabis at least seems to make people care what is and is not 'true' in an extra-moral sense. This is more than can be said for society at large, where swallowing massive doses of ideological Kool-Aid unquestioned remains the way to go. Unfortunately, there is some truth in the stereotype of pot-smokers being easily led into turgid 'subjective vs. objective' debates w.r.t. science as supposedly being but a 'belief system', dragging in quantum physics, relativity, etc. While this may be more 'philosophical' a topic than Joe Square is capable of handling, don't kid yourself you have a Nobel Prize in store, either.