For many decades marijuana opponents would cling to the argument that smoking marijuana makes you stupid. These opponents would claim that marijuana use, by itself, would make an otherwise smart person an idiot. Marijuana opponents would completely disregard examples of very successful people that consumed marijuana, and try instead to use boogeyman tactics in order to scare people into thinking that marijuana significantly lowers the IQ of anyone that uses it.
Fortunately for intelligent marijuana consumers, science is on our side. In August of 2012 a study was released which claimed that marijuana use during teenage years, by itself, would result in a lowered IQ by middle age. I remember when this study was released because I wondered how it could be considered scientifically sound, considering how many things determine an IQ by the time a person is middle aged. A lot of things occur during the years between being a teenager and being middle aged that would affect how smart you are.
The brain is a lot like a muscle in that it needs to be exercised often, and in the right way, to ensure that it is performing optimally. If a person started out with a high IQ during their teenage years, yet did nothing to exercise their brain for decades, they obviously wouldn’t be as smart as if they had kept their brain fit during those same years. There are many things that can kill your brain cells during the adult years of your life, and they would all contribute to changes in your IQ level.
The data from the previously mentioned study was reviewed about a year ago, and the results of the review have been making their rounds on social media lately. The review found that the original study had ignored other contributing factors to a decline in IQ from teenage years and middle age years. According to the review:
“Mitch Earleywine, a psychologist at the University at Albany, State University of New York, says that Røgeberg’s analysis definitely supports the idea that links between adolescent cannabis use and drops in IQ are essentially spurious, arising from socioeconomic differences rather than any sort of pharmacological action.”
Did you start smoking marijuana during your teenage years? Are you middle aged now? How do you feel? Do you feel that you are not as smart as you used to be? If you are like me, you likely feel smarter now than you did when you were a teenager. I know there are some activities where consuming marijuana seems to enhance my IQ for those particular activities. I have always felt that marijuana tickles a part of my brain that doesn’t operate as well without marijuana, and that it’s the part of my brain that controls my creativity level. Anyone else feel the same? Below is one of my favorite memes that deals with marijuana and being smart/dumb:
