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Does weed really make you stupid ?

^^^ Haha! Out of the frying pan and into the dirty pan...

Yes, these ideas are hypotheses - aren't all ideas hypotheses? If you're asking whether my personal experiences back them up, yes they do. When I smoke weed I am more in tune with my body, more aware of its current state and it's relationship with my immediate environment - sort of an increased sensitivity to a lot of perceptions and their effect on my psychological state. Leary thought of this as a form of intelligence and I agree with him. So in a thread about weed and stupidity, I thought it was relevant. The discussion depends on the way you define stupidity/intelligence. If you define body awareness as a sort of intelligence, then weed does not make me stupid.

However, I have noticed that smoking weed makes me LESS capable in other forms of intelligence - I feel less able to physically defend myself, I am less motivated to successfully engage in emotional games, I am less able to use grammar properly, and I am more confused and inept about being a normal person in public (I.e., conforming to socio-sexual norms).

Having said that, being detached from those forms of intelligence while high has given me a chance to look at them from an outside perspective, and I think for that reason I am more creative and aware of those aspects of myself when I am NOT high - another reason why I think (occasional) use of weed makes me smarter, not more stupid.

Leary's model, like other psychological models, provided me with a useful framework for talking about my opinions (based on real experiences). I don't see anything wrong with that.

Also, when you call me undisciplined it kind of implies that I am NOT a disciple, which is sort of opposite to then claiming I don't think for myself. Which I do, by the way. A lot. And just because you seem to appreciate getting personal and dishing out unfounded advice: be nicer.
 
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To answer your first question. No they are not all hypothesis. A hypothesis can be tested. A theory is something that had been confirmed by outside tests and is an idea yet to be proven false.

Second question, I am not asking if your personal experience backs them up I am asking if they can be validated.

I hope the thoughts I put forward help you talk. Your interpretation could have been far different and shifted the conversation in an entirely different direction.
 
^^^ My interpretation could have been different, but it wasn't. Get over it. Yes, I influenced the conversation in a certain direction - it's called discussion. Get over it.

If you hadn't paid so much attention to the metaphors I was using, they would have gone by relatively unnoticed. You actually shifted the track of the conversation more than I did, due to an obvious personal beef you have with Leary.

My point is this: Those types of intelligence influenced by weed CAN be validated BY my personal experience. Which is the same claim most people make in threads such as this. In other words, get off my back or go create a thread about Leary - then you can tell the world why you think he's a crackpot.

FYI, as a psychology PhD candidate, yes I think his theories could be validated with a large sample, if research on certain drugs weren't banned. Hopefully someone might dedicate the time to do that soon in the changing political climate. But that's a discussion for another thread.

I gotta say, in some ways you HAVE helped me to talk, but probably not for the reasons you think.
 
Am I really stupid or are we in some kind of Marijuana for genius's thread. I'm not understanding many of these posts. The original thread was " Does Weed make you stupid? Seems pretty straight forward to me...don't know where or how we got onto these topics.
 
Spend 20k on weed double your money in a month, smart but risky investment. Editing, maybe not too smart at all.
 
Dude haven't you ever seen the 'Above the Influence' website or 'Reefer Madness'? They're the go to source when you want non-biased information about weed.
 
^^ haha

Wontblonk said:
Weed activates somatic body intelligence, which can be seen as laziness or stupidity from the perspective of Earthly concerns such as bio-survival, emotional games, semantic strictness, or socio-sexual norms. It takes practice to be able to transmit anything that could be seen as "smart" from the Zen state of weed intoxication. Emotional flatness is not entirely bad - dissociation is not the same thing as enlightened detachment.
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if i got you right and you said that weed makes you pay attention to other stuff, such as how your body feels and stuff, i agree 100% with you. when i'm very high, i feel overwhelmed by my bodily senses. the position of your feet, your muscles and how relaxed they are, your position, touching stuff, it's like you can feel every cell in your mouth. and while i'm sitting here being completely amazed by everything i touch i realize i'm just smiling sitting still in wtv class this is. it is like it takes your attention away from everything else... idk

also, on the topic of weed makes you stupid, in fact the days following some days of continuous weed use i DO feel kind of... forgetful... it feels like i lose all short-term memory... forget the fridge door open, forget what i was doing, take a spoon and then realize i had already took one 2 mins before, my writing i feel like a dyslexic and have to reread and edit a million times and so on... not saying weed indeed makes you stupid, but i do feel this way...
 
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Neurotic, does weed really make your writing worse? I actually smoke when I have to write papers for college because it helps me flow much easier in my writing and I can just write so much more. Also when I'm high, I notice that when I'm outside, I'm much more appreciative of nature, seems everything gets brighter.

I don't think weed in particular makes you stupid, though I do believe it effects short-term memory pretty dramatically. It's not to the extent that it causes any problems, but , I might be at work, start to do something, transition into another part of my work and forget what I started with.

I've met many people who smoke weed that are very intelligent, and ofcourse I've met the average 'stupid stoner' and I really just think it comes down to what you were before you smoked. Smart or Stupid, it's going to carry over.
 
neurotic said:
when i'm very high, i feel overwhelmed by my bodily senses. the position of your feet, your muscles and how relaxed they are, your position, touching stuff, it's like you can feel every cell in your mouth. and while i'm sitting here being completely amazed by everything i touch i realize i'm just smiling sitting still in wtv class this is. it is like it takes your attention away from everything else... idk
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Yeah. That's why it's good for yoga, which is all about making the mind more aware of the body and how it feels (and vice versa). For me, a weed high is also a really sharpened sensitivity to what I am seeing and hearing, the sensations are very powerful. When I am NOT high, I am less sensitive, and I wonder how much that is because the same impact is happening on an unconscious level. Either way, I consider being in tune with my body a form of intelligence - because giving the body "nicer" sensations in response to sensitivity seems smart to me.

neurotic said:
also, on the topic of weed makes you stupid, in fact the days following some days of continuous weed use i DO feel kind of... forgetful... it feels like i lose all short-term memory... forget the fridge door open, forget what i was doing, take a spoon and then realize i had already took one 2 mins before, my writing i feel like a dyslexic and have to reread and edit a million times and so on... not saying weed indeed makes you stupid, but i do feel this way...
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I know what you mean. Particularly in conversations I feel like I am missing a lot of content after a good high. My good friend summed it up nicely when he said he felt witless the next day. I wouldn't classify it as stupidity so much as exhaustion. My hunch is that it relates to a lack of quality sleep. For me, weed impacts sleep patterns away from what I am used to (e.g., less REM sleep, less dreaming), and this is unhealthy if prolonged. That's why when someone feels bad, counsellors ask them to stay away from drugs, mainly because they effect sleep patterns that the mind and body need to heal. I also feel witless with a hangover, or if I've simply been up all night often or had a loooooong day.
 
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Prelude2TragedyII said:
Neurotic, does weed really make your writing worse? I actually smoke when I have to write papers for college because it helps me flow much easier in my writing and I can just write so much more. Also when I'm high, I notice that when I'm outside, I'm much more appreciative of nature, seems everything gets brighter.
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i know it sounds weird, but i can't help but feel this way... may be it's all in my head though. i've always had this 'weed makes you stupid' shit shoved down my throat as a kid (not that i'm old). when i started smoking weed, my old group of friends were all like 'man weed makes you stupid i'm tellin ya, i've seen my older brother is all uncoordinated from years of smokin weed'... so yeah, if i smoke a lot of weed, afterwards i tend to look for signals of me getting stupid, but as i said, it's probably all in my head.

Wontblonk said:
I know what you mean. Particularly in conversations I feel like I am missing a lot of content after a good high. My good friend summed it up nicely when he said he felt witless the next day. I wouldn't classify it as stupidity so much as exhaustion. My hunch is that it relates to a lack of quality sleep. For me, weed impacts sleep patterns away from what I am used to (e.g., less REM sleep, less dreaming), and this is unhealthy if prolonged. That's why when someone feels bad, counsellors ask them to stay away from drugs, mainly because they effect sleep patterns that the mind and body need to heal. I also feel witless with a hangover, or if I've simply been up all night often or had a loooooong day.
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interesting thing about sleep patterns.

i do feel like i can't understand conversations or social situations at all WHILE high though... i always go like 'oh man what the hell! why is that dude walking down the street? should we walk down the street? man why are we sitting down? is that allowed?' and my friends go 'wtf man we're just chilling'...
 
for what its worth. I got a 4.0 in college as a physics and mathematics major. I was stoned about 80% of the time I spent studying/reading for my classes and stoned 100% of the time in class, I only took tests not stoned (although I had smoked earlier in the day sometimes on test days).

I would usually end up teaching and explaining things to many of my non-pot smoking goody goody nerd classmates. I don't know if weed made me "stupider than I would've been" had I not smoked it…but I highly doubt it….I think it actually made more more interested in learning. So, i don't think it made me stupid at all.

I think that most stupid people tend to also smoke weed…therefore there is a correlation there but absolutely no causation, just because most stupid individuals also choose to smoke weed, society assumes that those people got stupid bc they smoked weed, not the other way around.
 
LucidSDreamr said:
I think that most stupid people tend to also smoke weed…therefore there is a correlation there but absolutely no causation, just because most stupid individuals also choose to smoke weed, society assumes that those people got stupid bc they smoked weed, not the other way around.
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I think it won't itself make you any smarter or particularly dumber. It might clue you into a part of the mind you have not been using. Or it can likewise inspire a person, as losing a fight might inspire you to become stronger.

I think it can also be a tool, to ignore your problems with, or overlook certain details on your life, or derail your thoughts. Perhaps a flashlight in the pathway to stupidity. Again, whatever stupidity is.

I suspect other factors play a larger role and smoking weed does not deserve special precedence for deciding a person's fate.

In theory people develop different types of brains. A visual thinker for instance. These people are easily disturbed by body sensations and they may use the part of the visual brain, both of which hallucinogens such as marijuana effect.

Whereas another type of thinker who doesn't use that part of their brain may be able to ignore these effects pretty easily.

I dislike the label of weak vs strong minds. It may effect a right brained person with a brain chemistry vulnerable who is effected radically different from their counter-part. Weak minded implies this person is deficient in some way. They are just different.

My friend now has a really good memory said the same thing to me in regards to when he was smoking and passing classes years ago in school. No trouble getting A's.
 
i just perused about 4 pages of this. it's surprising how many people are very negative about marijuana on a forum that is all about drugs -marijuana surely being one of the more harmless drugs. yeah it has subtle negative effects with constant, long-term use, but what would you expect when constantly altering your brain chemistry? and yeah there are lots of dumb/strange people use it - it being one of the most popular drugs in the world and being particularly attractive to kids/lazy people/mavericks.

if weed really made you dumb in a serious, long-term way - i suspect we would all know about it, as it has been studied greatly in the context of constant demonization.

i agree with what others have said about it helping you see connections between things - i think that's why it's so popular with musicians. i suspect it helps you bring together the various components of music. it certainly also helps you see things differently, probably why lots of comedians use it.

i think one of the biggest problems with weed is that the negative effects are often so subtle, and the cost is often so low, that it makes it easy to convince yourself it's okay to do it constantly and eventually get addicted and experience problems from the addiction. of course it also can cause anxiety, temporary memory and cognitive problems, and other issues in the short term.

all that being said, i'll borrow from the common pothead rationale of 'it's natural so it's ok' - sobriety is the most natural state and probably ideal (with an occasional indulgence if you're life is stable/full enough to not need a void-filler.)
 
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I have smoked on and off for about 2 years now and I haven't felt any change in my memory or anything like that long term wise. I haven't tried writing a paper or doing any school work after smoking though. After I get blazed I do tend to lose concentration fast, can't remember what I was talking about a few minutes later after a conversation, and I usually forget where I put things. That's about it. Wait, I also eat like hell. If anyone knows anything about that. :D
 
weed hasnt seemed to make me stupider it just alters how your brain is working and thus the brain neurons are slag for wang ting tang boomerange fang the freak tard nubblet
 
Speed King said:
Absolutely not. If you are stupid to begin with, and you do not bother to understand how weed can help you, then for you, it is simply going to amplify your bad habits. Roam around the site and take a look at how it really works.
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My post at the time was simply directed at the lowest common denominator. Yes it amplifies many things. I think ignorant would have been a better answer.
 
To be honest from first hand experience I think that the apathy that can be influenced by marijuana can lead to people becoming "stupider". I myself at some points in my life saw myself straight up becoming a vegetable and just smoking all day, not reading or being productive and just watching shit and that right there brought me down a couple levels. Also I have seen people who toke all day becoming degenerate smokers who couldn't care less about anything other than getting high, which in my mind makes them stupid. But as for it actually taking a productive mind and lowering it's potential I have never seen any proof.

Edit: I actually have a friend who is and has been a hardcore stoner these last 6 years but stayed productive, was studying in college and very out going and he actually has flourished over the years into one of the most intelligent people I know. It can open a lot of doors inside yourself that you may have over looked or never even bothered to looked into and teach you a lot if you use it correctly and aren't just some cretin.
 
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If I'm really tired and get stoned I definitely become stupid. My iq seems to drop dramatically.


If I'm fine and smoke a lot for the first time of the day I may do the "what are we talking about again?"thing or something similar.
 
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