

Does Marijuana Make You Stupid? - Umalu
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/08/does-marijuana-make-you-stupid/

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thestranger
A large number of my friends in High School smoked. Many of them were not
accepted into college, or are now on academic probation. I always assumed that
marijuana was at least contributing to their poor performances in school.

Now I am in the honors college of a fairly good public school, and I am
surprised at how many of my fellow honors students smoke.

Nevertheless, I believe that smoking pot is still a bad habit. Many of my
friends say that it makes them feel happy and that it makes them relax. That's
all well and good, but to me it seems that they became dependent on pot to
make them happy and relax. I see first-hand how stressed out many of them get
without it, and I can't help but wonder if pot is the problem.

Regardless of whether it makes you dumber, it can kill your motivation because
it seems like you've found what makes you happy and you no longer feel like
working hard.

Note that I have never used marijuana and am basing my opinion on observations
of my friends who do/did.

~~~
dkersten
It goes both ways, I think.

I know people who smoke and get completely mashed and disfunctional. I also
know people who are successful and produced some of their best work while
high.

I think it really depends on the persons attitude. The people who are
successful would have been successful anyway while the people who aren't
wouldn't be if they didn't smoke weed. I think weed acts as an amplifier, good
and bad. Of course, this doesn't account for the people who are successful in
what they do, just not while smoking weed, I guess they exist too.

Also, I think there's a danger that the person smoking may not notice when the
positive effects start turning negative. One person I know very well used to
work really well while smoking, but recently has become more agitated when not
smoking and the weed really just brings her to normal performance, rather than
above normal performance like it used to. Note that I noticed this after she
had been smoking very regularly for maybe five years, so I possibly long term,
the negative effects begin to overshadow the positive, though one person is
hardly a scientific observation.

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kefs
For the uninitiated, strain types [1] and administration controls [2] can help
ensure a satisfying experience. Alcohol, after a few drinks, _always_ makes me
stupid.

[1] <http://www.canadianmedicinalmarijuana.com/?p=39>

[2]
[http://www.vaporpedia.com/wiki/Vaporizing_Effects_by_Tempera...](http://www.vaporpedia.com/wiki/Vaporizing_Effects_by_Temperature)

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celticninja
Marijuana doesn't make people stupid however people can make stupid decisions
as a result of their use, i.e. choosing to smoke instead of revise for an exam
or sitting up smoking instead of getting some extra sleep. As with any
intoxicant moderate use will do most users little or no harm, it is being able
to moderate that use with, what many people see as, a harmless drug.

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spaceman77
In my own experience:

In small small dosages taken infrequently ... no.

In large quantities taken frequently .... yes.

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ZipCordManiac
Carl Sagan was a druggie loser. Right ? Just like any drug it can be used or
abused.

