Cannabis Access and Academic Performance
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Cannabis Access and Academic Performance
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Re: Cannabis Access and Academic Performance
#2Steve Yegge comes to rescue:
http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2009/04/have-you-ever-legali...
So... one minor, teeny-weeny almost insigificant caveat before I continue: I have smoked marijuana (and inhaled it, deeply) on more occasions than I can count. And yet I'm almost undoubtedly smarter than your kid that you're so goddamned worried about. I skipped three grades (3rd, 7th and 8th), entered high school at age 11 and graduated at age 14, took A.P. courses, had stellar SAT scores, was a U.S. Navy nuclear reactor operator, went to the University of Washington and earned a Computer Science degree, worked at major corporations like Amazon.com and Google for many years as a senior staff engineer and/or senior development manager, and now I'm an internationally famous blogger.
I don't usually dwell on that, but today it's relevant. It's relevant because I've smoked a LOT of pot, and I dare you to prove that it has impaired me in any scientifically detectable way. We would debate, and you would lose; nevertheless I double-dog dare you.
Re: Cannabis Access and Academic Performance
#3Steve Yegge comes to rescue: http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2009/04/have-you-ever-legali... So... one minor, teeny-weeny almost insigificant caveat before I continue: I have smoked marijuana (and inhaled it, deeply) on more occasions than I can count. And yet I'm almost undoubtedly smarter than your kid that you're so goddamned worried about. I skipped three grades (3rd, 7th and 8th), entered high school at age 11 a…
Steve Yegge is not a scientist and prone to highly emotional rants. Further, your situation, whatever it is, is an anecdote, not sufficient to draw a conclusion.
I wonder if the same is true of alcohol, given the two substances are so close. Whatever the conclusion, it's not justification to ban either of course. There are many other facets of the problem to consider.
Re: Cannabis Access and Academic Performance
#4Steve Yegge comes to rescue: http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2009/04/have-you-ever-legali... So... one minor, teeny-weeny almost insigificant caveat before I continue: I have smoked marijuana (and inhaled it, deeply) on more occasions than I can count. And yet I'm almost undoubtedly smarter than your kid that you're so goddamned worried about. I skipped three grades (3rd, 7th and 8th), entered high school at age 11 a…
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Re: Cannabis Access and Academic Performance
#5Steve Yegge comes to rescue: http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2009/04/have-you-ever-legali... So... one minor, teeny-weeny almost insigificant caveat before I continue: I have smoked marijuana (and inhaled it, deeply) on more occasions than I can count. And yet I'm almost undoubtedly smarter than your kid that you're so goddamned worried about. I skipped three grades (3rd, 7th and 8th), entered high school at age 11 a…
I can't quote a source, but I recall one study correlating higher IQ with higher risk of psychoactive drug usage.
Maybe your brain is amazing enough to not be hindered by smoking pot. Maybe the performance decline is not noticeable and you continue to function well. Maybe you've smoked so much marijuana that you have a strong resistance to its effects. But then again, maybe you are the exception - that's the problem with anecdotal evidence.
If a more average person is given easy access to THC, maybe their chance at greater academic performance would go up in smoke (ha).
Either way, as a recreational smoker, I prefer to keep my habit away from my work and study. That would be the worst way to multitask - can't enjoy the high due to work, can't be as productive at work because of the high.
Re: Cannabis Access and Academic Performance
#6It appears that regular cannabis use [0] decreases dopaminergic brain-activity [1].
Dopamine is often referred to as "pleasure"-transmitter, but it's function in certain parts of the brain is better thought of as "regulating expectation", therefore influencing drive & motivation. It makes it possible to work on stuff you don't particularly enjoy by focussing on an expected long-term reward. This works by enabling your conscious thoughts to silence other, more excitatory and emotional parts of your brain via a feedback-loop. [2]
People with ADHS have trouble concentrating because this feedback-loop doesn't work well when they're not moving. Sitting still, they are constantly being flooded with inappropriate and negative emotions. They calm down when taking stimulants like Ritaline, because the "calming"-function of the brain starts working properly.
Bottom-line: Cannabis has many good effects, but it definitely blunts motivation. [3]
[0] rule of thumb: more than once weekly
[1] http://www.pnas.org/content/111/30/E3149.abstract
Re: Cannabis Access and Academic Performance
#7Steve Yegge comes to rescue: http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2009/04/have-you-ever-legali... So... one minor, teeny-weeny almost insigificant caveat before I continue: I have smoked marijuana (and inhaled it, deeply) on more occasions than I can count. And yet I'm almost undoubtedly smarter than your kid that you're so goddamned worried about. I skipped three grades (3rd, 7th and 8th), entered high school at age 11 a…
It's interesting. I was just thinking a little while ago about the tendency for smart people to equate being smart with being right. A while ago I was mentoring a young colleague of mine and I warned him that it is often the case that when we experience one failed project after another, we tend to think, "People should listen to me. I've seen every way to make a project fail and so I know how to make a project succeed." In reality, unless you have experienced success you are unlikely to know how to create that success.
He replied with one of the most interesting things I've heard in a while: "But I have lots of good ideas. Not all of them can be wrong". I had to step away and think about that for a long time, but eventually I realized that, yes, he could be wrong every single time. The search space is huge. And the tricky thing is that it doesn't really matter how smart he is. He can still be wrong every single time because there are a lot more wrong answers than right ones. A lot of the wrong answers really look like they should be right too. Even to otherwise brilliant (though wrong) people.
In a similar vein, I think you will find that despite your great intellect and professional success, there are many, many areas where you are wrong. In fact, there are likely to be a lot more areas where you are wrong than areas where you are right. There's just a huge search space out there.
I have no idea if you are right or wrong about marijauna use. I'm am absolutely convinced that you would beat me in a debate on the subject (I can't even spell the damn word correctly). Beating me (or anyone) in a debate makes absolutely no difference to whether or not you are correct.
It's not like I am immune to the occasional (umm... possibly a lot more than occasional... :-P) egocentric outburst, but I have found that admitting that I am likely wrong actually improves my credibility. I mean a brilliant, internationally famous blogger with a CS degree might very well be right about the effects of marijuana on the brain. Researchers on the effects of marijuana on the brain may just have the edge though, despite a possible lack of comparative brain power. It's something to consider.
Re: Cannabis Access and Academic Performance
#8Steve Yegge comes to rescue: http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2009/04/have-you-ever-legali... So... one minor, teeny-weeny almost insigificant caveat before I continue: I have smoked marijuana (and inhaled it, deeply) on more occasions than I can count. And yet I'm almost undoubtedly smarter than your kid that you're so goddamned worried about. I skipped three grades (3rd, 7th and 8th), entered high school at age 11 a…
Yet for me a few months of pot gave me a stutter for two years, and I'm pretty sure killed my motivation in my final school year. I eventually got my act together and got an engineering degree, but I'd definitely recommend against pot use.
Re: Cannabis Access and Academic Performance
#9Like all (good) drugs, they get better when you age. When you're young and blasted there's no way to make sense of things and responsibilities become more difficult. When you're older its like a whole new wonderful world to explore.
Re: Cannabis Access and Academic Performance
#10Steve Yegge comes to rescue: http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2009/04/have-you-ever-legali... So... one minor, teeny-weeny almost insigificant caveat before I continue: I have smoked marijuana (and inhaled it, deeply) on more occasions than I can count. And yet I'm almost undoubtedly smarter than your kid that you're so goddamned worried about. I skipped three grades (3rd, 7th and 8th), entered high school at age 11 a…
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