4 ms·
I'm going to speak from experience here. My IQ is in the range talked about in the article, I'm a few years from 30, and I do have a history of polydrug use/abu
by billpatrianakos 15y ago
I'm going to speak from experience here. My IQ is in the range talked about in the article, I'm a few years from 30, and I do have a history of polydrug use/abuse. It seems intelligent people are also more likely to become depressed as well. My thoughts are that people like the ones described in the study as being more intelligent are more thoughtful, analytical, and sensitive. They need an outlet and drug use is a form of self medication.
I doubt is has as much to do with economics as some would argue. Some of the poorest people are addicts and they find a way. I myself have been out there on the streets with a negative bank balance yet somehow managed to find my fix through various forms of petty theft and manipulation. If I could produce $20 bills right now like I used to back then I'd be a rich man. Addicts find a way.
Of course I'm sure a majority of them were not addicts but casual users. I see some comments suggesting that a single use of drugs within the past year doesn't count somehow. It's as if to imply that drug use is far more common than it is. I agree that more people use drugs recreationally than we really know but I'd venture to guess that there are far more people completely abstinent from any type of drug use than there are those who use once a year or more. That kind of thinking comes from users themselves who are surrounded by other users (ranging from rare, casual use, to full blown addiction and abuse) and begin to think the rest of the world behaves as they do.
I'm on the board of the Heroin Epidemic Relief Organization (HERO) and the numbers we're seeing agree with this study. We're seeing a trend where students who are more intelligent (based on standardized tests, GPA, and, if available, IQ tests are using drugs more often than average students and below. We're talking about 6th through 12th grade kids. That study was done by the Robert Crown Center here in Chicago and I'm not sure if it's published yet but if it is it would be on their website.