There are high-IQ street criminals, too- and illicit drugs dealing makes for a particularly attractive place for them to employ their intelligence, notwithstanding the recklessness of the decision, which is typically made by immature young people who haven't made a serious appraisal of the long-term consequences. Yes, smart people can st…
There are high-IQ street criminals, too- and illicit drugs dealing makes for a particularly attractive place for them to employ their intelligence, notwithstanding the recklessness of the decision, which is typically made by immature young people who haven't made a serious appraisal of the long-term consequences. Yes, smart people can still make bad choices and wrong decisions. (But it's like Disney's Pinocchio: Pleasure Island. You're 15. You're poor. Wouldn't you?)
That undercuts @fp123's argument, but it's obvious that he prefers to view the situation as cut and dried. And, perhaps, using the categorical "low IQ" as a euphemism, rather than just coming right out and saying what he really means. Although even if his labeling is sincerely intended, it's a huge error to exploit IQ measurements as a criterion for public policy initiatives.
It hasn't quite become fashionable yet to question the validity of IQ scores as a measurement of "general intelligence", but I'll get out in front on that by asserting that given what's recently been learned about the limitations of the univariate model of neurotypicality, we should know better. When a sizeable number of individuals on the autistic spectrum perform two standard deviations better on the RPM test than the WISC test- and both of those tests allegedly measure the same "Spearman's g", aka "general intelligence"- that ought to tell us something.
Much of the material on IQ tests like the Weschler is more accurately tests of academic skill sets; RPM is more focused on specific proficiencies at detecting patterns using abstract spatial logic. There are no IQ tests for the acute sensitivity required to proficiently read and respond to interpersonal social cues. And a "high IQ" scoring group of Western academics would probably die before they could pick out a path through a rain forest that an indigenous child could read by the age of nine, using real-world spatial logic. Practice makes perfect, particularly under the neuroplastic conditions associated with early childhood development.
That said, to return to the topic of cannabis: I think it has a strong tendency to get in the way of learning practically any skill, particularly in the initial stages. Pot use by elementary school age and high school age kids is a bad thing, and it needs to be discouraged and prevented. Cannabis can provide creative inspiration and hone performance for (some) people who are already proficient at an intellectual, artistic, or athletic skill- but it's practically always the case that they've already achieved competence without the influence of pot. If someone gets involved with using weed regularly early on, they may never even get as far as learning the basics. This is particularly important in the case of the scholastic skills- literacy and numeracy. It has to be emphasized that without basic competence in those skills, the modern world is a very unfriendly place. And if someone is showing up in class high all the time from an early age, it isn't the fault of the school if they're unable to learn to read, write, and figure.
That's a primary reason why I think cannabis should be legalized- in order to put the market into a realm where age restrictions can be effectively enforced. Under illicit conditions, the retail trade is in the hands of members of the teenage peer group! This is the case everywhere- "gang-related" has nothing to do with it. It's a bad situation when adults find that the best way to score marijuana in a strange town is to ask a teenager.
Cannabis definitely has some drawbacks, and the harm reduction and education situation is something that needs to be worked out in conjunction with legalization. In particular, regular use at an early age gets in the way of acquiring all sorts of skills at the stage when they're most effectively learned. The SAMHSA statistics- which I trust, mostly- indicate that the group that most often uses marijuana the most frequently are males in their teen to mid-twenties years. Sometimes even younger. The vast majority of marijuana users begin in their teens, and by and large their attitudes toward it are adolescent attitudes. That's the wrong way to get acquainted with the substance. Teenagers are a population that needs to have their use reduced to the experimental or occasional basis, at most. I don't hold with the folklore that pot is harmless, just because it doesn't cause the physical impairment of alcohol. The fact that someone can be high on pot without being sloppy does not mean that their learning skills aren't impaired.
There are high-IQ street criminals, too- and illicit drugs dealing makes for a particularly attractive place for them to employ their intelligence, notwithstanding the recklessness of the decision, which is typically made by immature young people who haven't made a serious appraisal of the long-term consequences. Yes, smart people can still make bad choices and wrong decisions. (But it's like Disney's Pinocchio: Pleasure Island. You're 15. You're poor. Wouldn't you?)
That undercuts @fp123's argument, but it's obvious that he prefers to view the situation as cut and dried. And, perhaps, using the categorical "low IQ" as a euphemism, rather than just coming right out and saying what he really means. Although even if his labeling is sincerely intended, it's a huge error to exploit IQ measurements as a criterion for public policy initiatives.
It hasn't quite become fashionable yet to question the validity of IQ scores as a measurement of "general intelligence", but I'll get out in front on that by asserting that given what's recently been learned about the limitations of the univariate model of neurotypicality, we should know better. When a sizeable number of individuals on the autistic spectrum perform two standard deviations better on the RPM test than the WISC test- and both of those tests allegedly measure the same "Spearman's g", aka "general intelligence"- that ought to tell us something.
Much of the material on IQ tests like the Weschler is more accurately tests of academic skill sets; RPM is more focused on specific proficiencies at detecting patterns using abstract spatial logic. There are no IQ tests for the acute sensitivity required to proficiently read and respond to interpersonal social cues. And a "high IQ" scoring group of Western academics would probably die before they could pick out a path through a rain forest that an indigenous child could read by the age of nine, using real-world spatial logic. Practice makes perfect, particularly under the neuroplastic conditions associated with early childhood development.
That said, to return to the topic of cannabis: I think it has a strong tendency to get in the way of learning practically any skill, particularly in the initial stages. Pot use by elementary school age and high school age kids is a bad thing, and it needs to be discouraged and prevented. Cannabis can provide creative inspiration and hone performance for (some) people who are already proficient at an intellectual, artistic, or athletic skill- but it's practically always the case that they've already achieved competence without the influence of pot. If someone gets involved with using weed regularly early on, they may never even get as far as learning the basics. This is particularly important in the case of the scholastic skills- literacy and numeracy. It has to be emphasized that without basic competence in those skills, the modern world is a very unfriendly place. And if someone is showing up in class high all the time from an early age, it isn't the fault of the school if they're unable to learn to read, write, and figure.
That's a primary reason why I think cannabis should be legalized- in order to put the market into a realm where age restrictions can be effectively enforced. Under illicit conditions, the retail trade is in the hands of members of the teenage peer group! This is the case everywhere- "gang-related" has nothing to do with it. It's a bad situation when adults find that the best way to score marijuana in a strange town is to ask a teenager.
Cannabis definitely has some drawbacks, and the harm reduction and education situation is something that needs to be worked out in conjunction with legalization. In particular, regular use at an early age gets in the way of acquiring all sorts of skills at the stage when they're most effectively learned. The SAMHSA statistics- which I trust, mostly- indicate that the group that most often uses marijuana the most frequently are males in their teen to mid-twenties years. Sometimes even younger. The vast majority of marijuana users begin in their teens, and by and large their attitudes toward it are adolescent attitudes. That's the wrong way to get acquainted with the substance. Teenagers are a population that needs to have their use reduced to the experimental or occasional basis, at most. I don't hold with the folklore that pot is harmless, just because it doesn't cause the physical impairment of alcohol. The fact that someone can be high on pot without being sloppy does not mean that their learning skills aren't impaired.