Slog - Comments on Pot: Good for Teenagers http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers This ABC News headline is a little misleading: Swiss Study Has Some Surprises on Marijuana News: Survey suggests use of drug doesn't impact grades, relationships You have to get past the similarly misleading photo caption--under a picture of what looks like a teenager smoking the biggest joint you've ever seen--and read the actual story before you learn that teenagers who smoke pot have as-good-or-better grades and peer relationships than kids who do not. In fact, those who used only marijuana were "more socially driven... significantly more likely practice sports and they have a better relationship with their peers" than abstainers,... Copyright 2008 Wed, 07 Nov 2007 10:20:11 -0800 Wed, 07 Nov 2007 17:10:25 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by Michigan Matt Wait. Help me out here. Do you think pot should be legal, Dan? I'm confused.

]]> Michigan Matt http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c843807 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c843807 Drugs Wed, 07 Nov 2007 10:39:21 -0800 Comment by Pot4Kids This goes completely opposite of everything and what we've been told!!
Who do we believe????
It's all so confusing!
Who paid for that study?

]]> Pot4Kids http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c843813 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c843813 Drugs Wed, 07 Nov 2007 10:42:00 -0800 Comment by s t u p i d This study is major bullshit.

Sensitively, a pot smoker.

]]> s t u p i d http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c843814 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c843814 Drugs Wed, 07 Nov 2007 10:45:36 -0800 Comment by adrian pot should be legal, definitely, 113%. social conservatism should be illegal, and subject to imprisonment and HUGE fines. death maybe, depending. social conservatism is a crime against humanity that perpetuates ignorance and violence and war, and has deep rooted connections to global warming. so there.

]]> adrian http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c843820 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c843820 Drugs Wed, 07 Nov 2007 10:51:01 -0800 Comment by cracked yeh, who ya should I believe, a Swiss study or my own lyin eyes?

]]> cracked http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c843824 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c843824 Drugs Wed, 07 Nov 2007 10:54:29 -0800 Comment by Hernandez This study is consistent with my high school experience - I was a student athlete, finished in the top 20 of my graduating class (roughly 400 people), had many friends, and smoked a shit-ton of pot my junior and senior years. AP english was my favorite class to attend while baked off my ass.

]]> Hernandez http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c843828 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c843828 Drugs Wed, 07 Nov 2007 10:57:26 -0800 Comment by JMR This study is consistent with my high school experience - I was a student athlete, finished in the top 20 of my graduating class (roughly 400 people), had many friends, and smoked a shit-ton of pot my junior and senior years. AP english was my favorite class to attend while baked off my ass.

Carl Sagan was brilliant while being constantly baked... so can the rest of us.

"I can remember one occasion, taking a shower with my wife while high, in which I had an idea on the origins and invalidities of racism in terms of gaussian distribution curves," wrote the former Cornell University professor. "I wrote the curves in soap on the shower wall, and went to write the idea down."
from http://www.druglibrary.org/think/~jnr/sagan.htm

]]> JMR http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c843834 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c843834 Drugs Wed, 07 Nov 2007 11:02:57 -0800 Comment by FooFootheSnoo Just to make the points a social scientist should:

1) The teenagers in the study are Swiss. While it is possible, even probable, that these results would be comparable in the US, we can't assume that: maybe there's something different about Swiss teenagers that helps them to better handle their pot than US teens would; maybe US teens will handle their pot even better than the Swiss teens, or handle it better in different ways.

2) Correlation is not causation. That is, we don't know the reason why the results came out the way they did. Maybe Swiss students who are already more social, more successful as students, better atheletes are somehow more predisposed to smoke pot than Swiss students who are not. Maybe pot makes them more successful.

Support social science! Let's reproduce the study in the states. Let's find the cause of the marijuana achievement gap in Swiss teens. Don't give your kid a joint just yet.

]]> FooFootheSnoo http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c843861 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c843861 Drugs Wed, 07 Nov 2007 11:19:10 -0800 Comment by mirror @6
Cool Hernandez. That's what I tell my son about drugs in order to give an honest picture. There are kids who don't seem to be slowed down by it and have a lot of fun. But my experience also tells me that there are also kids who go from being A students to C students within a year and stop doing things they love and lose ambition for their passions. Is it worth the risk?

I support full decriminalization, but I don't think kids should be smoking dope any more than they should be drinking Jim Beam at lunch.

]]> mirror http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c843873 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c843873 Drugs Wed, 07 Nov 2007 11:22:50 -0800 Comment by mirror FooFootheSnoo:
It is interesting to note the primary concern of the study is the hypothsized relationship between marijuana use and smoking and life success. Apart from looking purely at physical health affects, the question itself doesn't seem like one that would come to mind as the most important way of considering marijuana use for most Americans. Just seems like a kind of weird European question to me.

]]> mirror http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c843881 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c843881 Drugs Wed, 07 Nov 2007 11:32:03 -0800 Comment by Wurm I never believed Dan's assertion that he wasn't a pothead until this post cause thats a medium sized doob at the very most :).

When you need to take 30 minutes to build your paper just to start rolling, now THATS a big joint

]]> Wurm http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c843894 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c843894 Drugs Wed, 07 Nov 2007 11:42:01 -0800 Comment by Mike in MO Where were the Swiss Researchers when I was in High School?

Could have saved me a lot of bullshit...

]]> Mike in MO http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c843897 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c843897 Drugs Wed, 07 Nov 2007 11:42:59 -0800 Comment by josh bomb dan, i've been smoking way bigger joints that that near-daily for years.

and my teenaged-relationships have never been better.

]]> josh bomb http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c843911 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c843911 Drugs Wed, 07 Nov 2007 11:49:34 -0800 Comment by Will in Seattle Let's analyze the raw scientific papers that created this news, from Swiss scientists.

1. Smoking pot does not make your grades go down. At reasonable levels.

2. Smoking pot does not make you smarter.

3. One possible conclusion is that typical teenage angst and depression are overridden by positive biochemical actions of MJ.

Please realize the study meant participants had to be blind to whether they actually were on pot or not. So the social impacts - good or bad - were not measured. Hanging out with dealers and pot addicts - probably bad. Hanging out with other kids and getting high and talking out stress stuff - probably good. Not measured.

]]> Will in Seattle http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c844025 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c844025 Drugs Wed, 07 Nov 2007 13:21:20 -0800 Comment by max solomon validated my parenting - we told them 'don't get arrested, stay from the hard stuff, and call us for a ride home, whenever, wherever, & no judgements because we did it too'

result: 2 dean's list, pot smoking UW students who still like us.

]]> max solomon http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c844035 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c844035 Drugs Wed, 07 Nov 2007 13:32:04 -0800 Comment by Will in Seattle good job, max.

]]> Will in Seattle http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c844155 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c844155 Drugs Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:52:33 -0800 Comment by naysayer Yes, sometimes government campaigns overstress things. That said, potheads are losers. Pot is a drug, potheads are drug addicts. One thing I hate about the otherwise fabulous city of Seattle is that there seem to be so many potheads who live here.

I know I'm expressing a very unpopular opinion, and I'll probably get flamed, but I'm really tired of the glorification of drugs in our culture. Maybe some people can live functional lives with pot in their systems, but many more cannot.

]]> naysayer http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c844411 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/11/pot_good_for_teenagers#c844411 Drugs Wed, 07 Nov 2007 17:10:25 -0800