Cannabis and academics.

[NGC1300]

I wouldn't doubt there's some here that claim cannabis actually helps with academics, but I'm looking for all sides of the argument. I'm mainly concerned with information retention. Anyone here a frequent user, and not had perceivable troubles regarding the herb and ability to accel in schoolwork, studying, etc...?

[gee]

I am in university for a degree in BA (major in accounting) 1st year. i can honestly say weed has had a little impact on my potential.

the lack of information retention is one important disadvantage as well as the inability to focus when required.

On a high school level, i smoked weed everyday skipped so many classes and still managed to get a 3.0 or 70% average throughout the years.

same does not go for all though, as a lot of my friends have abused weed to the point where it completely destroyed their potential.

[Hydroponic Cabbage]

i find that i am more alert in class if i smoke in the mornings and it seems like i pay attention to all the little details and think more level headed if i smoke while studying. so i guess it just depends on the person

[Storm Crow]

Cannabis, for the most part, helped with my academics. My teachers enjoyed my "novel" takes on subjects they had seen a thousand times. My Lit teacher said she "saved my papers for dessert"! I was ripped out of my gourd when I wrote most of them! I look at cannabis as a "mind lubricant", the ideas get slippery and flow in new ways. Language arts, psych, art, anthro, history- all went well with getting stoned.

My grammar and spelling did suffer, but that was easily taken care of by going over the papers later in a more sober frame of mind. The ideas, themselves, were "golden". I graduated with honors- not bad for a gal in her mid-50s! :D

Studying, I had a mixed approach. I would skim read the text sober. Then get ripped and re-read while taking notes. Later, I would re-read a third time, sober, but with the "stoned" notes. My insights while stoned are quite different from the ones I get sober.

Taking tests I would have a puff or two, to take off the edge (test anxiety ;)), but not "stoned".

Math was a totally different proposition! I am not a "math person"! To do math, I must be absolutely sober. I squeak by with a "C".

I am about one semester short of a BA in psychology. My GPA was a 3.78, if I remember rightly. (Went back to work in 2001 and dropped out, but I will go back) I work as a teacher's aide in Special Education. I do not wish to be a teacher. I have all the fun of teaching (I work with a great gal! :thumbsup:) and NONE of the ton of paperwork! I am the only aide who can handle 8th grade math.

[cygnustaxt]

It's definitely helped me. I'm a sophomore at community college, right now my GPA is 3.6 and I usually smoke before I go to class. I was diagnosed as having Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) When I was way younger and for the first few years of elementary school, I was on medication to help me pay attention. After middle school, I was pretty much able to control it on my own, but it was really hard. I didn't really start smoking before school until I started going to college because I didn't want it to affect my grades in high school.

So far It's been helping a lot with paying attention. When I smoke, I feel a lot more interested in the topics at hand and I retain the information way better. Plus, If I smoke before we have a test, I tend to be way more careful and take my time. When I don't smoke, I rush through and occasionally miss important details.

So yes, I think it has helped a lot with my studies. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone though. A lot of people might get couch-lock or skip class. You have to have some self-motivation along with the cannabis.

[TheSmokingMonkey]

It depends on what I'm working on. Smoking before class is generally a bad idea, but smoking while brainstorming and outlining unleashes creative potential. I am very moderate in my use and it has relieved my stress so that I can prioritize effectively. I don't go to school baked (unless I'm sick, I use it like cold medicine or whatever) but I use regularly and sometimes while doing homework. I've excelled in graduate studies at selective schools for almost ten years now. The key is moderation and knowing your own limits.

[Revanche21]

While depressed taking SSRI's I get Straight C's in my BA for psychology

as soon as I switched to medical Marijuana, now I get B's and A's mostly B's tho

[bonsaiguy]

I find the fact that Stormcrow is the only teachers aide in her group that can handle 8th grade math a bit disconcerting.

[Markass]

I wouldn't doubt there's some here that claim cannabis actually helps with academics, but I'm looking for all sides of the argument. I'm mainly concerned with information retention. Anyone here a frequent user, and not had perceivable troubles regarding the herb and ability to accel in schoolwork, studying, etc...?

I smoked for a couple of years through school..having ADD this might be a biased opinion, but as far as learning and being able to pass school..yes, once I started getting stoned before school..I passed my computer and networking classes at the technology center quite easily..Keep in mind I wasn't burning a whole joint to myself or something, just four or five tokes out of my bubbler and I was good so as far as I'm concerned it certainly helped me, I had no issues with inability to retain information/pay attention, etc..


In many instances if anything, it actually improved my ability to concentrate quite a bit.

[BlazedinBA]

i use cannabis a few times a day at my school, and just like me, my friends smoke as much as I do....we are all sophomore/juniors majoring in business(me), accounting, athletic training, history, music, and computer science....not the easiest majors but we still find a way to relieve stress and manage our school work..


and stormcrow, i DEFINITLY agree with you on math...i jus cannot do that stuff while:stoned: haha


but yes weed does affect the memory and as long as you can use and still maintain good grades i think theres nothing wrong with that....

[LolaGal]

Smoked all thru nursing school, never cracked a book. Scored in 98% percentile on exit exams. Only 2% of the students in the state had better scores than me. Have Bachelor's of Science with double major in nursing and science. I found that if I smoked before bed and "programmed" my mind to "file" lectures as I slept, I got good results. Sounds silly, but I pictured lots of file cabinets in my head and ordered brain to fill with the lectures as I slept. Good retention and memory recall with this technique.

[Revanche21]

yea I get great grades but another friend that smokes more than me seems to not care for grades and always does the bare minimum to pass his classes, straight C's (amotivational syndrome?)

[homestar]

I'm a physics major and weed severely impacts my ability to retain information. But it is incredibly helpful once I've learned the information to approach it in different ways, come up with theories of my own, draw connections between what I know to come up with new ideas...

So that being said, smoking and doing math and physics just doesn't work. But smoking and shootin' the shit about math and physics...that's super fun ;)

[lebski88]

It depends on the person, the work you have to do and your discipline. I smoked a lot through university and managed to get a very good grade. My course, computer science, is was very maths based and during those parts being stoned was definately a bad idea. However during some of the more creative parts it was genuinely helpfull. I think being stoned goes better on the arts based courses as a rule. But this of course will depend on your mind.

That said as a word of warning many of my smoker friends made a complete mess of university from getting stoned all day and not working. Certainly here in the UK there is no way of telling if someone even went to lectures so it was far to easy for them to spend all their time smoking and no time working. This ended in them getting lower grades than they were capable of, repeating years, resitting exams and in a few cases dropping out.

That said if you don't abuse it and genuinely want to be studying then it can be fine or even helpfull.

[Cederfern]

I wouldn't doubt there's some here that claim cannabis actually helps with academics, but I'm looking for all sides of the argument. I'm mainly concerned with information retention. Anyone here a frequent user, and not had perceivable troubles regarding the herb and ability to accel in schoolwork, studying, etc...?

the all sides point of view:


Cannabis consumption causes market focus effects, being that whichever mental process is prevalent in the mind becomes pronounced and exaggerated.


Therefore, if the user is in a shitty mood, but thinking smoking will calm them down, they will become calmed down.

whereas the person in a shitty mood who doesnt think anything will help, the cannabis will only instigate their negative mood.




Stupid people become stupider, largely because they are stupid enough to believe that cannabis makes them stupid, so they use that excuse to act stupider.


smart people who think it makes you stupid experience the same effects of reduced intelligence.


Those who believe cannabis makes them more aware, wittier, and healthier, generally display these effects.




When i get high, it is usually so that i can sleep. but when i play videogames, i play better than when im stone sober.

The only explanation i have formed is that cannabis amplifies the active mindset of the user.


If your active mindset is academic excellence, then getting stoned will boost your ability to excel in academics.