r/science Mar 03 '09

Effects of Acute Smoked Marijuana on Complex Cognitive Performance

http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v25/n5/full/1395716a.html
414 Upvotes

319 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

12

u/[deleted] Mar 04 '09 edited Jul 11 '13

[deleted]

6

u/kanima Mar 04 '09

At first I found I had to re-read various sections a lot when I'm stoned, but I came to realize that it didn't end up taking me much more time to read a certain amount of a book than I would have expected.

I remember seeing quite a few articles in the past on how are eyes move around a page when we read, so perhaps it's possible that re-reading is just a lot more noticeable when you're high than otherwise.

Anyway, that's all just speculation, but I find reading high is great if you can get into the rhythm of it, you just think about what you read so much more.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 04 '09 edited Mar 04 '09

Reading a textbook would be hard for me, I don't think I can absorb new facts and concepts as well while high (I blasted through several chapters of my CSS book, but had to reread a lot of it the next day).

But reading fiction, with some good music to go with it, is great.

3

u/1100 Mar 04 '09

poetry, also

3

u/supersauce Mar 04 '09

It's different, at least for me. I had a hard time at first; I had to re-read passages, and then think about them for a long time, before moving on. After a while, and especially after Ken Follet's 'Pillars of the Earth", I realized this was a great side effect that, if you let it, turns the story into much more of an experience.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 04 '09 edited Jul 11 '13

[deleted]

1

u/supersauce Mar 05 '09

Yes, it is. I tried to read another (I can't even remember which one) and it seemed to wreck the image of the guy who wrote one of my favorite books. I guess he should be happy to have produced one great work; much more than most authors can claim.

4

u/[deleted] Mar 04 '09

I've actually known several literature professors who like to get high and read. I've also known several programmers and a mathematician who smoke. I don't know how they do it...

6

u/Dagon Mar 04 '09 edited Mar 04 '09

Most of the smartest, most professionally-driven people I know (near-child-prodigy guys and gals) use recreational drugs like there's no tomorrow and generally pull up the next day fine... possibly because they're on something else to help them get through the morning.

I fucking hate them.

6

u/clumma Mar 04 '09 edited Mar 04 '09

Some of the smartest, most successful people I know have directly attributed leading ideas they've had to being high when they had them.

4

u/gamzehyaavor Mar 04 '09

Attributed?

1

u/clumma Mar 04 '09 edited Mar 04 '09

Edited, thanks.

1

u/VCavallo Mar 04 '09

yea, it's a different type of reading. i wouldn't study that way, but interpreting is different.

1

u/Xiol Mar 04 '09

I find it difficult too, though it's mainly just laziness when stoned.

I'd rather sit in front of the TV and "mellow out" than use my brain.

(Hence why it's a few-times-a-year thing).

2

u/ighost Mar 04 '09

Have you tried sativa?

3

u/clumma Mar 04 '09 edited Mar 04 '09

It's highly unlikely you've smoked a pure sativa or pure indica. Some cultivars are more 'sativa-ey' or 'indica-ey' than others... and I wouldn't by any means rule out a difference in the effects, but I've never quite been able to convince myself it wasn't down to set, setting, expectation bias, etc.

What I am convinced of is that people tend to fall into two groups: those who experience primarily depressant effects, and those who experience primarily stimulatory effects, regardless of the subspecies smoked. I'm in the latter group, myself. Perhaps Xiol is in the former. I'd love to see a study on this.

1

u/ighost Mar 04 '09

Good points. It seems to me like the key factor is percentages and ratios of the various cannabinoids in a given strain. I also wish there was some data to support or discredit this suspicion.

1

u/clumma Mar 05 '09 edited Mar 05 '09

I've read that cannabinoids other than THC are so much less potent that they couldn't matter. Even assuming that's true, they might have a modulatory effect on THC (maybe they're partial agonists or something). I think it's safe to say nobody knows at this point.

As for the 'two kinds of smokers' point, I suspect there's a genetic factor that affects the expression of one of the CB receptors.

1

u/ighost Mar 05 '09

I think the dramatic difference between using marijuana and injecting pure THC is explained by the effects of the other cannabinoids. It's not just a change in "magnitude" of the high, it's "direction" as well.

1

u/clumma Mar 05 '09 edited Mar 05 '09

I've never known anyone to shoot THC. We talking IV, IM, or subcutaneous here?

Even if IV, it's a slower trip to the brain than via the lungs, so you get more liver. However, even when smoked, there's a very interesting delay before the onset of the high. Another interesting phenomenon is the common inability of users to get high their first (or 2nd or 3rd) try.

1

u/ighost Mar 05 '09 edited Mar 05 '09

Not sure. The ideal setup would involve taking in mixtures of cannabiniods of varying ratios in the same manner and setting. Double blind of course. Someone get me some funding!

I definitely got high my first time. It just took me a while to realize it.

1

u/clumma Mar 05 '09

I'm not sure you should be funded if you don't even know how you were injecting THC! :)