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Why Intelligent People Use More Drugs
05.04.2011
04:02 pm
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Satoshi Kanazawa is an evolutionary psychologist at LSE and the coauthor of Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters (a book, I highly recommend, no pun intended). He also has a great blog on Psychology Today’s website.

Kanazawa has a theory, which he calls the “Savanna-IQ Interaction Hypothesis” which goes something like this: “Intelligence” evolved as a coping mechanism of sorts (maybe stress-related?) to deal with “evolutionary novelties”—that is to say, to help humankind respond to things in their environment to which they were previously, as a species, unaccustomed to. An adaptation strategy, in other words.

Translation: Smart folk are more likely to try “new” things and to seek out novel experiences. Like drugs.

How else to explain toad licking? Someone, uh, “smart” had to figure that one out, originally, right? Someone intelligent had to come up with the idea to synthesize opium into heroin, yes? Yes.

But to be clear, and not to misrepresent his theories, Kanazawa clearly states (in the subtitle) that “Intelligent people don’t always do the right thing,” either…

Consistent with the prediction of the Hypothesis, the analysis of the National Child Development Study shows that more intelligent children in the United Kingdom are more likely to grow up to consume psychoactive drugs than less intelligent children.  Net of sex, religion, religiosity, marital status, number of children, education, earnings, depression, satisfaction with life, social class at birth, mother’s education, and father’s education, British children who are more intelligent before the age of 16 are more likely to consume psychoactive drugs at age 42 than less intelligent children.

The following graph shows the association between childhood general intelligence and the latent factor for the consumption of psychoactive drugs, constructed from indicators for the consumption of 13 different types of psychoactive drugs (cannabis, ecstasy, amphetamines, LSD, amyl nitrate, magic mushrooms, cocaine, temazepan, semeron, ketamine, crack, heroin, and methadone).  As you can see, there is a clear monotonic association between childhood general intelligence and adult consumption of psychoactive drugs.  “Very bright” individuals (with IQs above 125) are roughly three-tenths of a standard deviation more likely to consume psychoactive drugs than “very dull” individuals (with IQs below 75).

 
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Shit, I must’ve been pretty smart because I purt’near crossed almost everything off this list (except for the sleeping pills) by the time I was seventeen!

Kanazawa concludes:

Consistent with the prediction of the Hypothesis, the analysis of the National Child Development Study shows that more intelligent children in the United Kingdom are more likely to grow up to consume psychoactive drugs than less intelligent children. ... “Very bright” individuals (with IQs above 125) are roughly three-tenths of a standard deviation more likely to consume psychoactive drugs than “very dull” individuals (with IQs below 75).

If that pattern holds across societies, then it runs directly counter to a lot of our preconceived notions about both intelligence and drug use:

People—scientists and civilians alike—often associate intelligence with positive life outcomes.  The fact that more intelligent individuals are more likely to consume alcohol, tobacco, and psychoactive drugs tampers this universally positive view of intelligence and intelligent individuals.  Intelligent people don’t always do the right thing, only the evolutionarily novel thing.

Speaking for myself—and I wasn’t a very innocent child by any stretch of the imagination—I was already trying to smoke banana peels (“They call it ‘Mellow Yellow’) and consuming heaping spoonfuls of freshly ground nutmeg when I was just ten-years-old. I got the banana peels idea, yes, from reading about the Donovan song and its supposed “hidden meaning.” The nutmeg idea came from the infamous appendix of William Burroughs’ Naked Lunch, which I was able to pick up at the local mall (When my aunt, visiting from Chicago, caught wind of what my 4th grade reading material was, she was shocked—and told my mother so—but little did she know that I was already at that age actively trying my damnedest to get my hands on some real drugs).

This study explains a lot, I think. An awful lot!

Why Intelligent People Use More Drugs (Psychology Today)

Posted by Richard Metzger
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05.04.2011
04:02 pm
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Your Kid’s On Drugs
12.07.2010
01:28 pm
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Apparently, doing drugs will turn you into Madonna and give you a runny nose.

“Just take a look at yourself in the mirror. I mean, you really wanna run around looking like this Madonna person?”

(via Publique)

Posted by Tara McGinley
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12.07.2010
01:28 pm
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Seven Deadly Hits: Reworked vintage plates with drug titles
10.19.2010
12:36 pm
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Too bad these nicotine, Valium, Vicodin, marijuana, Ecstasy, alcohol and cocaine porcelain plates are sold from Etsy seller, Trixiedelicious. I’m sure if enough people write in, Trixiedelicious would make more. There’s no harm in asking, eh?

Seven Deadly Hits: A Drug Assemblage

(via Das Kraftfuttermischwerk)

Posted by Tara McGinley
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10.19.2010
12:36 pm
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Kenneth Anger talks about working with Jimmy Page on the ‘Lucifer Rising’ Soundtrack
10.16.2010
05:30 pm
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While the Kenneth Anger / Jimmy Page dustup has been reported ad nauseum, this clip is new to me.

Led Zeppelin guitarist and leader Jimmy Page has been fired as composer for the soundtrack of the film ‘Lucifer Rising’ by it’s director, Kenneth Anger. Speaking in London on Friday, Anger decried Page for time-wasting and a lack of dedication to the project, and claimed that Page’s personal problems had made him impossible to work with. Page has been working on the film for the past three years and has so far delivered some 28 minutes of completed tape. The story of the collaboration -and the ensuing rift- goes back to 1973 when Page first agreed to compose and perform the movie soundtrack. He and Anger first met at Sotheby’s, at an auction of boots by the English Occultist/Magician Aleister Crowley. Both Page and Anger are students of Crowley’s teachings. Anger is a practicing Magus (a priest/magician) and his films’of which ‘Scorpio Rising’ is perhaps the best known—- are replete with occult symbolism. Anger himself describes them as “Spells and Invocations”.

 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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10.16.2010
05:30 pm
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Peter Sellers and John Lennon riffing on Acapulco Gold: who’s got the dope?
08.14.2010
08:38 pm
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A Beatles and Peter Sellers double bill.

During a 1968 promo shoot for Apple Records, Peter Sellers visited The Beatles in the studio and some impromptu drug talk ensued. Lennon reminds Sellers of the time “when I gave you that grass in Piccadilly.” Sellers response: “it really stoned me out of my mind.”

Listen for Yoko’s remark about “shooting as exercise,” a none too subtle reference to her and John’s heroin use.

The second video is Sellers performing ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ in the style of Laurence Olivier’s Richard the Third on the Granada TV special The Music of Lennon & McCartney. Sellers goofy take on The Beatles’ tune was actually released as a single and made the pop charts.

 
Sellers performs ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Marc Campbell
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08.14.2010
08:38 pm
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‘Sweet marijuana… marijuana… help me in my distress’: pre-code movie musical number from 1934
08.13.2010
06:29 pm
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Soothe me with your caress
Sweet marijuana… marijuana…
Help me in my distress
Sweet marijuana… please do…

You alone can bring my lover back to me
Even though I know it’s all a fantasy

And then put me to sleep
Sweet marijuana… marijuana…

Sweet Marijuana from the 1934 film ‘Murder At The Vanites’, pre-Hays code.
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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08.13.2010
06:29 pm
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Timothy Leary: Aleister Crowley’s demonic disciple
08.05.2010
05:21 am
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In this mindbending expose, breathlessly narrated by some Bible thumpin’ teenybopper who sounds like he’s tweaking on meth, the truth about Timothy Leary and his infernal connection to Aleister Crowley is revealed to be the ultimate and absolute downfall of civilization as we know it.

Leary, doing Crowley’s bidding, distributed LSD and mescaline to America’s youth with the lusty abandon of a Viagra-fueled Priest feeding Methaqualone communion wafers to rosy-cheeked, tight- buttocksed altar boys. The resulting degradation of society has altered our reality in ways that are immeasurably and indescribably decadent and sinful. For which I am eternally gratefully.

If one were to take the bible seriously one would go mad. But to take the bible seriously, one must be already mad.

Aleister Crowley
 

 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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08.05.2010
05:21 am
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I-Dosing Exposed! Suburban High School Kids Plagued by That Hi-Tech Sound Drug Thingy!
07.14.2010
06:44 pm
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Thanks to XLR8R staff writer Cameron Macdonald for the heads-up. No, that’s not Cameron above.
 
In a heartland drenched in booze, Oxy, Xanax, sugar, and TV, it only makes sense for parents to take action on the hugely important issue of their kids listening to mind-altering sounds, right?

We’re back here again, are we, Mr. and Mrs. America?

The whole thing seems to have started this spring when KFOR NewsChannel 4 reported on a letter that Mustang, Oklahoma school administrators sent to parents about the “new and dangerous fad…called I-Dosing, or digital drugs.”
 

More after the jump…
 

READ ON
Posted by Ron Nachmann
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07.14.2010
06:44 pm
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Flying Lotus’s “Mmmhmm” video and other Special Problems
07.13.2010
07:02 pm
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Hats off to the Special Problems crew for their work refining the artform of the extremely stoney music video.
 

 
If you liked that, check out their showreel, these guys do good stuff:
 

READ ON
Posted by Ron Nachmann
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07.13.2010
07:02 pm
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Rest in Perversity: Sebastian Horsley
06.17.2010
06:06 pm
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Eight days after the West End premiere of the play based on his autobiography, Dandy in the Underworld, top-hatted London-based extreme artist and lifestylist Sebastian Horsley was found dead this morning at age 47 of an apparent heroin overdose.

Born to wealthy alcoholics, Horsley is best known for traveling to the Philippines to be crucified as part of his research for a set of paintings dealing with the topic. But besides his arcane fashion sense, penchant for whoring, and ability to make the scene—running with the likes of Nick Cave, Current 93, Coil and others—Horsley was an accomplished painter and writer, and a guy with a drawling accent who could hold court in a red velvet chair with the best of them.

The Soho Theatre cancelled tonight’s performance of Dandy…, but will continue on tomorrow. Our own Richard Metzger put it best when told the news: “How sad that the world has one less total pervert.”
 

 
Get: Dandy in the Underworld: An Unauthorized Autobiography (P.S.) [Book]

 

Posted by Ron Nachmann
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06.17.2010
06:06 pm
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From Contras to Crack: The Saga of Fawn Hall
06.08.2010
05:33 pm
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Twenty-three years ago today, Fawn Hall became the most famous secretary in America. On June 8, 1987 Hall testified in the Iran-Contra hearings  to helping her boss Lt. Col. Oliver North shred documents having to do with the affair, in which senior Reagan administration officials facilitated arm sales to Iran in order to fund the Nicaraguan contras.

According to Hall’s unsubstantiated Wiki entry, that wasn’t her only lapse of judgment:

Fawn Hall dated Contras politician Arturo Cruz, Jr. In one mishap, she transposed the digits of a Swiss bank account number, resulting in a contribution from the Sultan of Brunei to the Contras being lost. On November 25, 1986, she smuggled confidential papers out of her employer’s office hidden inside her leather boots…

Life after the hearings proved just as interesting for the late-20s Hall, who predictably pursued a modeling career and eventually met and married former post-Morrison Doors manager and archetypal L.A. music business maven Danny Sugerman. The Inside Edition clip below—hosted by a then-second-tier Bill O’Reilly—provides a snapshot of mid-‘90s tabloidism as the sordid strands of politics, drugs and entertainment tangle together deliciously. Sugerman later died of lung cancer in 2005 at age 50.

 

 

Posted by Ron Nachmann
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06.08.2010
05:33 pm
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Famous Literary Drunks & Addicts
01.26.2010
10:39 pm
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LIFE’s photo gallery—more like rogues gallery—of famous writers who have done their livers no favors.

Famous Literary Drunks & Addicts (LIFE)

Thank you Mark Pesce!

Posted by Richard Metzger
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01.26.2010
10:39 pm
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You won’t be getting Obama’d with these
12.02.2009
06:56 pm
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Since April, a persistent Internet meme (reported on today’s Huffington Post, in fact) has to do with ecstasy tabs pressed in the shape of President Obama’s head. Sounds plausible, there are even photographs of the items in question, but were they really ecstasy?

Probably not, according to a “pill reviewer” going under the pseudonym “dezmon” on a website called Pill Reports. Dezmon seems to think the Obama pills are nothing more than caffeine:

“went to a rave ... last saturday and took a red and yellow one of these. took three hours and never kicked in at all. i think they were straight caffeine or something cause i was dancing a lot but no high. after these failed i turned to a quad stack yellow lacoste with mescaline and molly.”

Another report on a website called Ecstasy Data seems to confirm dezmond’s “findings”:

“The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, Western Regional Laboratory (Asheville, North Carolina) received five tablets shaped like the heads of Ninja Turtles, Snoopy, and Barack Obama, suspected Ecstasy (see Photo 1). Analysis of the tablets by GC/MS revealed that the tablets contained BZP, TFMPP, and caffeine (the predominant compound). Clandestine tablet preparations containing BZP are common submissions; however, these were the first tablets of their kind to be submitted to the laboratory. Most tablets submitted are round and vary in imprint/stamps. These tablets were quite detailed.”

Just a head’s up, kids. And stay away from drugs!

Cross posting this from Brand X

Posted by Richard Metzger
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12.02.2009
06:56 pm
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Sorted for E’s and Wizz: Man Takes 40,000 Hits of Ecstasy in Nine Years
11.08.2009
10:16 pm
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Bez from the Happy Mondays has nothing to do with this article.
 
Why would someone do this to themselves? I mean, no wonder! How the hell did this guy expect he’d end up after taking 40,000 E’s?

Doctors from London University have revealed details of what they believe is the largest amount of ecstasy ever consumed by a single person. Consultants from the addiction centre at St George’s Medical School, London, have published a case report of a British man estimated to have taken around 40,000 pills of MDMA, the active ingredient in ecstasy, over nine years. The heaviest previous lifetime intake on record is 2,000 pills. Though the man, who is now 37, stopped taking the drug seven years ago, he still suffers from severe physical and mental health side-effects, including extreme memory problems, paranoia, hallucinations and depression. He also suffers from painful muscle rigidity around his neck and jaw which often prevents him from opening his mouth. The doctors believe many of these symptoms may be permanent.

The man, known as Mr A in the report in the scientific journal Psychosomatics, started using ecstasy at 21. For the first two years his use was an average of five pills per weekend. Gradually this escalated until he was taking around three and a half pills a day. At the peak, the man was taking an estimated 25 pills every day for four years. After several severe collapses at parties, Mr A decided to stop taking ecstasy. For several months, he still felt he was under the influence of the drug, despite being bedridden.

His condition deteriorated and he began to experience recurrent tunnel vision and other problems including hallucinations, paranoia and muscle rigidity. “He came to us after deciding that he couldn’t go on any more,” said Dr Christos Kouimtsidis, the consultant psychiatrist at St George’s Medical School in Tooting who treated him for five months. “He was having trouble functioning in everyday life.”

The doctors discovered that the man was suffering from severe short-term memory problems of a type usually only seen in lifetime alcoholics. But evaluating the full extent of his condition was difficult as his concentration and attention was so impaired he was unable to follow the simple tasks involved in the test.

“This was an exceptional case. His long- term memory was fine but he could not remember day to day things - the time, the day, what was in his supermarket trolley,” said Dr Kouimtsidis. “More worryingly, he did not seem aware himself that he had these memory problems.”
 
Below, Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker sings his wryly observed outsider’s tale of being on E at a rave and not quite getting it, Sorted for E’s and Wizz:
 

 
The strange case of the man who took 40,000 ecstasy pills in nine years

Posted by Richard Metzger
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11.08.2009
10:16 pm
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DMT: The Spirit Molecule
10.10.2009
03:26 pm
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Trailer for a new documentary film called DMT: The Spirit Molecule, based on the book of the same title by Dr. Rick Strassman MD. DMT or Dimethyltryptamine is one of the strongest hallucinogens known to man and each of us has a small amount of it floating around in our brains and blood stream. You can even make it yourself from a handful of a common type of lawn grass, distilled in a shot glass. The film features interviews with Dangerous Minds friends, author Douglas Rushkoff and visionary artist Alex Grey.
 

 
Smoking DMT, as the late Terence McKenna once said, is like getting shot out of a psychedelic canon. I agree. I’ve had some STRANGE experiences on the drug myself. It’s not for the timid, that’s for sure. DMT is not a drug you do for “fun” it’s a means of chemically connecting to an otherworldly “space” inhabited by strange and alien beings. Yes, you read that correctly. Think I’m joking? Smoke some, buster, then we’ll talk…

If you want a really good explanation of what the DMT experience is like, listen to this:
 

 
Bonus clip of Fear Factor’s Joe Rogan talking about his experience: DMT Changes Everything

Posted by Richard Metzger
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10.10.2009
03:26 pm
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