Smart people do drugs? Yeah...no. (Debunking that popular myth)

In one of my psychology classes last semester there was this

hyperactive student (always in a good mood and all) who would often tell her friends and classmates including myself "Stay in school. Don't do drugs. Peace out." each time after class whenever we said our farewells. I wanted to say the same back to her but I had a strong feeling she does drugs herself (and once I did say the same thing back to her to stay away from drugs but she reacted quite strangely and immediately rambled on about something else). There were few times she didn’t attend class. We were good class buddies and it was a joy having classes with her (even though I never told her myself). We would sometimes copy from each other’s class notes on lectures/parts of lectures that we missed or while I wasn’t fully paying attention (because my anxious mind sometimes wanders off elsewhere). She was very friendly and would sometimes share her snacks with me (I would hope they weren’t laced with drugs, lol, jokes). Strange thing is, I've heard her talking to herself a few times where she hid her stashes of ... (which I assume is weed) and once while she was frantically looking for something in her backpack, I saw a small ziplock sandwich bag with something inside it but wasn’t exactly sure what it was. I wanted to ask her what she was looking for but I didn’t want to be intrusive. I once saw on the skytrain some young skater dude carrying two small ziplock bags of a green plant (weed) stashed in his pockets. The skunk-like smell was easily noticeable. I could have sworn she said “weed” once while looking for her stashes of...whatever it is. Besides her occasional caffeine intake, I can easily suspect why she’s so uninhibited and in an unusually good mood...because she’s definitely high on something whenever she comes to school. 😆 Though if she does use weed...wouldn’t the smell be noticeable? Because I didn’t notice any weed smell on her. Taking marijuana can be done in different ways so perhaps the non-smoking methods would produce less of a strong smell...and also there are odour-resistant sandwich bags.

Now sometimes we see articles on the internet such as “High-achieving kids are more likely to do drugs”, “Why ____is harmless”, “Doing ___ makes you smart” and this could be a reason why there’s a rising trend of young stoners. Of course, not everything on the internet is true...especially if it’s advocating for the use of drugs or whatever that’s conventionally considered taboo. Even religious scriptures mention that so as long sin or Satan lives, there will always be deception trying to engulf humans from the right course. Some of my friends back in high-school were high-achieving students including myself...few of them were straight A students (one of them being the top #1 student within my grade out of 250+ kids). Did we do drugs? Nope. Nor did we want to. I highly doubt any of my same friends back in high school would want to smoke weed today, I certainly don’t want to. Mind you I was one of the top A+ students in that psychology class last semester (got the highest grade on one of the midterm exams)—also got an A+ final grade in my other psychology class during that same semester, and the last few times I noticed that classmate of mine (yeah out of curiosity I peaked 😅) had one of the lowest grades even to the point of failing yet she always remained cheerful. I am aware that certain drugs out there (i.e. ADHD meds) give students a boost in intellectual performance...but with eventual drawbacks. I wouldn’t recommend using drugs beyond what it’s meant to be used for. Some students ended up in the hospital due to addiction or overdose. So it isn’t “smart kids do drugs”, it’s more like “some drugs make kids smarter but only temporary (and with drawbacks)”.

PS: I’m not saying I’m entirely against marijuana as I understand the medical benefits of it but I don’t support it as a recreational drug. I’m like that angel on one side of the person’s shoulders trying to warn them not to do that in some ways would be harmful but would oftentimes get ignored for the devil on the other side. Probably annoyed quite a few people while trying to warn or school them on some things but oh well. Better to care than not care, that’s one step to a better society. Our personal choices somehow affect others and it’s like a chain reaction. I’m a straightedge person and will always will be no matter what the hype is. It’s a lifetime core value of mine and as the wisdom goes, “better safe than sorry”, at least in terms of drugs. In life we ‘ought to say “yes” to good opportunities yet “no” to negative peer pressure, that’s the smart way to go.