Why Are Stoners Typically Depicted as Stupid?

[Julianking93]

This is something I've been wondering for a while now. In movies, TV shows, literature and even just the common image that comes to mind on this subject always seems to show stoners (or anyone who uses any drug of any kind) as being incredibly stupid and weak minded.

But why is this?

For me, it's the exact opposite. All the stoners I know are actually extremely intelligent and often times are brilliant in their own ways. So why is it that the general public and the media depict weed smokers as unintelligent and borderline retarded?

Is it because the media wishes to give drugs as much shit as possible, so in turn they show the users as stupid because of their drug use rather than just being stupid in the first place? Or is it actually true that most of them are just stupid and I am lucky to know the few intellectual dopers?

What does the Escapist think about this and do you yourself do any drugs of the sort?

 

[dfcrackhead]

Stoners look stupid because it's generally believe people do dumb shit when they are baked and it's a lot funnier that way as well. Also I wouldn't doubt it's some sort of anti-weed propaganda lol

 

[DazBurger]

All stoners I know ARE really that weakminded....


I guess it takes a non-stoner to know one.

 

[The Hairminator]

Because smoking weed frequently for a long time makes you fucking slow. My sister has been through it, and so have I to some degree. Also, it may also originate in that many stoners are jobless, lazy morons.

 

[capin Rob]

Two Potheads I knoe got B's and A's. They just look stupid

 

[Dr. wonderful]

Rule of funny my friend, Rule of funny.

 

[Draithx]

Uhm, I have no never done drugs myself so correct me if I am wrong but..
Doesn't being high etc generally make you unable/make it harder to think properly? Would seem fairly normal to me in that case.

 

[Snarky Username]

Because when people are high, they're usually stupid. When people say "stoner" people think of a person who is high every minute of every day. The same goes for alcohol, when people imagine an alcoholic, they usually picture a drunk, stupid, hobo. Or a gamer as a person who plays video 24/7.

 

[L4hlborg]

I don't do drugs and knowingly using substances that are harmful to you does sound kind of stupid, when you think about it that way. Funny though, everyone does seem to say that the drug users they know are pretty smart.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

Drugs are bad. The media must tell us this as unsubtly as possible.

Most of the people I hang out with spend most of the time stoned, and are incredibly intelligent. I myself don't take it.

However, it's those people that keep going on and on about all that weed they smoke and how cool it is, and how people who don't smoke weed are squares and are trapped within the confines of the establishment that very much annoy me, which is everyone but the friends I hang out with.

Usually, by my experience, the overt, almost stereotypical stoners are great - it's the others that follow the "cool" trends that suck. Then again, I live in Leeds which, last time I checked, wasn't exactly a bastion of intelligence anyway.

 

[Susan Arendt]

This is something I've been wondering for a while now. In movies, TV shows, literature and even just the common image that comes to mind on this subject always seems to show stoners (or anyone who uses any drug of any kind) as being incredibly stupid and weak minded.

But why is this?

For me, it's the exact opposite. All the stoners I know are actually extremely intelligent and often times are brilliant in their own ways. So why is it that the general public and the media depict weed smokers as unintelligent and borderline retarded?

Is it because the media wishes to give drugs as much shit as possible, so in turn they show the users as stupid because of their drug use rather than just being stupid in the first place? Or is it actually true that most of them are just stupid and I am lucky to know the few intellectual dopers?

What does the Escapist think about this and do you yourself do any drugs of the sort?

Publicly admitting to committing a crime really isn't in your best interests.

Whether or not a pothead is, in fact, dumb, you look/act like a complete idiot when you're high.

 

[Phoenix09215]

I only know one person you might be able to classify as a "Stoner" and he isn;t stupid... He isn't a brainiac but he is still bright and is expected to score well in his GCSE's then again... who isn't?

 

[More Fun To Compute]

It's probably anecdotal based on the way that some people who have been smoking heavily for years talk. Maybe a cultural thing based on Cheech and Chong.

I don't really trust people saying that it doesn't affect the brain though. How many people had to smoke cigarettes for how long before it could be officially declared that smoking causes cancer? And you can be sure that people thought that it did based on anecdotal evidence and "correlation is not causation" statistics.

 

[Julianking93]

Publicly admitting to committing a crime really isn't in your best interests.

Did I say that I smoke weed?

Because I don't, I'm merely asking if anyone here does and it didn't seem like that much of a problem before. I've seen people here admit it.

 

[atombeast707]

im a stoner, and im not stupid. a lot of stoners i know are stupid, but i also know plenty that arent. everybody who smokes can have a varying level of intelligence, and i think society (or in most cases, comedy movies)make them out to be stupid because its convenient.

 

[The Zango]

Well on TV we tend to be portrayed when we are stoned and so we look like idiots but as a frequent 'green appreciator', I'd say that we aren't all stupid, dribbling fools. In fact stoners have to be really ingenuity, making 'toots' (bongs) out of the most amazing things.

 

[Sanguinius- The Angel]

Because they smoke pot. They're idiots.

 

[xavi]

I know a few stoners(smoking 3+ times a day) who are doing quite well for themselves BUT I know countless more who barely made it through highschool(if at all) dropped out of college, can't find a decent job, still live with their parents, and mooch off everybody else. I still love these guys to death but this "stereotype" lives up to it's name more often than not.

 

[The Zango]

Because they smoke pot. They're idiots.

Hey, I take offence to that, I smoke pot and I'm even a little high right now but I know I'm not an idiot. Some stoners are idiots I admit, but you cant brand an entire group on the behaviours of a few.