iccky

So lets run some stats to see if, in fact, all pot heads are losers. Even this pothead knows that the crosstabs I'm presenting here aren't proof of causation. They are proof, however, that you can be a regular pot smoker a lead a successful life.

All data taken from the 2004 National Survey on drug use and health.

First, occupation. Loser pot smokers shouldn't have managerial or executive jobs, right? Actually, only 51% of people with these jobs have never smoked pot, compared to 60 percent in the population at large. 8.3 percent have smoked in the last month, more than the 6 percent in the general population. Do ditch diggers smoke pot at higher rates? In fact they do, as 57 percent of those working in "Construction Trades & Extraction Work" have smoked at least once and 20 percent have done so in the last month.

Education. Here the stats are limited since they the top category is a college degree (and apparently it isn't till grad/professional school that pot smokers really feel the pinch). Here 4.2 percent of people with college degrees report having smoked pot in the last month, compared to 6.2 percent of high school dropouts and 6.1 percent of those with only a high school degree. On the other hand, high school dropouts are the most likely to have never smoked pot (69 percent). Only 52.5 percent of college graduates have never tried pot.

How about income? Of those making $75,000 a year or more, 5 percent have smoked pot in the past month, slightly less than the national average of 6 percent. About 5.7 percent of those making between $75,000 and $20,000 a year smoked in the past month, roughly the national average. Pot usage goes up in the lowest income category to 8.4 percent. As with education, the chance that someone has ever tried pot increases with income, with 66 percent of those in the lowest income category having never smoked and 52 percent in the top income category having never smoked.

Conclusion? Pot use is associated with lower achievement in some, though not all categories. Interestingly, having tried pot at some point in your life is associated with higher achievement. Again, these are associations, not proof of causation. People might achieve less because they smoke, pot, might smoke pot because they achieve less, or there might be some outside factor at play (for instance, people who have been arrested for smoking pot might not be able to get good jobs/student loans).

Moreover, this association is fairly weak. Using a correlation here is statistically shady, but the correlation between pot use and income is -.04, compared to a correlation of .33 between income and education. (With income and pot use coded at 4 category ordinal variables, the pot use categories being smoked in last month/smoked 2-11 months ago/smoked over a year ago/never smoked)

What is clear is that pot-smoker doesn't equal loser, at least as defined by income, education or employment. High income earners smoke at only a slightly lower rate than the national average, managers and executives smoke at a slightly higher rate, college graduates smoke at a slightly lower rate. So Ustwo, maybe you just need to meet more people.