people who have higher IQ's are richer and can afford recreational drugs. Also smarter people also are probably more likely to see the seams in the constructs of society and less inhibited in violating some of the more arbitrarily constructed laws. Finally I would imagine kids with high IQs would more likely shun groups that largely abstain from drug use (highly religious) and seek out groups that don't (college kids)

I don't necessarily think it automatically points out that smarter people see injustice in the world so they self medicate.

It might also be that people with high IQs are also more likely to suffer from mental illnesses or learning disabilities and my use recreational drugs to self medicate.

I've witnessed people going to drugs because of stress in their lives, particularly teens in high school and college. From what I've seen and heard, students with higher IQs tend to be in more difficult classes, increasing their work load, leading to the students using drugs as their escape. Some also believe they know more than they actually do and claim that drugs are not harmful. Them having shown a higher level of intelligence in the past leads them to believe that they are probably right, although this seems to be the argument for almost everybody who uses drugs.

I'd like to see the actual study and know what the breakdown is between different drugs because, of course, not all drugs were created equal. Also, not all drug use was created equal. Without know how much of what drugs, I'd have a difficult idea understanding what this study was trying to suggest.

I've seen studies that suggest that people with a higher IQ have a higher affiliation for hallucinogens because either a) you need to have strong cognitive skills to enjoy the reaction or b) the drugs give a (pseudo) intellectual high.

I'm not convinced of it but it's an interesting hypothesis.

You have to pay for the full text, but I pasted the abstract below. I wonder if the drugs surveyed are a factor. It looks like they were checking for cannabis, cocaine, amphetamine, and ecstasy. Are they distinguishing cocaine from crack? What about heroin or methamphetamine? Do they include cheaper alternatives to get a high, such as huffing paint? Hmm.

Abstract
Background Recent reports have linked high childhood IQ scores with excess alcohol intake and alcohol dependency in adult life, but the relationship with illegal drug use in later life is relatively unknown.

Methods The authors used data from a large population-based birth cohort (1970 British Cohort Study) with measures of lifetime cannabis and cocaine use, parental social class and psychological distress at 16 years; cannabis, cocaine, amphetamine, ecstasy and polydrug use (more than three drugs) in the past 12 months; and social class, educational attainment and gross monthly income at 30 years. All members of the cohort with IQ scores at 5 or 10 years were eligible to be included in the analyses.

Results Of the 11 603 (at 5 years) and 11 397 (at 10 years) cohort members eligible, 7904 (68.1%) and 7946 (69.7%) were included in the analyses. IQ scores at 5 years were positively associated with cannabis (OR (bottom vs top tertile) =2.25, 95% CI 1.71 to 2.97) and cocaine use (OR 2.35, 95% CI 1.41 to 3.92) in women and with amphetamines (OR 1.46, 95% CI 1.03 to 2.06), ecstasy (OR 1.65, 95% CI 1.15 to 2.36) and polydrug use (OR 1.57, 95% CI 1.09 to 2.26) in men at 30 years. IQ scores at 10 years were positively associated with cannabis, cocaine (only at 30 years), ecstasy, amphetamine and polydrug use. Associations were stronger in women than in men and were independent from psychological distress in adolescence and life-course socioeconomic position.

Conclusion High childhood IQ may increase the risk of illegal drug use in adolescence and adulthood.

So, I guess the next move on the war on drugs should be to bludgeon young children until the lose a few brain cells?

And in response to some of the posts above. I really don't think the higher drug use can be attributed to the mythical plight of the high-IQ. You're going to have a hard time convincing me the higher drug use is connected to "more difficult classes" or "see through the glass ceiling."

Not asking about alcohol or tobacco or prescriptions skews this result tremendously, but I guess tagging in "illegal" lets it slide. That aside, I agree, for certain drugs. Psychedelics, Cannabis, MDMA, among others. But there's definitely a category of drugs the smart one's stay away from.

people with a high IQ tend to be richer? do you have some proof or were you just postulating?

@sacred digits
thats pretty much why I started taking drugs lol. I could tell school was just a game, full of lies and shaded half truth. So i figured if they were lying about so much then they must be lying about the harmfullness of drugs. not the best logic but I was in 5th grade after all

Clearly drugs make you smarter :-P

@Sic is a wastoid? That explainms a *lot*!