Cannabis users’ ‘lazy stoner’ stereotype is ‘unfair’: experts

The “lazy stoner” stereotype just went up in smoke.

We all know the cliché: pot heads are identified as spaced-out, lethargic and unmotivated. But a new study has exposed that is not often, or even typically, the scenario with cannabis customers.

Researchers in the UK found that people who take in cannabis consistently are no additional loafing than non-customers — and no a lot less possible to get pleasure from life’s pleasures, both.

“We’re so utilized to observing ‘lazy stoners’ on our screens that we do not cease to ask whether they’re an accurate illustration of cannabis customers,” claimed University of Cambridge neuroscientist Martine Skumlien, an writer of the analyze, in a statement on Thursday.

“Our perform indicates that this [term] is in by itself a lazy stereotype, and that people today who use cannabis are no much more likely to lack drive or be lazier than people today who never,” Skumlien continued.

The researcher extra, “Unfair assumptions can be stigmatizing and could get in the way of messages all-around hurt reduction. We require to be honest and frank about what are and are not the hazardous outcomes of drug use.”

Cannabis is the third most made use of substances in the planet, powering alcohol and nicotine — prompting researchers and physicians to discover its results, and prospective benefits.

Scientists examined 274 adolescent and adult cannabis people who had employed the drug at minimum weekly more than the earlier a few months, at an ordinary amount of 4 days for every week — and when compared them versus non-customers of the same age and gender.

All had been presented a questionnaire to asses their degree of commitment (apathy), and curiosity in items they ordinarily delight in (anhedonia).

Researchers examined the participant’s behavioral responses using a quick button-pressing match and making use of treats these kinds of as chocolate or a £1 coin as a reward if they attained their intention. Participants have been asked how a great deal they desired the reward on a scale from “do not want at all” to “intensely want” before the take a look at and requested how enjoyable it was after getting the reward on a scale from “do not like at all” to “intensely like.”

In the finish, cannabis buyers responded to benefits with marginally decrease stages of pleasure, suggesting that they could be just as written content without the need of the prize, and shown no a lot more or fewer commitment for the duration of the trial in comparison to non-users.

Their results are notably considerable to individuals learning the consequences of cannabis on adolescents, as som scientists have beforehand hypothesized that cannabis use among children and teens could affect their producing brains.

“Our research, a single of the 1st to straight compare adolescents and adults who use cannabis, suggests that adolescents are no a lot more vulnerable than grown ups to the unsafe results of cannabis on drive, the working experience of pleasure or the brain’s response to reward,” mentioned psychology researcher Will Lawn, of King’s Higher education London, who contributed to the review.

“In reality, it would seem cannabis may perhaps have no hyperlink — or at most only weak associations — with these outcomes in general,” Garden concluded of their findings, now printed in the International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology.

In August, a survey showed that young Us residents are smoking weed and tripping on psychedelics a lot more than ever right before.

The analyze performed by the University of Michigan for the National Institutes of Overall health, discovered that 43% of grown ups ages 19 to 30 smoked cannabis at some level in the previous calendar year — a important soar from 34% five many years ago, and 29% in 2011.