People with higher IQs are more likely than their lower- IQ counterparts to smoke marijuana and take illicit drugs, according to a Time magazine article.

The research was based on interviews with 7,900 British people born in early April 1970. They were followed at various points throughout their lifetime, according to the article. The IQs of participants were measured at 5 and 10 years old, and then measured again at 16 and 30 years old. Researchers asked them about symptoms of psychological distress and drug use.

At age 30, 35 percent of men and 16 percent of women said they had smoked marijuana at least once in the previous year, and in the same period, 9 percent of men and 4 percent of women said they had taken cocaine. Drug users tended to have higher scores on IQ tests than non-users, according to the article.

‘It’s counterintuitive,’ said James White, lead author from the Center for the Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions for Public Health Improvement at Cardiff University in Wales, in the Time article.

The IQ effect was larger in women, as women in the top third of the IQ range at age 5 were more than twice as likely to have tried marijuana or cocaine by age 30, than their counterparts, who scored in the bottom third, according to the article.

‘(The gender gap) is a little surprising in one aspect. (Drug use) can be more of a risk-taking behavior, and we tend to associate that with men,’ said Dessa Bergen-Cico, who has expertise in drug and behavioral addictions and is also an assistant professor at the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics.

Earlier research found connections between high IQs and a greater risk of alcohol abuse and dependence, according to the article. This could potentially be linked to boredom and social isolation.

‘Intelligent minds are running, and substances affect the way you see things and how you connect thoughts and concepts, so these bright people may be using drugs to change what they see to relieve themselves of boredom,’ Bergen-Cico said.

Bergen-Cico said that people with higher IQs often use drugs to knowingly or unknowingly self-medicate. Smoking marijuana, for instance, can prevent these intellectuals’ minds from racing a million miles an hour and give them time to unwind and socialize, she said.

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Published on December 5, 2011 at 12:00 pm