The Myth of the Unmotivated Stoner (And 3 Other Lies)

Holiday tables can be loud and the myths about cannabis are often louder. We wanted to arm you with clarity, compassion, and receipts. So we take on four of the most persistent stereotypes: the “lazy stoner,” the forgetful lightweight, the gateway narrative, and the idea that cannabis users are unhealthy or addicted by default. Using current research, historical context, and stories from our own kitchen, we separate temporary effects from enduring traits and show how intention, dosing, and education change everything.

If you’re heading into family conversations, we’ve got your talking points and your calm. Bring curiosity, share evidence, and cook with care. Subscribe for more chef-tested edible recipes, culture deep dives, and science you can trust, and leave a review to tell us which myth you’re ready to retire next.

Join the waitlist at JoinBiteMe.com/challenge - Music by Alexander Blu

Chapters

• 3:47 Setting The Stage: Food, Culture, Cannabis
• 4:32 Why Tackle Stereotypes Today
• 6:00 Pivot From Fudge To Mythbusting
• 7:00 The Cartoon Stoner Image
• 8:10 Myth 1: The Lazy Couch Potato
• 10:48 Evidence And High-Achiever Examples
• 13:49 Myth 2: The Forgetful Dumbstoner
• 16:49 Memory, Creativity, And Aging
• 18:44 Myth 3: The Gateway Drug

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 2:44

What happens when you take a love of food, a passion for culture, and a deep knowledge of cannabis and you toss them all into one bowl? You get Bite Me, the podcast that explores the intersection of food, culture, and cannabis and helps cooks make great edibles at home. I'm your host, Certified Gangier, TCI Certified Cannabis Educator, and I believe your kitchen is the best dispensary you'll ever have. Together we'll explore the stories, the science, and the sheer joy of making safe, effective, and unforgettable edibles at home. So preheat your oven and let's get ready for a great episode. And you may be asking, Margaret, what are we talking about today? And I'm really glad you asked because I had to change some things up today. So this is episode 327. And if you're just joining us for the first time, we are talking about stoner stereotypes, and we are debunking them one stereotype at a time because these are the things that will not die. They seem to take so long. I live in a place I'm fortunate to be in Canada. I am Canadian and I have enjoyed legal cannabis for seven years now. Is it seven years? I think so. And there is still a ton of stigma and stereotypes around cannabis. And so I thought, you know, this might be a good time to take a minute to talk about some of these myths, where they come from, and perhaps share these with folks who may not be so cannabis-friendly. Because let's be honest, this episode is coming out on Thanksgiving Day in the United States. And while I am in Canada, I have more American listeners than Canadian listeners. And I appreciate you all. And I know that Thanksgiving can be an interesting time when you're getting together with friends and family that you might not have seen in a while and may also have different opinions than you about a number of things. So I thought this might be a good time to talk about some of these stereotypes and, you know, just bust some myths. And if I'm also being completely honest, I had planned something else for this episode. Yep. I wanted to make a fudge recipe because I saw one in a magazine that I thought looked delightful and very festive. We're getting into that time of year. We get this is being recorded at the end of November. I had tried to make this before and it didn't turn out, which was a surprise to me. I know what I did wrong. It was a surprise to me because I've made fudge lots of times. And I one of the reasons I like making fudge is because it's easy. Not this time. So I had to put that one in the back burner. I'm going to revisit it, see what I can do to perhaps salvage what I've already made. But all those lessons learned will be shared with you at a later date. In the meanwhile, we're going to have to pivot. And that is the great thing about being a small independent podcaster. So I can do whatever the fuck I want. And it's a really great place to be in. What did they look like? What did they sound like? Like, whoa, dude, did she ever like just like look at your hands? Right. Like that guy, the one with the vacant stare, the permanent grin, and a vocabulary of about four words. For decades, that's kind of been the go-to image of a cannabis user. We've seen it all in said movie. You can probably think of more than one if you've watched any stoner movies. Maybe you haven't, but the lazy, unmotivated, junk food hoarding character. That's what we're talking about right here. But what if I told you that character is just as mythical as, say, a unicorn? What if I told you the person who uses cannabis could be your doctor, your favorite author, the CEO of a Fortune 500 company? Today we're taking a deep dive into the most persistent stoner stereotypes and holding up to the light of science and history. This is Stoner Stereotypes Breaking Down the Myths. And I'm glad you're with me today. If you've been listening to Bite Me for a little while, thank you so much. I'm really glad you're here. And if you're new, this is a fun one. So let's dive in. So let's start with the big one: the foundation upon which all other stereotypes are built. Myth number one is of course the lazy, unmotivated couch potato. This is the image of the amotivational syndrome, a term coined back in the 1960s to describe cannabis users who supposedly lose all ambition. It's the idea that cannabis drains your energy, your drive, and your will to do anything other than watch cartoons. But when the researchers actually tried to prove this, they've consistently come up empty-handed. A major study from the University of Cambridge, for example, found no difference in motivation for rewards, apathy levels, or pleasure-seeking between cannabis users and non-users. More recently, a fascinating study in April 2024 published in Social, Psychological, and Personality Science, gave us an even clearer picture. Researchers found that while being high might make someone a little less orderly or a bit more impulsive in that moment, it does not fundamentally kill their ethic or their inner drive. The will to succeed is still there. So the study's lead author put it pretty perfectly. He said, and I'm paraphrasing here, these things can detract from getting stuff done, but we didn't find it made them less hardworking or responsible. And that I think is a crucial distinction. Feeling a bit fuzzy for a few hours is not the same as inherently being a lazy person. And maybe that stereotype has persisted for so long because there's just lazy people in the world who also happen to smoke cannabis, which is something completely different. And honestly, the anecdotal evidence is pretty overwhelming. So let's play a little game. I'm going to list some people and you can tell me what they have in common. I am going to give you a hint, of course, that uh I think we already know the answer to this. Uh Carl Sagan, the brilliant astrophysicist who guided us through the cosmos and wrote under pseudonym Mr. X, Steve Jobs, the visionary co-founder of Apple, Lady Gaga, a global pop superstar and prolific songwriter. So, what do these three folks all have in common? They are all titans in their field and they have all used cannabis. And so the idea that cannabis automat automatically makes you lazy is not just wrong, it's insulting to the millions of ambitious, successful, and hardworking people who also happen to enjoy it. And I would also point to for further evidence to bite me the show about edibles. If you go back and look at the back catalog of all the guests that I've had on this show, I've had scientists, I've had PhD, educated researchers, I've had engineers, uh, doctors. Have I had a doctor on here? I am actually next week, stay tuned. I am, I will be having a veterinarian, which is an animal doctor, business people, chefs who are extremely successful. There's been all kinds of people on this show that I've had the opportunity to interview. And that one common third, of course, is that we all love cannabis. And I could also point to the fact that if cannabis made you lazy, I would not be putting out weekly episodes for the last six years. So I am the anti-stereotype myself. Okay, so let's go on to myth number two: the forgetful dumbstoner. The like, I mean, maybe maybe you've seen Dude Where's My Car. That's that kind of stereotype. The person who walks into a room and immediately forgets that they're there or why they're there. And look, we have to be honest, there is a kernel of truth here. THC, the main cycloactive compound in cannabis, can temporarily interfere with the brain's ability to form new short-term memory. That's why you might lose your train of thought, mid-sentence, or forget a great idea you had five minutes ago. But the keyword here is temporary. This isn't permanent brain damage. Think of it like this: when you have a few drinks, your coordination is impaired, but you don't assume you've permanently lost your ability to walk in a straight line. Once the effect wears off, your brain's normal memory function returns. We never question that when it comes to alcohol, and yet we question that when it comes to cannabis. In fact, some researchers argue that this temporary disruption of linear thought is exactly what can lead to enhanced creativity. By quieting the brain's rigid default mode network, cannabis may allow for more common or novel connections to be made. What's known as divergent thinking. It helps you connect the dots in ways you might not have otherwise. It's not about being dumber, it's about thinking differently. And that's the key. And also, let's all be honest here as well. Those short-term lapses in memory may have nothing to do with the cannabis. It could be related to just natural aging, perimenopause. There's probably other factors in there as well. But those are two things, natural aging and women going through the transition, that can affect your short-term memory as well. I mean, how many times have you put your glasses on your head and then like been like, where did I put my glasses? And done that when you weren't high. I should also note that that natural aging thing is a big thing. As of late, my father, who I live with, has been known to say, I think I'm starting to lose my marbles. And at the age of 94, I tell him maybe he needs to be a little gentler with himself because he is definitely likely experiencing some of the age-related memory loss that comes. So keep smoking your cannabis, keep doing your crossword puzzles too.

SPEAKER_01: 13:09

Honest. Honest. If you were being honest with me and honest with yourself, I'm afraid you'd tell me an entirely different story.

SPEAKER_00: 13:20

Cannabis is the gateway drug. Ugh, I used to hear this all the time when I was in high school in those drug assemblies and the presentations we got from local police officers. It's perhaps the most damaging myth of all, the idea that the smoking of a joint is the first step to an inevitable path to heroin or cocaine. And this is pure propaganda, born in the 1930s. You may all know a man named Harry Ann Slinger, the head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, and he needed a new crusade after alcohol prohibition ended. He latched onto cannabis using a racially charged rhetoric and fabricated stories, his famous gore files, to create a public panic. But from the very beginning, his own government's research proved him wrong. In 1944, the New York Academy of Medicines LaGuardia report found no evidence that cannabis led to hard drug use. In 1972, the government's own Schaefer Commission came to the exact same conclusion. They debunked the gateway theory completely. So why does it persist? Because of a simple logical fallacy, confusing correlation with causation. It's true that most people who use hard drugs have also tried cannabis. But guess what? They have also all had a glass of milk. They have all eaten bread. They've all tried a sugary snack. The vast, vast majority of people who try cannabis never go on to use harder substances. The real gateway isn't a substance. It's factors like poverty, trauma, mental health issues, accessibility. People start with what's available. And in a fascinating twist, modern research is now exploring cannabis as an exit drug, a far safer alternative that can help people get off dangerous drugs and highly addictive opioids, harm reduction, if you will. And I do talk about that in my interviews with Amanda Ryman on the show, one of the examples of an incredibly accomplished woman in her field, a PhD, a researcher, an advocate who also uses cannabis. Now, finally, let's talk about myth number four, the unhealthy addict. This stereotype cannabis users in with the most tragic images of addiction, suggesting they're all physically dependent, unhealthy, and unhygienic. Let's be responsible here. Cannabis use disorder is real. It's defined by a person using more than what they want to, and it causing significant problems in their life. About 9 to 30% of users may develop some degree of it, but that number needs some context. For comparison, about 15% of people who drink alcohol develop alcohol use disorder. 15%. And let's think about how widely pervasive alcohol use is. So that's a pretty big number. For heroin, it's about 23%. Nicotine, this probably won't surprise anybody who has ever had to quit smoking cigarettes, and I am in that category. Whopping 32% of users become dependent. I'm surprised actually that number's not higher because nicotine is so incredibly addictive. By any measure, cannabis is significantly less addictive than many legal substances, legal substances, not to mention things like caffeine that we consume every day. And also, I read a book by Michael Pollan. I have offhand the name of that book eludes me. It was not how to change your mind, which I also read, excellent book, but one that he did on some of the common substances that rule our lives. And he talked about open to the book with caffeine. Caffeine being the most widely pervasive drug in the world and the only one we routinely give to children. So let that sink in. I didn't even start drinking coffee myself until my late 30s, and now I can't imagine going without it. I could give up cannabis for a tolerance break. I'd be a lot more hard-pressed to give up the coffee. The headaches I would get, just thinking about the headaches I would get from that, is probably one reason why I might just continue drinking it. In any case, I feel like I have a healthy relationship with coffee, but it just goes to show. And what about overdose? This is pretty critical. There has never been in all of recorded history a single confirmed fatal overdose from cannabis alone. It's just not possible for humans to consume enough to cause a fatal overdose or a fatal outcome. Now you can certainly have a terrible time. Anybody who's used cannabis for any length of time knows that if you take too much, you can experience a green out. When I was in high school, we called it Caspering. I'm definitely aging myself there because you, instead of looking green, I thought you looked really white, like Casper the Friendly Ghost. Anyway, and that's when you're filled with anxiety, paranoia, nausea. You can feel pretty awful. An edibles overdose can be even worse. Panic attacks, like all the rest of it. But it's not life-threatening. You will come down, you will survive, you will not have any permanent damage. So the conversation around cannabis has been clouded by fear and misinformation for nearly a century. The lazy stoner, the brain-dead, forgetful fool, the gateway drug user. These are not reflections of reality. They are the ghosts of propaganda. And the truth is, there is no single type of cannabis user. There's doctors and lawyers, artists and engineers, parents and grandparents, people from all walks of life, using it for a multitude of reasons. Relaxation, creativity, medical relief, or simply to enjoy a different perspective. So the next time you hear someone use the word stoner, maybe pause and ask them, which one do you mean? The astrophysicist? The tech billionaire? The Grammy-winning musician? Or your friendly neighbor down the street? That's it for this week, my friends. Thanks for listening. This has been Stoner Stereotypes, Debunking the Myths. And I hope this helps you have conversations with some of the people you might be spending some time with. And until next week, my friends, I am your host, Margaret. Stay hi.

SPEAKER_01: 19:24

It's like making 10 times more higher than the crossbreak and the pineapple spreads, man.