Drug usage and outstanding performance among young adolescents

In this study, 1,008 ninth grade boys and 1,040 ninth grade girls completed questionnaires concerning: (a) drug usage (alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, psychedelics, etc.) over the previous 6 months; and (b) outstanding performance in art, school subjects, music, leadership, performing arts, athletics, and writing. In general, the outstanding performer is rather more likely to be an abstainer and less likely to fall into the high-user category than is a nonoutstanding performer. The strongest support for this appears to come from use of tobacco. Differences between outstanding and nonoutstanding students are, however, often quite small.