After following thousands of people over several decades, British scientists have discovered that adults who scored high on IQ tests as children are more likely to use drugs than adults who tested with lower scores when they were kids.

When I heard about this study, I wasn’t surprised. I doubt that anyone really is; in fact, why wouldn’t people with high IQs use drugs? I’ve always heard that people with the highest IQ levels are eccentric, often depressed, and live lifestyles that wouldn’t ever be considered “normal.” These aren’t necessarily bad things, of course—save for instances where these people harmed themselves or others—but drug use seems to easily fit within this picture.

Then again, look at every masterpiece, every instance of artistic genius, in history, and drugs are a recurring theme. Huge scientific breakthroughs have even been made by scientists under the influence. I’m not going to make the blanket statement that all artists and geniuses in general do drugs, but we do know that many of the books, pieces of art, and especially songs that we treasure as the being the greatest in history were created by artists who were under the influence of drugs.

And it’s not as if we truly condemn it, either—outside the public school setting or the so-called “War on Drugs,” that is. I once even had an editor tell me that she’d love to see what fiction I would create if I “tripped on acid.” Though I never took up the challenge, I do know plenty of people who have created intense, moving works of art regardless of IQ, and can only imagine how much these substances might affect someone who is truly gifted.

I’m not condoning getting stoned in the name of art or intellectual pursuits; it can certainly be dangerous and even fatal, and I’d never knowingly put drugs into the hands of people I love. I only mean to say that it is nothing new, and that perhaps we shouldn’t be so quick to judge people, or to equate drug use with stupidity, or even immorality. From Shakespeare to Winston Churchill, Judy Garland to Stephen King, many of our most prominent historic figures, heroes, and role models were known drug users. Perhaps we could simply keep this in mind when we condemn people who’ve used drugs as “lowlife scum,” demand drug testing for everything in life, and generally consider ourselves better than those who use drugs.