For decades, weed’s deleterious health effects were exaggerated, experts said, leading to excessive criminalization
This line fron the article is exactly why I’m skeptical. I had to sit through tons of middle school and high school programs that lied to me about the physiological effects of marijuana. This article itself opens with an anecdote about one individual, but fails to identify any academic study suggesting physiological addiction because… There is none.
Psychological addiction is real. There’s a reason that in most places any gambling advertisements have to include a warning and a hotline. The problem is that these sensationalist articles never make the distinction between psychological and physiological addiction. This article mentions when the case study first tried marijuana, but fails to detail the circumstances of her life, her personality, and other factors that can contribute to psychological addiction.
Add in that the medical marijuana industry is trying to replace the very physiological addictive (and profitable) pain medications… Add that to the years of lies in schools and media… Forgive me for not trusting this BS at all.
I had hoped there would be a significant study I could read but it’s just the same reefer madness we’ve seen for decades.
It will be great when it’s finally fully legal and we can do real science on it.
i started smoking because i have mucle pain every day (muscular disbalance) basecally my mucels are to short and i because i liked the affect. it’s been around a year and a half in that time i noticed beleave it or not (i don’t care) my memory got better and i’m much happier mostly because i don’t have to take pain killer that often. if i don’t have any other than not being able to be very active(because of pain) i don’t notice it to much of curse i sometimes then think it would be nice to smoke one but that dosen’t happen to often. at least for me being a stoner and being lazy dosen’t apply at all i’m a mechanikalengeneer (i did an apprenticeship) and now i’m doing a second one as a programmer.
Very anecdotal, but I know multiple people who are addicted. Could very well be psychological, but if they go more than a day or two without smoking they are terrible to be around. Which sucks because I’m stuck with
A) don’t be around them
B) be around them while they are baked and smell
C) be around them while they are terrible
I’ve been sticking with A for the time being, but it sucks because I feel like I’ve already lost a few friends when I stopped smoking and it seems like that is their whole life.
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Honestly, if I found out one of my friends saw me this way I’d rather they just get out of my life.
If the only way you can live your life is to be stoned 24/7, and you are a grouch going off the handle at every little thing without it, it would probably be best.
I’ve got nothing against smoking weed, but just like I don’t want to be around someone piss drunk all the time I don’t want to be around someone who is blitzed all the time. There is a time and a place.
So are you the same with people who need to be caffeinated 24/7 and are irritable asshole if they dont get their coffee?
I’ve met much fewer people like that, and when they do get their coffee they aren’t acting stupid and smelly.
That’s not me, but I don’t really feel like it’s particularly helpful to be in someone’s life if that’s the way you look at it. Especially if it’s a situation where your own standards have changed while theirs haven’t.
Honestly, I don’t really want to be spending my time around people who look down on me at all, full stop. Whatever the reason they may have, why have people in your life socially whose company you don’t enjoy? I used to put up with a lot of that, largely when I was broke and directionless, but it’s not really worth it. There are so many people out there, why not find some who are on the same page?
That doesn’t have to attempt to be a position of moral superiority or putting your nose up about lack of responsibility. It can just not be a good fit. Lots of people aren’t a good fit for one another.
It’s just a support network… peers that believe in you to do better things.
If you can’t take criticism then you have every right to shut out people who are concerned about you and toke instead.
I personally felt bad about myself when I was using weed to medicate. What was freedom became something I couldn’t escape from. Many people might not want to be where they are and want help to function. You never know if that person needs support.
On the other hand if you are functioning and know that you’ve earned what you enjoy, you can probably handle someone voicing concern.
I used weed to medicate when every drug my doctors gave me failed for years. Because of smoking weed every day for years, I lived long enough to take things that actually treat my problem, and was immediately able to drop my weed consumption as much as I liked. I do it maybe 2-3 times a week now. How do you tell someone who’s addicted from someone using it to medicate something else when nothing’s available, from the outside?
I also think the word “addiction” is so broadly used as to be practically useless at this point. I could stop weed, no problem. If I try to get off lithium, withdrawal city. But you don’t hear people talking about lithium addiction. Plus, if we’re using the same word for responses to heroin, weed, and porn, we need better vocabulary.
Crazy that you’re getting downvoted for this. I smoke occasionally, but used to smoke daily and had to quit cold turkey for over a year. I now (almost 3 years since I first stopped cold turkey) refuse to have any marijuana on me and only smoke on the occasion that I’m out with friends and it’s offered to me. That ends up being about one toke a month. Irritability and bad mood for chronic smokers when they haven’t smoked enough to get withdrawals is common enough (anecdotally from my own experience quitting and seeing others around me struggling with it as well).
Especially if someone has quit and finds the smell off-putting or doesn’t like to be around people who are either constantly baked or very irritable, this point of view is perfectly valid and adds to the conversation. Don’t downvote just because you personally disagree.
Yeah man. We have people like Cheech & Chong, Willie Nelson or Snoop Dogg who for decades consume Marihuana. Did it destroy their life? Did it destroy their careers? Did it destroy their bodies? Nope! Nothing.
But artists who excessively drink alcohol or consume other drugs? They are wasted within years, broken bodies and souls who need years to get healthy again - if they don’t die before.
They are wasted within years, broken bodies and souls who need years to get healthy again
And then there’s Keith Richards…
A lot of people don’t realise this but he lives in a mansion and mostly does art every day, he’s not living a party lifestyle anymore and hasn’t for quite a while - it’s just the same equation we’ve seen time and time again; rich = great healthcare + relaxation = longevity and health. Like how Elon looks younger and healthier than he did 25 years ago, it’s just money.
I’m not the biggest smoker, but still a few grams a day and withdrawal is real. There is a physical side to it, it’s pretty mild like with coffee but it’s certainly unenjoyable.
Addiction is addiction. Whether you’re addicted because you took a drug that your brain now depends on, or you’ve gotten used to doing something that makes you happy and your brain depends on the stimulus to make the happy juice, addiction is a physiological response. The effects on your brain are chemical. Your addiction is marked by the changes in thinking to seek and obtain your particular “high” in whatever form your brain needs, and you will experience withdrawal if you stop.
Some substances and activities are highly addictive, because they are designed to be. Marijuana is more potent than ever, and the experience of shopping for different strains and trying all the “flavors” is itself a little reward system.
People want to make distinctions between chemical addiction and psychological addiction, and there are differences, but addiction is addiction.
So addiction is a word so broad as to be practically meaningless, is what you’re saying.
Maybe start by not assuming everyone has normal brain chemistry. As someone whose brain couldn’t make “happy juice” on its own for years (I have a problem processing folate, which is an ingredient in a bunch of brain chemicals), if I hadn’t smoked weed before I found out what was wrong, I wouldn’t have lived long enough to do so.
I honestly have no idea what version of what I said you’re arguing with.
I think you may be trivializing a pretty complex subject a bit too much
There is a major difference between our coloqual addictions (sugar, caffeine, our phones) and a substance use disorder. It’s worth talking about where on that spectrum marijuana lies
For my part, I suspect that marijuana is much closer to the former than the latter.
I’ve worked with a lot of people in recovery over the years, and while some ex-stoners will tell you how hard it was for them to quit, anyone with a real habit will tell you quitting weed isn’t anywhere near the same level as opiates, benzos, amphetamines, alcohol, or even nicotine
It’s a “gateway” drug is my personal favourite. Yeah marijuana may not be as bad a heroin but it leads to heroin so you know, don’t do it!
Hey don’t eat that carrot! Why? It’s a gateway food to candy!
🤦♂️
Nah fam. I’m addicted, trust me. Trouble eating, sleeping, keeping food down. Have to titration down super slowly or get intense cravings. It sucks.
After about 8 years of daily smoking (and slowly smoking more and more because of tolerance building up) I decided to quit for various reasons.
I’m at about 10 days off cold turkey and I’m still struggling a lot. At the beginning was a big loss of appetite, trouble going to sleep and obviously the psychological desire to smoke. The worst part for me though is the intense anxiety, irritability and the lack of motivation to do anything. It feels like falling back into depression and slowly try crawling out of it.
Really disappointing to see so many people in here denying what I’m going through. Yes there’s always been propaganda against using, but there’s still some truth to it. I’m still glad that it’s legal here in Canada because it did help me at one point, but like every drug, you have to be careful.
All of these things you describe are very real but they’re not physical withdrawal symptoms, but indeed psychological. The mind is a very powerful thing, so these effects can be very powerful, I’m not trying to dismiss your experience. However they are not the same as for example withdrawal from heroin or heavy alcoholism, both of which create actual physical pain and potentially death.
Every individual is different too, so people sharing how they can be heavy smokers and stop while on vacation for a few weeks without issues aren’t trying to dismiss your experience, just like how you shouldn’t dismiss theirs.
I’ve known physical withdrawal in the past and am a daily smoker now, I’m also one of those that can just stop on vacation no big deal, but I seldom skip a day at home.
Like most people pointed out, you can get addicted to anything. But people need to understand that there are drugs that are more chemically addictive and cause larger issues like meth and nicotine and people labeling marijuana with those other drugs is dumb and ignorant.
I was definitely addicted to marijuana when I was younger. I came home from work one night to find my roommates had smoked the last of it and I literally physically attacked them and then cried myself to sleep.
I have a personality built for addiction though.
I spent a decade as a heroin addict and I would have killed to cry myself to sleep when I was without. There was no sleep, just ungodly pain.
I’m currently taking a third of my normal suboxone dose right now because I lost several and someone picked them up (don’t blame them). I’m handling it well. I have to deal with this until the 17th. So far 3 days in and I’m just coasting. All this time worrying about tapering off and then this happens and I’m thinking maybe it won’t be so bad. I have to do it like this or go some time without, which is scary af. When I tried to taper I’d experience topical withdrawal symptoms. Constant yawning, chill bumps, fatigue. I swear I think it was all in my head because I could choooooose not to do it.
The addict in me keeps trying to talk me into making it a problem for future me, but I’m not doing that.
As a matter of fact, I’m thinking of sticking with it if it’s not worse by the end. After that I’ll either taper off or go to the shot.
Fuck it. I’m done worrying about it. I’m done being afraid that if I lose my medicine I’m a cripple and the system won’t help me. I’ll have to break the law to be ok. Fuck that.
Fk bro sorry to hear that. Not saying weed isn’t addictive, just that it shouldn’t be compared to harder drugs that form a chemical dependency much faster than weed. I’ve struggled with addiction in the past. I’ve found that working out when you get those urges can help. Good luck going forward bro
Thanks for sharing bud. I too am in recovery and I wish you well. Everything gonna be alright.
Agree. Marijuana creates mostly psychological dependance. I was also addicted but when I decided to stop I had practically no physical side-effects, although I did “crave” it in my mind for a week or two.
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Is it supposed to be a competition? What do you get if you win?
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You get sobriety if you win the ‘who got the worse withdrawal symptom’ contest? What?
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You should ask yourself that. You’re the one coming in here trying to downplay weed withdrawal by saying alcohol withdrawal is worse as if it’s a competition.
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Why would you post such a bland panorama piece on a science channel? There was nothing scientific in that drivel.
MJ is a psychological, rather than chemical addiction. Thus it is completely different than Opioids and Amphetamines, which are chemically addictive.
People can get addicted to literally - as in really - everything.
Stop selling soda, people get addicted. Stop selling McDonald’s, people get addicted, etc
People need to learn self control. Period.
I’ve always looked at ‘marijuana addiction’ as more of a symptom of bigger problems such as depression. if you’re not depressed quitting weed should be no problem. If they weren’t going to self medicate with weed they’d likely do it with something much worse anyway so we should stop blaming weed for people’s problems.
100%. Weed kept me alive when no legal drugs worked. The second something else worked, I dropped my consumption significantly without a problem. After 15 years of daily use.
The only thing that TLC has taught me is that people can get addicted to anything.
So, where’s the science in this article? I just read a bunch of fear mongering and feels. …and a whole lot of stories and sources from red states.
I don’t know how I feel about this. I regularly smoke/use edibles, and I get that it can easily become habitual. You get home afterwork, smoke a bowl, and get on with your life.
But not once have I ever felt that I NEED to smoke. I’ve been using for over 4 years now. I grow my own. I make my own oils and edibles. I’ve never felt that it’s something that I need to do. For example, I can very easily stop for a few weeks and suffer literally zero withdrawal from it. So, I don’t really understand what’s so “addicting” about it.
the same that leads to the harder to beat parts of nicotine addiction: A mixture of having a habit and using it as a coping mechanism. If putting the green glasses on becomes how you deal with negativity in your life, cutting the stuff loose will be incredibly hard. If you always dealt with shit that went on by making yourself chemically happy, how are you supposed to know how to deal with shit that goes on without that? This is the main issue with most mind-altering things, be it nicotine, caffeine, or even fitness exercises. The other part is that an addiction is often just a habit that has gotten too far. This can make an addiction out of literally anything.
By your argument then, it’s not the weed thats addicting. It’s a human, habit-forming mechanism. You said it yourself, that you “can make an addiction out of literally anything.”
So, I’m still at the same impasse. Why blame weed for what is clearly a human issue? It seems to me that we need to figure out better coping mechanisms, and how to break bad habits. Articles like this will only demonize cannabis, especially in a time when things are about to change for the better.
You omitted one really crucial thing of what I said:
This is the main issue with most mind-altering things,
The level of mind-altering a substance can achieve determines the extent of this effect. So THC is bound to be more addictive than -say- caffeine or melatonin supplements. That’s not “demonizing”. Your reflex to downplay the issue in order to defend the status of THC in society is - at least in part - responsible for the issues for people who suffer from an addiction to THC, since their fellow users will be the greatest sceptics if they are told one has gotten addicted. Yet not, because they can’t fathom that weed might be a thing one can get addicted to, but because they don’t want to jeopardize the legality of weed.
You didn’t spell out any reason why that’s exceptional. You literally used working out as an example. At that point, any form of self-soothing is a mind altering addiction. Tapping your foot while waiting would fit that definition if exercise does.
There’s nothing exceptional between being addicted to marijuana, just like fast food or gambling. It’s purely habit, not the item itself. It’s psychological, not physiological. Physiological addiction exists. That’s why withdrawal is a thing for certain addictions and I don’t just mean “aw, they’re in a bad mood cause they stopped smoking weed” or “oh, they went on a diet so they’re cranky.”
Gambling isn’t the core problem when someone is addicted to gambling. Theyre filling a void with the wrong thing. It’s, again, something for emotional therapy. But it says nothing about marijuana.
You can be addicted to the feeling of mellow and high that marijuana gives you, that’s psychological addiction. It’s the same as how you can become addicted to eating oreos. You can stop eating oreos or smoking weed and physically be fine, no withdrawals. But psychologically, you may feel the need to go back to it.
If you can be “psychologically addicted” to anything, then why label marijuana specifically as “addicting”? We don’t label wintergreen mints as psychologically addicting, even though some people will routinely crush a bag of them in one sitting. It seems that we’re misattributing the human, habit-forming parts of ourselves (or possibly our need for pleasure) as a negative-characteristic of marijuana, and I don’t think that’s being genuine to the problems.
Articles like this only further the demonization of marijuana and give cause to ban it.
Because it’s still a thing. Gaming addiction and porn addiction is only psychologically addicting, yet nobody ever argues against those terms.
That last bit is not accurate. Search those terms with “is x real?” or “x controversy.” There is absolutely a debate rn about what constitutes addiction, and those things are regularly brought up.
I feel like the pendulum of how safe or dangerous weed is has spun back in the opposite direction. At the end of the day weed is a drug. There’s worse things out there’s but it’s not harmless. I know potheads who look at it like it’s another green leafy vegetable that also cures cancer.
Edit: I just realized this is the science community. This article is not science. It’s news or maybe an editorial. There’s plenty of legit studies to post if we want to have this discussion.
It’s not harmless, but neither are the vast majority of the products you can buy off the shelf.
Microwaving plastic is terrible. Half the stuff you can buy from home Depot has to have a California reproductive health/cancer warning on it. We actively pump chemicals into the air, water, our bodies, etc. with very little thought to the downstream consequences.
What makes pot special? Alcohol, by nearly every measure, is worse, but we all recognize that banning it doesn’t actually help anything, and criminalizing things based on a maybe health impact is insane.
I mean, l-theanine is a drug. Caffeine is a drug. So tea and coffee are drugs. Would you approach them with the same caution you do marijuana? Alcohol is a drug.
At the end of the day, the threshold of “is a drug” is fairly low and meaningless on its own.
This article isn’t even that persuasive to make it sound like marijuana is bad.
At least with caffeine I would approach it with caution similar to marijuana. Dosages above 300 mg/day are shown to have negative health effects. In general it is fine. Marijuana is also generally safe, but can have negative effects if you take too much or use too often.
People rarely refer to theanine as a drug. It’s more of a dietary supplement (food). It’s an amino acid.
L-theanine has mind altering effects. I see no reason to not include it in the same category. And that you do, really makes.me wonder why you have arbitrary lines in the sand on things. And your response is absolutely a different take than your initial one. Plus it’s not even technically the same topic, which was addiction.
You very much weren’t arguing “just use weed in moderation” with your “at the end of the day it’s a drug” bit.
The point I am trying to make is that it’s not harmless. There’s positives and negatives. I just know a lot people(and have seen people argue online) who can’t stop talking about the positives and act like there’s literally no risk. It has risks.
They’re not extreme or anything that means it should be banned but there is risk. To argue otherwise would be disingenuous. I think people are either being deliberately disingenuous, or maybe they literally don’t know that there is potential risk with marijuana use.
Everything has the potential to be harmful. But I wouldn’t be warning people against video games unless I knew something about them is susceptible to becoming addicted. The same thing can be said of marijuana. It being harmful is the exception, not the rule. Cigarettes and alcohol are more dangerous than marijuana.
It’s not a competition of what is more or less harmful. I agree that they’re both worse than marijuana. I don’t see reasonable argument for pretending there are no risk though. As you know, we throughly awknowledge the risk of tobacco and alcholol. I think going back to caffiene is fair though. Most people they know there are risk to caffiene and they know that having too much of it can cause issues. Warning or awknowledment of risk isn’t to sway convince people not to do something, it’s to give them informormation to make an informed decision.
here’s the two options to present:
- weed is a healthy plant. it helps people manage cancer and fixed my grandmas glaucoma. Alcohol is worse. There’s no hangover or drawback to weed. (this is legitimatly how weed is often portrayed).
vs
- weed is drug with reletively uncommon and relatively minor side-effects. Most people experiece eurhoria or relaxation with consumption. Marijuana may be helpful for alleviating cancer or chemotherapy symptoms or and may help with other specific conditions. A small percentage of users exerperience anxiety, panic attacks, or pycological dependence with usage.
You’re still missing the point. Marijuana doesn’t have that side effect. The person does. You’re attributing the problem to the wrong thing. They’re addicted not because of the drug but because of other issues in their life. It is not a physiological addiction. Other drugs actually change your body chemistry. Alcohol addiction will change your body chemistry. Marijuana “addiction” is behavioral. Like gambling or video games. The video games don’t have the side effect. It’s the person that has the inherent problem. If they’d become addicted to marijuana, they’d simply be addicted to something else instead of they give it up without getting some sort of therapy.
Not too surprising. A good rule of thumb is, anything that gives you joy, happiness, or helps with pain & sadness, can be addictive. It can definitely be used as crutch vs. dealing with the underlying issues (such as anxiety).
However, there’s a difference between that kind of addiction and chemical addiction which I don’t see mentioned in the article. It seems to focus on the crutch aspect, not things like physical ailments from withdrawals and that sort of thing. It’s hard to tell.
Generally, moderation should be the key and if you are using it to avoid things that maybe therapy would help with - that’s not ideal.
For some opioids withdrawal can be life threatening. There’s a distinct contrast between chemical and psychological dependence.
