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Marijuana addiction is real, and rising

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Re: Marijuana addiction is real, and rising

#91

Post by Jeremy1026 »

merinowool wrote: post #88
dev_420b wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had basically the same experience, though I think I was closer to a gram or so a day, and I never had trouble eating. But yeah, to the people saying it’s not real, try a few days of insomnia. The feeling of being high is nice, but not terribly addictive or unquittable in itself. But going through the crappy parts of withdrawal, feeling irritable, etc., and on top of that, not being able to sleep? It’s torture. In t…

People have insomnia and are irritable without ever smoking. Maybe cannabis just masking your problem and what you feel as "withdrawals" is not caused by cannabis. People often attribute causal relationship if it fits their limited knowledge.

You seem awfully defensive and are quick to tell people they are wrong (without citations) when they disparage marijuana.

Re: Marijuana addiction is real, and rising

#92

Post by m0llusk »

Hacker News reading can be an especially pernicious and problematic addiction. Seriously, often in the startup world I find software engineers with TODO lists spanning space and time compulsively reading and scanning the HN front page. Oh, look: cannabis users addicted, dopamine rush. Altruistic punishment means an immediate boost to social status and opportunities for bonding. So who exactly is addicted to what again?

Re: Marijuana addiction is real, and rising

#93

Post by boomboomsubban »

hsienmaneja wrote: post #87
boomboomsubban wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many people waste their lives away with a wide variety of things, that doesn't make them physically addictive. Mentally addictive yes, but that's a separate thing. The country is going through a mental health problem, there are numerous signs of this. Marijuana is one of the poor ways that people deal with this, but it's not the cause of the issue.

I bet with further research done properly (which will take decades starting now) we will find that pot use from an early age is not only correlated to diminished quality of life for some, but is a contributing underlying factor enough to tip scales for some. Michael Phelps can down McDonald’s but some are better off limiting their fast food intake. Everyone reacts differently to different arrangements of chemicals in…

None of this makes it physically addictive, which is the only issue I'm making. Mental addiction can also be terrible, and can cause the issues described.

Re: Marijuana addiction is real, and rising

#94

Post by psalminen »

ggggtez wrote: post #28
dev_420 wrote: post #6

Throwaway because obviously the stigma. But yes, it's very real. I am addicted to marijuana. I smoke nearly 3 grams a day; what has become a $1000+/month habit. I've always loved weed but the high salary has allowed me to lose control. I can't sleep or eat without it. Within 24 hours without weed I become an intolerable asshole who cannot eat or sleep. When I do sleep without it, it's full of nightmares and I wake up…

>Within 24 hours without weed I become an intolerable asshole I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest the underlying problem might not be the weed.

All addiction issues are just the surface of an underlying problem.

Re: Marijuana addiction is real, and rising

#95

Post by merinowool »

Jeremy1026 wrote: post #91
merinowool wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People have insomnia and are irritable without ever smoking. Maybe cannabis just masking your problem and what you feel as "withdrawals" is not caused by cannabis. People often attribute causal relationship if it fits their limited knowledge.

You seem awfully defensive and are quick to tell people they are wrong (without citations) when they disparage marijuana.

They can Google that themselves.

Re: Marijuana addiction is real, and rising

#96

Post by jjulius »

tzar wrote: post #59
evo_9 wrote: post #53

It's hard for me to relate to this. I smoke daily, and probably what most would consider a lot. I however also travel for work and or other reasons and often go days or a week without smoking. It has no noticeable effect on me. It could be because I'm extremely active and fit. I workout basically 7 days a week, mostly because I do a lot of intense stuff 'for fun' (aka, play hockey 3-4 days a week, etc). I'm not sayin…

How long have you been smoking daily? From the article: > Unlike with opioids and stimulants, marijuana dependence tends to develop slowly: Months or years may pass before symptoms begin to affect a dependent user’s life. The case is similar with alcohol dependence: it can take quite a long time.

So I originally wrote this post to respond to the user "havesmoked" who posted a similar comment in response to you to what I'm about to share. They deleted their post, but I figured I'd still post mine.

----

I also don't know why I'm posting this beyond sharing my anecdotal experience, lol.

I'm pretty much like you on this one. I've been smoking pot for about ten years now (I'm 31), and half of that I'd say has been fairly heavy usage, and for the last 2-3 years a single week for me has, on average, seen me consume: 1 eighth of flower, 50-100MG of edibles depending on weekend activities, and most of a .5G vape cartridge. That seems like a fucking outrageous amount of pot, but I've shown continuous growth professionally (worked all the way up to my current "Director" position) and I've never had a problem traveling and suddenly spending a week or two cold turkey.

Like you, I've always been cognizant of the fact that I could end up relying on it as a crutch, and have been wary of the fact that there's not much quality scientific data around marijuana to make me feel comfortable continuing this way. My wife and I are also at a point in our lives now where we'd like to start having children. We met with a doctor last week to discuss a few things, and the "marijuana lowers your sperm count" conversation that I was anticipating did certainly come up. I've known this time has been coming for a while and had no problem immediately cutting back as of last Thursday. It's been just over a week now of reducing my intake to just 4-5 hits per evening, late at night and shortly before bed so I don't get the urge to just keep smoking after I've started.

It's been incredibly easy to kick, I'm gonna save a boatload of cash, and I don't spend the day craving it. I appreciate the clearer head that I have, and the increased productivity I feel. But that doesn't mean it's easy for everyone, as I'm sure people use this as a crutch for a variety of reasons.

Edit: I think one of the things that has helped me keep my consumption reduced compared to other people in this thread (someone mentioning nearly an eight per day) has been my refusal to do dabs. Those are incredibly more potent and can really quickly kick your tolerance up a notch. I did one just once and it hit me so hard I immediately fell back and had to lean in place against a wall without moving for 20 minutes. I don't know how people can do that shit regularly.

Re: Marijuana addiction is real, and rising

#97

Post by Baeocystin »

hsienmaneja wrote: post #51
Baeocystin wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whatever problems drive a person to use pot as a crutch are the source issue. Pot abuse itself (or any maladaptive behavior) is best thought of as a symptom, not a cause.

If someone is self medicating with pot, and pot is making their lives worse (which is the case for some users), the pot is a problem in and of itself. Drug culture itself is riddled with such booby traps. Fallaious street wisdom backed by egos and peer pressure are powerful tools to indoctrinate a child into an unexpected lifetime of addiction to substances such as pot.

>Fallaious street wisdom backed by egos and peer pressure

That's what I am trying to get at- problems stem from earlier sources. Whether someone eventually gets hooked on something is a consequence of earlier failure. Whatever drug/habit is ultimately picked up in the aftermath is a genuine negative, which will have its own particulars. But it is not the initial causative agent. This is an important distinction to make, because otherwise we're just rearranging deck chairs instead of managing the fundamental issue.

To expand context, when considering appropriate drug policy at a governmental level I think Portugal's experience is important to study:

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/dec/05/portugals-radic...

Re: Marijuana addiction is real, and rising

#98

Post by opportune »

badloginagain wrote: post #43
boomboomsubban wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or it's a combination of mental addiction and the placebo effect. The ritual has become such an important part of their life, that when they remove it their anxiety causes a physical reaction based on their concept of withdrawl.

I read that the use of marijuana actually inhibits dreams, and that people who quit temporarily experience intense dreams.

This is called REM rebound. The reason is that in this case the psychoactive drugs in cannabis act as sedatives. Similar to alcohol and other depressants, this makes it easier to fall asleep, but harder to enter the "deeper" stages of sleep like REM. So when you quit ingesting cannabis, your body tries to make up for your ongoing REM sleep deficit, and you have more/stronger dreams as a result

This what is happening to the top level commenter. I don't know if the nightmares in particular are a result of REM rebound, but it could be that the person is simply prone to nightmares, and part of their addiction could be self-medication for their innately nightmarish dreams.

Re: Marijuana addiction is real, and rising

#100

Post by chaosbutters314 »

dev_420 wrote: post #6

Throwaway because obviously the stigma. But yes, it's very real. I am addicted to marijuana. I smoke nearly 3 grams a day; what has become a $1000+/month habit. I've always loved weed but the high salary has allowed me to lose control. I can't sleep or eat without it. Within 24 hours without weed I become an intolerable asshole who cannot eat or sleep. When I do sleep without it, it's full of nightmares and I wake up…

Sour patch kids are wayyyy more addictive than cheeseburgers and coffee. When you grab 4-5 of them and put them on your gum and suck down their sour goodness before getting that enjoyable gummy chew, it is heaven. I'd eat them till gums bled from all the acid.
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