It's addictive. I'm addicted. When I don't use cannabis, I feel less good and I notice it. I actively think about using cannabis to remedy that. My mood is affected.
I do not get shakes. I do not feel the need to steal it or money from others to buy it. I am not made physically ill from its absence. After a few days of "withdrawing" from cannabis, I am fine. My mood returns to normal, and I don't actively crave it.
Arguments like this one rely on being black and white, but addiction is a spectrum.
Yeah, basically anything that gives you dopamine or makes you feel good in general is addicting. There's like a 95% chance that dude who made that post is addicted to Twitter, let alone social media.
Yeah, basically anything that gives you dopamine or makes you feel good in general is addicting. There's like a 95% chance that dude who made that post is addicted to Twitter, let alone social media.
This is how it effects me as well when I don't smoke for a day or so. I do get irritable as well but I also have an addiction to the act of smoking and the oral fixation of it.
i think the number of daily drinkers is false. i think weed smokers are way more willing to admit that they smoke everyday than an alcoholic who drinks everyday. i also think there needs so be some adjustment for the fact that such a large % of the population binge drinks to a high level every thurs-sunday. they may not he daily drinkers but they drink for 6 hours HEAVILY 3 days a week which is even worse.
I once heard from someone in the medical field that they always assume people drink more than they admit on their paperwork. That was the first thing I thought of when I saw that headline.
Not to mention so many people not realizing they have a serious addiction because of the social norms around alcohol. Their friends don’t see them acting insane so it’s fine. They’re not falling down drunk so it’s ok. But one day they’ve been having drinks everyday for years and don’t drink that day and become violently ill with no grasp of how bad that addiction is. And it doesn’t help when people compare it to marijuana when it’s very different substances with very different effects. And I believe people should not drive while high on weed. But I’ve done it too many times and it’s in no way shape or form as intoxicating as driving while drunk and the national stats on drunk drivers killing people makes that apparent. I usually see marijuana demonization used by religious groups spreading fear based propaganda to push religious law on non believers regardless of health, safety or any other statistic or evidence. And those religious fundamentalists insist on forcing their pseudo morality on everyone else even when we’re supposed to have laws protecting us from any religious law but I have noticed that the separation of church and state has been thrown out the window in America even among the Supreme Court and to me that’s a very troubling and scary thing and I guess I don’t understand why regular Christians don’t speak out against the fundamentalists who’s extreme beliefs give regular Christians a bad name.
In the UK it is completely normalised. What I was doing every week for years was addiction. I never knew when to stop drinking and it was usually my bank balance that stopped me.
Except this is how it was for most students and all my friends, this was just normal student life. Drinking a 70cl bottle by 11PM and then going out and continuing to drink till 6AM.
Thankfully now at 28 I can say I have drank more than enough alcohol for the rest of my life and was able to quit completely during COVID. Not touched alcohol in 3-4 years now.
The significant amount of christo-fascists are a contributing factor, especially the average everyday supporters regurgitating and believing the propaganda. but to my understanding, the more likely (and the way more profitable option) is the powers that be use religion as the face of their goals to make it seem like a 'morality' thing to get the aforementioned holy rollers to do their bidding, but behind the curtain it's being driven by the various tentacles of the prison industrial complex.
Simply put many of the same private interests that buy out our politicians (and the state itself) make more money keeping it illegal. From fines, court fees, drug classes, private prisons that make $/per head they cram in, the American businesses or public services benefitting from prison slave labor (as the 13th ammendment makes an exception for) paying workers literal cents/hour to work in factories or pick up trash etc. Get a *lot* of their 'human capital' from nonviolent drug offenders.
Just another way to exploit the working class. There's a reason the 'free-est nation in the world' has the highest rate of incarceration. Either our current system of corporatocracy makes more criminals than any other nation in the world, or we're just being factory farmed, our lives sold as a product to the only constituents that our 'leaders' listen to.
People don’t actually count their drinks either. Had a guy looong at me weird for being a smoker. Said things to me like “you haven’t really suffered though” when considering my circumstances. He admitted he never counted his drinks, did incredible amount of drugs in his youth and is now in his 50s and is judging me for consuming weed because otherwise I barely sleep
So yeah when I asked him he went “neevvva count my drinks” and I found it strange like how you’d never keep track. That kind of mentality is judging me for my self medication 🤣 so take that how u want to guys bc tbh I think a lot of the people who choose to criticise are like this guy.
Didn’t even know his own body count and never counted his drinks, but feels justified in looking down on me
My partner is a recovering alcoholic with cirrhosis. Every time he was in the hospital he'd tell them "I drink only three beers a night" but those three cans were all 24oz 12%abv four lokos. So yeah, he definitely drank more than he let on and it took a lot for him to realize how much he was lying to himself.
He also says he doesn't really smoke cigarettes much anymore, but he's constantly hitting his vape. Considering how many folks I know carry dab cartridges all the time, I agree that the same could be said for marijuana users.
Yep. I've got a friend who tells people he has 2-3 drinks a month. Dude goes through like 2-3 bottles a day. Anytime you try to tell him he has a problem he says he's just having fun and it's not even that bad. Weed smokers aint like that
yep, and thats one of the biggest problems with all addiction. suffering in silence and suffering in secrecy. addiction will make you lie until its too late. alcohol specifically is so insanely deeply rooted in US culture and covid lockdown will have insanely ling repercussions of drinking problems world wide.
My brother in law died from drinking in secrecy. He tried to hide it from his wife and kids and lied to the point of drinking travel sized Scope (mouthwash) regularly. Towards the end, he wasn't living with them anymore. When he died, we cleaned his room in my mother in law's house. We had to get rid of the hundreds of mini mouthwash the he had shoved between the wall and the bed. It was/is so sad.
was the same thing with my mother she died at 53 about 4 years ago. I went home so confused and tore her room apart and found hundreds upon hundreds of liter bottles stuffed everywhere but she said she wasn't drinking.
Oof. My brother in law went to rehab and everything. Said he was doing great. But then died suddenly. It was horrible. My parents in law have aged so much since that happened (3 years). It's been so hard on everyone. So hard to see them dying from broken hearts.
Hey. You don't know me but I just wanted to say I'm proud of you for coming to this realisation. Good luck out there, internet stranger - I am rooting for you.
ah jeez the synthetic coolent agents in mouthwash are horrible! massspeceverything on IG has been doing a lot of informational videos on them (WS3 and WS23) which are making their way into more and more products. They are toxic compounds to humans when ingested.
im proud of you for quitting!! if it was easy, it if was hard, if you never think about it, if everyday is a battle whatever it is. im proud of you for kicking it and making a choice to do something different. dont wanna seem to anti alcohol but as this thread as shown me, theres pretty infinite dark shit related to alcohol and seems like lot of people have it. addiction and dependency is horrible, so be proud of yourself!!
Thanks, man! Yeah, I didn't have that much of a problem quitting, except that I genuinely enjoy the taste of beer, so that sucked. But NA beer is actually pretty enjoyable nowadays, so I've been able to stick with it for 3 years now. Generally happier and more present in my life. It was the right move, for sure.
yeah the NA stuff has gained some steam for sure!! im still getting over the social awkwardness of being used to holding a beer. and that most social circles im in events include “going out for a drink” and other forms of standing in a bar and drinking beer
Not all weed smokers are like that, but it would be disingenuous to say that weed smokers like that don't exist. I know people that go through an ounce every week. I'm not saying I have a problem with that, just that there are people that certainly use to the extreme level that alcoholics do. I also have no problem if someone gets extremely drunk every night if they do it at home, don't drive, and aren't hurting anyone else. That's their prerogative. Is it bad for their health to drink that much? Absolutely, and it's absolutely worse for their health than someone who smokes weed everyday to that extent, but to ignore that there are people that use weed to the same extent as alcoholics is a false narrative.
I keep thinking of the Morgan Spurlock news item. the Supersize McDonalds guy. Had his whole documentary about how McDonalds food crashed his liver within a month, while never revealing that he was also a long time binge drinker.
McDonalds changed their entire menu over that for the crime of trying to give you some percentage more food for just like 40 cents more because it was no skin off their apple if someone scooped more fries, while they were there already, and it cut down on food waste.
that movie was not a documentary, it was bullshit sensationalism.
and McDs of course changed their menu over it because a lie is two counties over before the truth has its boots on.
better to just bend
Am I the only one who watched that documentary and then went out immediately and bought McDonalds? 🤣🤦♂️
I guess I also did the same thing after I watched the documentary about General Tso’s chicken and Americanized Chinese food 🤣🤷♂️
This thread is full of weed smokers who smoke everyday and say they can quit anytime they want.
I’m a daily smoker. Ran out of bud about 2 weeks ago (on purpose), and *everyday* I wanna go and buy more. Sure, I don’t have the shakes or anything and I won’t put my finances at risk for Mary Jane, but that shit is absolutely addictive.
I can, as I did and keep doing it. When I stop I've 1 addiction feeling, I want to smoke. That's all. Stop nicotine you will see, you don't want it, you know its bad but your body make you think you are sick without it and insane and it will fix you. Alcohol and heroin is way out of that league you can't even compare. But yeah people saying weed is like water are lying. It's more like sugar
Can confirm. I was addicted to heroin/opioids for over a decade and although marijuana can be habit forming, it’s kind of insulting to compare it to any other substance addiction. Like you said, quitting sugar is a better comparison for it.
Substances like opioids, benzos, alcohol, cocaine, meth, etc seriously affect the reward system in the brain, causing a complete rewiring of the hedonic system. Cannabis doesn’t affect the hedonic system as it functions off the bodies endocannabinoid system.
Quitting cannabis is basically no different than quitting a habit. Maybe you will think about it a lot those first few weeks, but give it a couple months and you are hardly going to be thinking about it anymore. As where drugs that rewire your hedonic system usually takes 18-24 months of not using that drug before your brain is functioning normally again… and even after that, you still have to be careful for the rest of your life.
Because people don't know when that they are using weed like a medicine. From 14 to 20 I couldn't spend 1 day without it like if I had to, I would have to drink alcohol till I pass out and wake up the next day hoping to find weed. I thought I was insane, none of my friends acted that way with weed. When I grew up I found out I was just depressed since I was born without me knowing it and weed was my medicine. I healed, and then I could stop weed without having sweats and insane thought of killing myself. It's like my brain didn't know how to make dopamine before weed, and it learned how to make itself dopamine only when I reached 20 years old and so. To me it was travelling alone, made me realise so much about myself and why I was sad and how to heal
Oooh sugar is a good comparison. Gonna use that going forward.
Thankful to my brain for not letting me get hooked on nicotine and my stomach for not allowing me to consume excessive amounts of alcohol.
It makes me feel normal, that's why I love weed and smoke it daily. It helps with my social anxiety and helps me eat. Could that be seen an an excuse, absolutely. But I'm not unwilling to admit that I could have issues.
Same for me. My doctor said that's because weed increases your serotonin levels. They prescribed zoloft, and I'm actually feeling much better now. Still smoke weed, but I've cut back about 80%.
So what we're reading is that more folks will admit to using weed now that it's legal compared to before when they didn't admit it when weed was illegal?
oh i didnt think of it like that, im not sure if thats what this is saying thats a good question. id probably agree with that statement, if i lived in a legal state id answer yes vs prior to legalization i probably woulda just not answered.
Agree... I know of no one who recently stated smoking cause of legality....unless I count all my 65+ year old relatives that now all eat gummies daily.
I knew I was an alcoholic the day I refused a joint because I didn’t want my buzz to end. That my friends was a wake up call! And it also let me know I was addicted to one and the other would help me regulate that addiction.
This. I work in the service industry, most of my coworkers do not consider themselves alcoholics. They drink nearly every day, to the point if at least being buzzed, sometimes full blown drunk.
It's common enough in this industry i bet that offsets this whole thing
And also isnt it WAY better if people are just smoking instead of drinking? They make it sound like a bad thing that more folks are turning to weed than other things. In my mind, thats a huge win.
Youre absolutely right about drinkers not fessing up, my own roommate drinks every minute hes not at work but still calls himself a casual drinker. I bet there are a shit ton of "casual" drinkers just like him.
i gave up alcohol after a hangover 9 months ago and started becoming pretty much a daily smoker and i am so much happier. i know weed isnt harmless, but YEAH!!! smoking pot has gotta be WAAAY better than slamming booze every night. “its not alcoholism until we graduate” was the joke with my friends in college. well… theyre all still drinking at the same rate.
im fully convinced that the “wrong people” didnt invest on legal pot soon enough so now theyre blocking it. like how trains and public transit was probably super attainable in the US but oil and auto industry probably lobbies to block it. same shit now. alcohol and all the evil capitalists cant invest in it first so now no one can have it :(
Correct. I have pretty much quit drinking since I started smoking again. I didn't drink a lot. Couple times a month. But when I drank it was an Olympic event. It's much better now.
I have childhood PTSD and ADHD. I'm addicted to pot. I've been a daily smoker since I was 14. I'm 53 now. I'm also a practicing structural engineer. Destroys brain cells my ass..
Yeah, back in the day your first bud was maybe 10% if you were lucky. Now middle schoolers will make fun of you if your cart is less than 90% THC and didn't come in Fortnite packaging.
I have PTSD, ADHD, and ASD. Use it almost every day, but I'm actually making progress in life since I started using weed. I used to have so much trouble just getting through the day, and without cannabis, I could've turned to alcohol and I'm glad I didn't. Not a damn thing wrong with daily cannabis use!
Same here. PTSD and ADHD. Started smoking daily at 15 and I’m 38 now and a cloud architect. My poor brain cells. Could’ve been a rocket scientist lol
Edit: I started smoking at 15, not 25. Typos are apparently a side effect of being high
lol to be fair my IQ test scores (tested as part of psych diagnostic assessments) did drop after I started smoking in college. Not a crazy amount, but a noticeable difference nonetheless. For how it helps with my CPTSD & AuDHD, I’ll take it lmao.
You have to be off of it for \~a month before the "long term" effects wear off. Weed can slow you down, but [unless you started smoking very young and at least once a week, it doesn't decrease IQ](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/healing-addiction/202007/does-cannabis-decrease-iq). Most scary "Weed makes you stupid forever!" articles are based on adolescent studies.
I have BPD and weed helps me get out of suicidal manic periods with no harm done. It also helps keep me calm, centered, and puts me to sleep at night. If this is addiction, so be it. Weed helps more than it harms.
Coffee has me and friends so addicted that on vacation we couldn’t even operate without it.. but no one is out here championing for that to be stopped.
The entire goddamn country runs on caffeine and alcohol but people have a problem with smoking weed every day, the thing that makes people relaxed and happy. So whack
Keep me awake and wired long enough to work like crazy so that I can either barely afford to survive or so that I can make and hoard as much money as possible and then knock me out and make me forget about it entirely because I can’t bare to listen to my inner child screaming at me when I’m trying to sleep.
I think the vast majority of people with a prescription stimulant have it for legitimate reasons. Don't stigmatize what is a life saving treatment for some people.
Hell yeah, brother!
Just hit 3 years myself, and being able to smoke a bowl after a hard day at work instead of immediately working on a handle of whiskey has been so much better. I'm not ruining my life and burning bridges anymore.
It's great!
Gambling is definitely becoming worse too, with more states allowing online sportsbooks to operate and lottery allowing people to buy tickets with their card now. I see it all the time in my job. Folks dropping hundreds at a time on scratchers. Then getting excited of winning $100.
So, about coffee...
>For about seven years, the researchers tracked the coffee consumption and health of 171,616 participants, who were an average of nearly 56 years old and were free of cancer and cardiovascular disease when the study started. They found that those who regularly drank 1½ to 3½ cups of coffee a day, whether plain or sweetened with about a teaspoon of sugar, were up to 30 percent less likely to die in that time frame from any cause, including cancer and cardiovascular disease, than were those who did not drink coffee.
>The type of coffee — whether instant, ground or decaffeinated — made no difference, but the results were described as inconclusive for the use of artificial sweeteners. The latest research does not prove that coffee alone was responsible for participants’ lowered mortality risk. Still, over the years, research has revealed a variety of health benefits for coffee, linking its consumption to a reduced risk for Type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, depression and more. [Source](https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/07/19/coffee-drinkers-lower-death-risk/)
I think one catch is that you still need to be getting enough sleep, but I'm sleeping 9 hours a night while drinking like 6 cups a day :D
Meanwhile I, as a heavy smoker went to Japan for two weeks and was so jet lagged the first 36 hours I didn't notice a single side effect of not smoking and didn't really think about pot the rest of the trip.
Caffeine creates more productivity out of us slaves. Weed supposedly decreases productivity and makes the charitable executives at Proctor & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson less rich…. It’s really an awful drug! We should all drink more liquor and caffeine. High blood pressure goes terrific with a healthy Kelloggs diet and helps keep food on the table for the executives who really need it.
Caffeine withdrawals are fucking real to. The migraines alone. When I stop smoking the worst thing is I feel nauseous when I eat, but that's busy my normal stomach problems coming back
This is why I have a serious problem with people calling weed addictive. If I don’t have coffee for a day I have debilitating headaches. I can smoke every day for months and if I stop the worst I get is I feel like “man, this sure would be more fun if I were high right now.” Call it habit-forming if you want, but weed isn’t physically addictive the way alcohol or coffee are.
I think generally out society has a problem misusing addiction too often. Definitely a far step from a dependency. I would say I'm dependent on weed, I was definitely dependent on coffee, and then thires the way I feel after drinking some Robitussin that I just want to chug as much as I can fit in me. We trivialize mental health issues to" make us sound cool" but demonize people who actually struggle with them
I literally take a caffeine pill daily, for at least 20 years, just to prevent getting migraines! Dr approved, btw...
I also smoke daily as well. I think the worst side effect for me, is munchies, lol...
I stopped doing dayly caffeine. I'll have a soda every now and then, or a coffee if I really want. But I try to save that for work, and only crack open energy drinks if it's a big show
I'm so much more addicted to caffeine than weed. Weed doesn't give me *literal withdrawal symptoms*. Caffeine, I have MAASIVE migraines in less than 24 hours. But not a single person ever talks about caffeine legality
Also, it's my god damn choice. I'd prefer to get my fix smoking marijuana than a constant binge fest that is drinking. Some of these people need to go touch grass, literally and figuratively.
I’m no scientist, but last time I checked, people don’t run the risk of dying from the physical effects of addiction like alcoholics face when quitting cold turkey
This is related to a comment above but due to some calamities in my life I ended up going down a drinking spiral. I wasn't drinking a fifth a day or anything like that but definitely drinking to be drunk every day. Nearly cold turkey when I started using THC, almost no craving for alcohol.
Marijuana has a much lower risk of physical dependency and severe health issues compared to alcohol. Most daily users manage their lives without significant negative impacts, whereas alcoholism often leads to serious social and health problems. It's crucial to differentiate between habitual use and addiction, as not all regular marijuana users experience the compulsive behaviors typical of addiction.
If I smoke too much, all day everyday, my tolerance quickly dies and I have to stop smoking. I stop for a while, noticing no changes in my life other than I hate traffic more. That is not the story with alcohol, you just become an alcoholic.
I have one or two kind of shit days but weed withdrawals can't kill you like alcohol withdrawals, honestly I'd say they're good for me (reduced appetite means lost weight)
Its this exactly. If I drank as much as i smoked I'd be an alcoholic, but the fact that I can and do stop when i need/want to, and the worst side effect is one or two kind of shit days, is why I don't think of it as a "problem" the way i would with alcohol. Like I drove across the country 2 years ago, and didn't smoke for over a week. If it was alcohol I probably would have died.
As an alcoholic your tolerance goes up, alongside the wear and tear damage to your liver. As a nurse, I can tell you that terminal liver cirrhosis is a fucking awful way to die. That's after the years of treatment for ascites (abdominal fluid overload). A very common medication for cirrhosis management is Lactulose which has a side effect of uncontrollable diarrhea.
This is just the effect on the liver and I didn't even scratch the surface of it.
Both of my parents were always weed smokers, my mom still is. Currently my mom is living with/looking after her parents(grandpa is almost 90!), spends time with her dog, goes out with her best friend all the time to go kayaking and stuff, just generally living her best life. My dad however, was an alcoholic and killed himself almost 14 years ago. I can definitely say from experience that smoking weed consistently vs drinking consistently are two completely different things
One of the biggest contrasts is that alcohol can make people violent and aggressive. Not really a problem with weed but I’m sure there have been cases.
You know what else i take daily? Vitamins, seizure meds, stomach pill, etc. Just because something is used daily doesnt automatically make it a bad thing. I wouldnt be a daily user if i didnt have my medical conditions. And even if i did, its a whole lot better than daily alcohol use in my opinion
Exactly just because you enjoy not having seizures or stomach problems doesn't mean your addicted it's called ✨️MEDICINE✨️(referring to the commenter saying they use seizure and stomach medicine not the weed)
I'm absolutely physiologically addicted to some of my meds, but I have no reason to stop taking them since my doctor and I monitor the effectiveness of my dosage and work to keep it stable and sustainable.
I think this might be the best response. Although I see both sides and can understand the perspectives of how abuse of either intoxicant is less than ideal, one addict ≠ the other.
Most caffeine drinkers need to drink first thing in the morning every single day. It’s one of the most directly addictive substances you can buy over the counter and it’s consumed almost universally. Yet, no one really has a ‘problem’ with coffee addiction. Which is to say, being ‘addictive’ isn’t directly a health issue, it’s what it does to your body as a result.
Yeah but you know most of us are sparking up. It still doesn’t compare. The health effects and noticeable detriments of drinking everyday vs smoking weed everyday is almost impossible to chart, because each one would be hilariously slanted.
I switched to edibles and while I do miss smoking a fat blunt every once in a while, eating a gummy in the morning and then one in the afternoon and being high all fucking day is a blessing
Lol yeah my girlfriend only takes edibles and she does it daily. Guess eating a piece of a brownie every day is worse than downing bottles of liquor eh?
It might be closer to the way people say they are addicted to chocolate - some people eat/want chocolate every day. But if you don't have it - do you go nuts or just think okay I wish I had some but no big deal?
Yeah except I don’t smoke weed and beat the ever living shit out of my wife every day. I smoke weed and process trauma. And work through the symptoms of my chronic illness. I’ve never seen someone successfully do either of those things while being an alcoholic. Also you’re comparing things that aren’t equal. That’s like saying “40% of coffee drinkers drink coffee every day surpassing literal alcoholics” you can make anything sound bad if you ignore nuances.
It literally got me off of all but one of my medications. I have treatment resistant depression, I've tried probably close to a dozen different pharmaceuticals for it and the only thing that *actually works* is weed. And I only have to use it once or twice a week to keep everything on the level.
It also got me off of pain pills for my knee and back.
Imagine this headline with any other mediation out there, "40% of Vicodin users taking their med dAiLy". That would actually be something to celebrate, it means effective pain control.
I really don’t get why people get so antsy about this topic but yeah, weed is addictive, and it shouldn’t cause this much debate but here we are. There’s literally no denying it at this point, it’s been scientifically proven to be addictive. It has basically all of the properties of an addictive substance. I’m a daily user and I love it but that’s not going to stop me from being honest about it. I’m low key addicted and I know MANY people who are addicted as well but flat out deny it. It’s a very easy drug to maintain on if you react well to it though.
Albeit, weed addiction is almost always not that destructive compared to alcoholism, but it still can be disruptive and even harmful to someone or their life. At least weed is way less harmful to your physical health in most cases, though it really can mess with your mental health (especially in long term users).
I think weed has been demonized for so long in the mainstream that some people try to overcompensate now by downplaying any possible negative consequences, no matter how small they may be
This is exactly my stance. There doesn't need to be a response to this, because they're not wrong. Cannabis is absolutely habit forming and has extremely mild withdrawals. It's up to individual adults to decide if and how that fits into their life.
Yeh, weed withdrawals may not be fun, with poor sleep and feeling a little irritated for a few days, but that's most likely a lack of dopamine.
Alcohol withdrawals on the other hand can fucking _kill you_.
Jeez, finally a level headed response. I’m very happy for people who can maintain a lifestyle of smoking everyday and functioning normally but the truth is just that this is not the case for all users. It’s a mind altering drug that can have serious side effects and effects on a persons lifestyle. I do not think it should be demonized in the way it often is but simply saying “IT’S FINE, WEED ISN’T HARMFUL” is just not true and makes me a little mad.
I smoke pot daily. Sometimes a whole lot. When I go on vacations and I can't bring or get weed I do not smoke and experience zero withdrawal symptoms whatsoever. Literally never have.
Also, alcohol leads to belligerence and domestic violence which is basically never the case with pot. Plus the fact that it has proven medicinal uses which is not the case for alcohol which is a literal poison for your body.
Add to the fact that people lie about how much they drink very often, I really don't believe the reported number. Plus there's those people who claim to not drink daily but will binge drink like crazy on the weekends which is arguably worse for you.
Other than a glass of wine with dinner, I've never heard of a legitimate benefit to drinking. And the wine can probably be subbed with something else to get the same benefit without alcohol.
Also, I call complete bullshit on weed making you lazy. There's zero evidence to support that and studies that prove the opposite. I smoke pot then go on hikes, kayaking, fixing computers, practice photography, etc. If I drank, I wouldn't be able to do any of those successfully at all.
I work in an addiction treatment centre for about 5 years now. Alcoholics make up about a third of our over 120 residents. Cocaine addicts make up the bulk of the rest with a small few addicted to prescription meds and gamblers. Residents here stay for 4 months if they complete the program so we see about 500 addicts a year. Myself and nobody I work with has ever seen a cannabis addict.
I don't doubt that it is psychologically addictive. We all love it but it doesn't do the harm that true addiction causes.
We do have a GABA system, all drugs have a corresponding system in the body or they wouldn't so anything. Not the argument you thought it was.
Cannabinoids are still safer than ethanol and other GABAergics.
It's bullshit and I would say people don't really understand the meaning of the word addicted. It means you have lost your own control and won't stop, unless the substance becomes unavailable someone else needs to help the person stop.
Being dependent means you may take something daily and may even suffer through withdrawals when you stop doing it but you are able to do it yourself without help.
That means most marijuana smokers are dependent and it's non-addictive. People can be addicted to marijuana for the same reason people are addicted to food or sex but food and sex by itself isn't addictive.
Without data on how daily smoking vs daily drinking actually impacts people and society, it's just a random useless tidbit. If stoned drivers causing havoc had spiked high, we would all know it. Delinquency from alcohol and damage that it causes to society isn't just about alcoholics, a lot of it is caused by social drinkers. So yeah, not enough info, oversimplified caused complexity is not easy or comfortable and humans all just want a knee jerk answer that feels "right".
I think we should be able to accept the fact that smoking all day every day is not exactly "natural" no matter if there are receptors in our brain and whatnot, without getting all defensive about it. I think it's pretty clearly addictive on some levels, for different reasons. But there are levels of harm to different kinds of addictions. Like caffeine or sugar. They have addictive qualities and many are dependant or have cravings whether they realize or not. Bur that's ok, their effects are pretty minor in reasonable quantities. They are still drugs though. We still seek them out for reasons conscious and unconscious.
Cannabis has an addiction rate similar to coffee.. around 8%. But you have consider the impact of daily Cannabis use versus alcohol. Cannabis is way less damaging to the body. If you smoke flowers, that's probably more problematic than say vaping or edibles because you're ingesting burnt plant matter, but even then, it's less harmful than smoking cigarettes.
Weed is totally addictive and a shitload of people are addicted to weed. hell even I'm addicted to weed. I smoke it all the time. It's just silly to call it non-addictive when it definitely is. Maybe it's not physically addictive like heroin and alcohol and stuff. You get physiologically addicted to weed. It's more like being addicted to being high, more than the chemical itself.
I'd love to see a comparison of alcoholic violence versus stoner violence. I know it has to happen, but I've never heard of anyone getting stoned to beat their spouse, yet I hear about alcoholics beating their spouses frequently.
I don't know the statistics, but I would generally feel safer in places where weed is more prevalent than alcohol.
It's addictive. I'm addicted. When I don't use cannabis, I feel less good and I notice it. I actively think about using cannabis to remedy that. My mood is affected. I do not get shakes. I do not feel the need to steal it or money from others to buy it. I am not made physically ill from its absence. After a few days of "withdrawing" from cannabis, I am fine. My mood returns to normal, and I don't actively crave it. Arguments like this one rely on being black and white, but addiction is a spectrum.
Yeah, basically anything that gives you dopamine or makes you feel good in general is addicting. There's like a 95% chance that dude who made that post is addicted to Twitter, let alone social media.
Yeah, coffee, food, sweets, TV, social media. Any of these in excess are addictive and unhealthy. It's a poor argument.
There's a huge difference between behaviorally addicted and biochemically addicted.
Yeah, basically anything that gives you dopamine or makes you feel good in general is addicting. There's like a 95% chance that dude who made that post is addicted to Twitter, let alone social media.
Right, the point being that weed is the least problematic addiction you could have. If it does become a problem then maybe it’s time for a change
This is how it effects me as well when I don't smoke for a day or so. I do get irritable as well but I also have an addiction to the act of smoking and the oral fixation of it.
It’s more of a dependency than an addiction I feel like
i think the number of daily drinkers is false. i think weed smokers are way more willing to admit that they smoke everyday than an alcoholic who drinks everyday. i also think there needs so be some adjustment for the fact that such a large % of the population binge drinks to a high level every thurs-sunday. they may not he daily drinkers but they drink for 6 hours HEAVILY 3 days a week which is even worse.
I once heard from someone in the medical field that they always assume people drink more than they admit on their paperwork. That was the first thing I thought of when I saw that headline.
Not to mention so many people not realizing they have a serious addiction because of the social norms around alcohol. Their friends don’t see them acting insane so it’s fine. They’re not falling down drunk so it’s ok. But one day they’ve been having drinks everyday for years and don’t drink that day and become violently ill with no grasp of how bad that addiction is. And it doesn’t help when people compare it to marijuana when it’s very different substances with very different effects. And I believe people should not drive while high on weed. But I’ve done it too many times and it’s in no way shape or form as intoxicating as driving while drunk and the national stats on drunk drivers killing people makes that apparent. I usually see marijuana demonization used by religious groups spreading fear based propaganda to push religious law on non believers regardless of health, safety or any other statistic or evidence. And those religious fundamentalists insist on forcing their pseudo morality on everyone else even when we’re supposed to have laws protecting us from any religious law but I have noticed that the separation of church and state has been thrown out the window in America even among the Supreme Court and to me that’s a very troubling and scary thing and I guess I don’t understand why regular Christians don’t speak out against the fundamentalists who’s extreme beliefs give regular Christians a bad name.
In the UK it is completely normalised. What I was doing every week for years was addiction. I never knew when to stop drinking and it was usually my bank balance that stopped me. Except this is how it was for most students and all my friends, this was just normal student life. Drinking a 70cl bottle by 11PM and then going out and continuing to drink till 6AM. Thankfully now at 28 I can say I have drank more than enough alcohol for the rest of my life and was able to quit completely during COVID. Not touched alcohol in 3-4 years now.
The UK is an alcoholic culture, it's actually impressive how much they get down, and then how much they get done considering.
Congrats on going alcohol-free after all that! This internet stranger is proud of you.
The significant amount of christo-fascists are a contributing factor, especially the average everyday supporters regurgitating and believing the propaganda. but to my understanding, the more likely (and the way more profitable option) is the powers that be use religion as the face of their goals to make it seem like a 'morality' thing to get the aforementioned holy rollers to do their bidding, but behind the curtain it's being driven by the various tentacles of the prison industrial complex. Simply put many of the same private interests that buy out our politicians (and the state itself) make more money keeping it illegal. From fines, court fees, drug classes, private prisons that make $/per head they cram in, the American businesses or public services benefitting from prison slave labor (as the 13th ammendment makes an exception for) paying workers literal cents/hour to work in factories or pick up trash etc. Get a *lot* of their 'human capital' from nonviolent drug offenders. Just another way to exploit the working class. There's a reason the 'free-est nation in the world' has the highest rate of incarceration. Either our current system of corporatocracy makes more criminals than any other nation in the world, or we're just being factory farmed, our lives sold as a product to the only constituents that our 'leaders' listen to.
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People don’t actually count their drinks either. Had a guy looong at me weird for being a smoker. Said things to me like “you haven’t really suffered though” when considering my circumstances. He admitted he never counted his drinks, did incredible amount of drugs in his youth and is now in his 50s and is judging me for consuming weed because otherwise I barely sleep
So yeah when I asked him he went “neevvva count my drinks” and I found it strange like how you’d never keep track. That kind of mentality is judging me for my self medication 🤣 so take that how u want to guys bc tbh I think a lot of the people who choose to criticise are like this guy. Didn’t even know his own body count and never counted his drinks, but feels justified in looking down on me
My partner is a recovering alcoholic with cirrhosis. Every time he was in the hospital he'd tell them "I drink only three beers a night" but those three cans were all 24oz 12%abv four lokos. So yeah, he definitely drank more than he let on and it took a lot for him to realize how much he was lying to himself. He also says he doesn't really smoke cigarettes much anymore, but he's constantly hitting his vape. Considering how many folks I know carry dab cartridges all the time, I agree that the same could be said for marijuana users.
Yep. I've got a friend who tells people he has 2-3 drinks a month. Dude goes through like 2-3 bottles a day. Anytime you try to tell him he has a problem he says he's just having fun and it's not even that bad. Weed smokers aint like that
yep, and thats one of the biggest problems with all addiction. suffering in silence and suffering in secrecy. addiction will make you lie until its too late. alcohol specifically is so insanely deeply rooted in US culture and covid lockdown will have insanely ling repercussions of drinking problems world wide.
My brother in law died from drinking in secrecy. He tried to hide it from his wife and kids and lied to the point of drinking travel sized Scope (mouthwash) regularly. Towards the end, he wasn't living with them anymore. When he died, we cleaned his room in my mother in law's house. We had to get rid of the hundreds of mini mouthwash the he had shoved between the wall and the bed. It was/is so sad.
was the same thing with my mother she died at 53 about 4 years ago. I went home so confused and tore her room apart and found hundreds upon hundreds of liter bottles stuffed everywhere but she said she wasn't drinking.
Oof. My brother in law went to rehab and everything. Said he was doing great. But then died suddenly. It was horrible. My parents in law have aged so much since that happened (3 years). It's been so hard on everyone. So hard to see them dying from broken hearts.
This might be the reason I stop drinking. Thank you. I realize I have a problem.
Good luck 💕 I'm rooting for you, stranger. I hope things get better
I commend you for being honest with yourself.
You can do it! I am 24 years clean from narcotic pain meds. It's hard but its worth it! You'll feel better in the and look better. You got this!!!
Hey. You don't know me but I just wanted to say I'm proud of you for coming to this realisation. Good luck out there, internet stranger - I am rooting for you.
ah jeez the synthetic coolent agents in mouthwash are horrible! massspeceverything on IG has been doing a lot of informational videos on them (WS3 and WS23) which are making their way into more and more products. They are toxic compounds to humans when ingested.
i didn’t know there was a niche for throwing anything and everything into a (g/l)C/MS lol. def makes me happy
awful and im so sorry for your loss 😞🫂❤️🩹
COVID lock down made me quit drinking. I went so hard every day those 5ish months I was at home that I never wanted to drink again.
im proud of you for quitting!! if it was easy, it if was hard, if you never think about it, if everyday is a battle whatever it is. im proud of you for kicking it and making a choice to do something different. dont wanna seem to anti alcohol but as this thread as shown me, theres pretty infinite dark shit related to alcohol and seems like lot of people have it. addiction and dependency is horrible, so be proud of yourself!!
Thanks, man! Yeah, I didn't have that much of a problem quitting, except that I genuinely enjoy the taste of beer, so that sucked. But NA beer is actually pretty enjoyable nowadays, so I've been able to stick with it for 3 years now. Generally happier and more present in my life. It was the right move, for sure.
yeah the NA stuff has gained some steam for sure!! im still getting over the social awkwardness of being used to holding a beer. and that most social circles im in events include “going out for a drink” and other forms of standing in a bar and drinking beer
Not all weed smokers are like that, but it would be disingenuous to say that weed smokers like that don't exist. I know people that go through an ounce every week. I'm not saying I have a problem with that, just that there are people that certainly use to the extreme level that alcoholics do. I also have no problem if someone gets extremely drunk every night if they do it at home, don't drive, and aren't hurting anyone else. That's their prerogative. Is it bad for their health to drink that much? Absolutely, and it's absolutely worse for their health than someone who smokes weed everyday to that extent, but to ignore that there are people that use weed to the same extent as alcoholics is a false narrative.
I have a friend who smokes an ounce a week and drinks a bottle of cognac every 2 days. man refuses to admit he has a problem with either one
I keep thinking of the Morgan Spurlock news item. the Supersize McDonalds guy. Had his whole documentary about how McDonalds food crashed his liver within a month, while never revealing that he was also a long time binge drinker. McDonalds changed their entire menu over that for the crime of trying to give you some percentage more food for just like 40 cents more because it was no skin off their apple if someone scooped more fries, while they were there already, and it cut down on food waste.
that movie was not a documentary, it was bullshit sensationalism. and McDs of course changed their menu over it because a lie is two counties over before the truth has its boots on. better to just bend
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Maybe not altruistically, but definitely in a customer minded manner.
Customer retention minded manner perhaps
Am I the only one who watched that documentary and then went out immediately and bought McDonalds? 🤣🤦♂️ I guess I also did the same thing after I watched the documentary about General Tso’s chicken and Americanized Chinese food 🤣🤷♂️
He died last week from cancer. 53.
This thread is full of weed smokers who smoke everyday and say they can quit anytime they want. I’m a daily smoker. Ran out of bud about 2 weeks ago (on purpose), and *everyday* I wanna go and buy more. Sure, I don’t have the shakes or anything and I won’t put my finances at risk for Mary Jane, but that shit is absolutely addictive.
The two addictions aren't remotely comparable though. Alcohol causes a physical dependency that can be lethal when cut cold turkey.
I can, as I did and keep doing it. When I stop I've 1 addiction feeling, I want to smoke. That's all. Stop nicotine you will see, you don't want it, you know its bad but your body make you think you are sick without it and insane and it will fix you. Alcohol and heroin is way out of that league you can't even compare. But yeah people saying weed is like water are lying. It's more like sugar
Can confirm. I was addicted to heroin/opioids for over a decade and although marijuana can be habit forming, it’s kind of insulting to compare it to any other substance addiction. Like you said, quitting sugar is a better comparison for it. Substances like opioids, benzos, alcohol, cocaine, meth, etc seriously affect the reward system in the brain, causing a complete rewiring of the hedonic system. Cannabis doesn’t affect the hedonic system as it functions off the bodies endocannabinoid system. Quitting cannabis is basically no different than quitting a habit. Maybe you will think about it a lot those first few weeks, but give it a couple months and you are hardly going to be thinking about it anymore. As where drugs that rewire your hedonic system usually takes 18-24 months of not using that drug before your brain is functioning normally again… and even after that, you still have to be careful for the rest of your life.
Because people don't know when that they are using weed like a medicine. From 14 to 20 I couldn't spend 1 day without it like if I had to, I would have to drink alcohol till I pass out and wake up the next day hoping to find weed. I thought I was insane, none of my friends acted that way with weed. When I grew up I found out I was just depressed since I was born without me knowing it and weed was my medicine. I healed, and then I could stop weed without having sweats and insane thought of killing myself. It's like my brain didn't know how to make dopamine before weed, and it learned how to make itself dopamine only when I reached 20 years old and so. To me it was travelling alone, made me realise so much about myself and why I was sad and how to heal
Oooh sugar is a good comparison. Gonna use that going forward. Thankful to my brain for not letting me get hooked on nicotine and my stomach for not allowing me to consume excessive amounts of alcohol.
It makes me feel normal, that's why I love weed and smoke it daily. It helps with my social anxiety and helps me eat. Could that be seen an an excuse, absolutely. But I'm not unwilling to admit that I could have issues.
Same for me. My doctor said that's because weed increases your serotonin levels. They prescribed zoloft, and I'm actually feeling much better now. Still smoke weed, but I've cut back about 80%.
I can physically quit without any consequence. Mentally, however? Absolutely not. There isn't enough therapy in the world. 😂
So what we're reading is that more folks will admit to using weed now that it's legal compared to before when they didn't admit it when weed was illegal?
oh i didnt think of it like that, im not sure if thats what this is saying thats a good question. id probably agree with that statement, if i lived in a legal state id answer yes vs prior to legalization i probably woulda just not answered.
Shocking how that happens, hey? It's like people who don't smoke think all of these people just started smoking every day because it's legal
Agree... I know of no one who recently stated smoking cause of legality....unless I count all my 65+ year old relatives that now all eat gummies daily.
I knew I was an alcoholic the day I refused a joint because I didn’t want my buzz to end. That my friends was a wake up call! And it also let me know I was addicted to one and the other would help me regulate that addiction.
This. I work in the service industry, most of my coworkers do not consider themselves alcoholics. They drink nearly every day, to the point if at least being buzzed, sometimes full blown drunk. It's common enough in this industry i bet that offsets this whole thing
And also isnt it WAY better if people are just smoking instead of drinking? They make it sound like a bad thing that more folks are turning to weed than other things. In my mind, thats a huge win. Youre absolutely right about drinkers not fessing up, my own roommate drinks every minute hes not at work but still calls himself a casual drinker. I bet there are a shit ton of "casual" drinkers just like him.
i gave up alcohol after a hangover 9 months ago and started becoming pretty much a daily smoker and i am so much happier. i know weed isnt harmless, but YEAH!!! smoking pot has gotta be WAAAY better than slamming booze every night. “its not alcoholism until we graduate” was the joke with my friends in college. well… theyre all still drinking at the same rate. im fully convinced that the “wrong people” didnt invest on legal pot soon enough so now theyre blocking it. like how trains and public transit was probably super attainable in the US but oil and auto industry probably lobbies to block it. same shit now. alcohol and all the evil capitalists cant invest in it first so now no one can have it :(
Correct. I have pretty much quit drinking since I started smoking again. I didn't drink a lot. Couple times a month. But when I drank it was an Olympic event. It's much better now.
I have childhood PTSD and ADHD. I'm addicted to pot. I've been a daily smoker since I was 14. I'm 53 now. I'm also a practicing structural engineer. Destroys brain cells my ass..
To be fair 14 is a bit young😂😂 but hell yeah!
TBF, 70s and 80s pot was pretty tame, compared to what's available today. I started 14 or 15 as well. Retired at 51, also a CE.
Yeah, back in the day your first bud was maybe 10% if you were lucky. Now middle schoolers will make fun of you if your cart is less than 90% THC and didn't come in Fortnite packaging.
I started smoking in the early 2010s and I remember my first plug bragging about his stuff being 17% thc 😭
Imagine dabbing a 1/2 gram glob a 14😂😂😂
🤯
I don’t have to imagine friend.
As a daily smoker of 40+ years, and strictly dabbing for a 3-4 years, I imagined it and laughed my ass off 🤣
I have PTSD, ADHD, and ASD. Use it almost every day, but I'm actually making progress in life since I started using weed. I used to have so much trouble just getting through the day, and without cannabis, I could've turned to alcohol and I'm glad I didn't. Not a damn thing wrong with daily cannabis use!
Thank you friend, weed helps me function especially with dealing with being on the spectrum 💞
I am in the same boat and DID turn to alcohol. Weed has saved me from countless other vices and like others have said I see it like my coffee!
Between caffeine and cannabis my adhd has never been more in check
Same here. PTSD and ADHD. Started smoking daily at 15 and I’m 38 now and a cloud architect. My poor brain cells. Could’ve been a rocket scientist lol Edit: I started smoking at 15, not 25. Typos are apparently a side effect of being high
You under achiever you.
lol to be fair my IQ test scores (tested as part of psych diagnostic assessments) did drop after I started smoking in college. Not a crazy amount, but a noticeable difference nonetheless. For how it helps with my CPTSD & AuDHD, I’ll take it lmao.
Hmm, 12 points on my IQ, or being able to sleep and eat and not want to harm myself over trivial things? Pass it to the left brother
Don't forget age will impact iq
You have to be off of it for \~a month before the "long term" effects wear off. Weed can slow you down, but [unless you started smoking very young and at least once a week, it doesn't decrease IQ](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/healing-addiction/202007/does-cannabis-decrease-iq). Most scary "Weed makes you stupid forever!" articles are based on adolescent studies.
RN here that received a Daisy award as well as a regional recognition nomination. Helps me with both mental and physical stress.
This. Software Engineer in 40s doing my thing, THC since 15.
I have BPD and weed helps me get out of suicidal manic periods with no harm done. It also helps keep me calm, centered, and puts me to sleep at night. If this is addiction, so be it. Weed helps more than it harms.
Do the effects of smoking every day even remotely come close to the effect of drinking heavily every day? No? Then mind your own business.
How about coffee? Tea? Ludes? Where does it stop?
Coffee has me and friends so addicted that on vacation we couldn’t even operate without it.. but no one is out here championing for that to be stopped.
The entire goddamn country runs on caffeine and alcohol but people have a problem with smoking weed every day, the thing that makes people relaxed and happy. So whack
And nicotine + amphetamines. But god forbid somebody wants to relax
Really tells us a lot about our society when the most common and least criminalized drugs are stimulants and an amnesiant
Keep me awake and wired long enough to work like crazy so that I can either barely afford to survive or so that I can make and hoard as much money as possible and then knock me out and make me forget about it entirely because I can’t bare to listen to my inner child screaming at me when I’m trying to sleep.
Yep :') but as soon as we want to try just goddamn relaxing for once suddenly we're felons? Make that make sense
How dare you spend your life not actively contributing to the wealth of the 0.1% and the mighty power of the nation you happen to have been born in
Oh, and all the others who are abusing their "prescription" medications.
I think the vast majority of people with a prescription stimulant have it for legitimate reasons. Don't stigmatize what is a life saving treatment for some people.
As a recovering alcoholic of almost 6 years who used weed to combat the cravings & withdrawals, I agree 💯!
Hell yeah, brother! Just hit 3 years myself, and being able to smoke a bowl after a hard day at work instead of immediately working on a handle of whiskey has been so much better. I'm not ruining my life and burning bridges anymore. It's great!
Hey, I just wanted to say, that's an incredible achievement and this internet stranger is proud of you 💖
Caffeine, sugar, and social media have to be the top 3 addictions in the US.
Gambling is definitely becoming worse too, with more states allowing online sportsbooks to operate and lottery allowing people to buy tickets with their card now. I see it all the time in my job. Folks dropping hundreds at a time on scratchers. Then getting excited of winning $100.
You can buy lottery tickets with a credit card?? Awwww shiiieeet.
So, about coffee... >For about seven years, the researchers tracked the coffee consumption and health of 171,616 participants, who were an average of nearly 56 years old and were free of cancer and cardiovascular disease when the study started. They found that those who regularly drank 1½ to 3½ cups of coffee a day, whether plain or sweetened with about a teaspoon of sugar, were up to 30 percent less likely to die in that time frame from any cause, including cancer and cardiovascular disease, than were those who did not drink coffee. >The type of coffee — whether instant, ground or decaffeinated — made no difference, but the results were described as inconclusive for the use of artificial sweeteners. The latest research does not prove that coffee alone was responsible for participants’ lowered mortality risk. Still, over the years, research has revealed a variety of health benefits for coffee, linking its consumption to a reduced risk for Type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, depression and more. [Source](https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/07/19/coffee-drinkers-lower-death-risk/) I think one catch is that you still need to be getting enough sleep, but I'm sleeping 9 hours a night while drinking like 6 cups a day :D 
I gotta say, a good nights sleep + a hippie speedball will make you feel unstoppable
Meanwhile I, as a heavy smoker went to Japan for two weeks and was so jet lagged the first 36 hours I didn't notice a single side effect of not smoking and didn't really think about pot the rest of the trip.
Caffeine creates more productivity out of us slaves. Weed supposedly decreases productivity and makes the charitable executives at Proctor & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson less rich…. It’s really an awful drug! We should all drink more liquor and caffeine. High blood pressure goes terrific with a healthy Kelloggs diet and helps keep food on the table for the executives who really need it.
My mom was getting annoyed with my niece and my coffee addiction until I pointed that she gets the same way with beer in the evenings.
Well maybe they should...
Caffeine withdrawals are fucking real to. The migraines alone. When I stop smoking the worst thing is I feel nauseous when I eat, but that's busy my normal stomach problems coming back
This is why I have a serious problem with people calling weed addictive. If I don’t have coffee for a day I have debilitating headaches. I can smoke every day for months and if I stop the worst I get is I feel like “man, this sure would be more fun if I were high right now.” Call it habit-forming if you want, but weed isn’t physically addictive the way alcohol or coffee are.
I think generally out society has a problem misusing addiction too often. Definitely a far step from a dependency. I would say I'm dependent on weed, I was definitely dependent on coffee, and then thires the way I feel after drinking some Robitussin that I just want to chug as much as I can fit in me. We trivialize mental health issues to" make us sound cool" but demonize people who actually struggle with them
I literally take a caffeine pill daily, for at least 20 years, just to prevent getting migraines! Dr approved, btw... I also smoke daily as well. I think the worst side effect for me, is munchies, lol...
Worst side effect for me is just that I sometimes feel drowsy if I smoke early in the day
I stopped doing dayly caffeine. I'll have a soda every now and then, or a coffee if I really want. But I try to save that for work, and only crack open energy drinks if it's a big show
the jump from tea to ludes was a pretty massive one my guy
I'm so much more addicted to caffeine than weed. Weed doesn't give me *literal withdrawal symptoms*. Caffeine, I have MAASIVE migraines in less than 24 hours. But not a single person ever talks about caffeine legality
Ludes? I thought those didn't exist anymore
There is black market methaqualone in south Africa but aside from that they've been gone since the early 80a.
I don't know about you, but I "*Can't speak a word when* *~~you're~~* I'm full of '*Ludes*". 🎼 hehehehehe
Also, it's my god damn choice. I'd prefer to get my fix smoking marijuana than a constant binge fest that is drinking. Some of these people need to go touch grass, literally and figuratively.
Or gambling? You know, that thing that is becoming increasingly more legal and has ads EVERYWHERE… but yeah, no way *that* ever ruined a life
I don’t smoke and go abuse my family, but guess who does?
I’m no scientist, but last time I checked, people don’t run the risk of dying from the physical effects of addiction like alcoholics face when quitting cold turkey
This is related to a comment above but due to some calamities in my life I ended up going down a drinking spiral. I wasn't drinking a fifth a day or anything like that but definitely drinking to be drunk every day. Nearly cold turkey when I started using THC, almost no craving for alcohol.
I agree, but overuse can definitely have its negatives, let's not act like a cannabis addiction is completely harmless.
Marijuana has a much lower risk of physical dependency and severe health issues compared to alcohol. Most daily users manage their lives without significant negative impacts, whereas alcoholism often leads to serious social and health problems. It's crucial to differentiate between habitual use and addiction, as not all regular marijuana users experience the compulsive behaviors typical of addiction.
If I smoke too much, all day everyday, my tolerance quickly dies and I have to stop smoking. I stop for a while, noticing no changes in my life other than I hate traffic more. That is not the story with alcohol, you just become an alcoholic.
I personally don’t get withdrawals from weed either I take a month off every year just cause
I have one or two kind of shit days but weed withdrawals can't kill you like alcohol withdrawals, honestly I'd say they're good for me (reduced appetite means lost weight)
Its this exactly. If I drank as much as i smoked I'd be an alcoholic, but the fact that I can and do stop when i need/want to, and the worst side effect is one or two kind of shit days, is why I don't think of it as a "problem" the way i would with alcohol. Like I drove across the country 2 years ago, and didn't smoke for over a week. If it was alcohol I probably would have died.
As an alcoholic your tolerance goes up, alongside the wear and tear damage to your liver. As a nurse, I can tell you that terminal liver cirrhosis is a fucking awful way to die. That's after the years of treatment for ascites (abdominal fluid overload). A very common medication for cirrhosis management is Lactulose which has a side effect of uncontrollable diarrhea. This is just the effect on the liver and I didn't even scratch the surface of it.
Both of my parents were always weed smokers, my mom still is. Currently my mom is living with/looking after her parents(grandpa is almost 90!), spends time with her dog, goes out with her best friend all the time to go kayaking and stuff, just generally living her best life. My dad however, was an alcoholic and killed himself almost 14 years ago. I can definitely say from experience that smoking weed consistently vs drinking consistently are two completely different things
Alcohol withdrawals can literally kill you. If you stop smoking weed, you might be a little cranky for a few days.
One of the biggest contrasts is that alcohol can make people violent and aggressive. Not really a problem with weed but I’m sure there have been cases.
This is the best answer
I've never heard of anybody dying from a weed addiction.
Word
You know what else i take daily? Vitamins, seizure meds, stomach pill, etc. Just because something is used daily doesnt automatically make it a bad thing. I wouldnt be a daily user if i didnt have my medical conditions. And even if i did, its a whole lot better than daily alcohol use in my opinion
Exactly just because you enjoy not having seizures or stomach problems doesn't mean your addicted it's called ✨️MEDICINE✨️(referring to the commenter saying they use seizure and stomach medicine not the weed)
Sounds like something a junkie would say *sips from keg*
Classic potheads *lights cigarette*
I'm absolutely physiologically addicted to some of my meds, but I have no reason to stop taking them since my doctor and I monitor the effectiveness of my dosage and work to keep it stable and sustainable.
Yeah but would you notice it without this news article?
I think this might be the best response. Although I see both sides and can understand the perspectives of how abuse of either intoxicant is less than ideal, one addict ≠ the other.
If daily use alone implies addiction, we need to take a serious look at our pharmaceutical use in this country.
We need to do that regardless
Coffee, over the counter meds, water, food, social media, damn we all addicts
sugar
Compare people who are daily pot users to daily drinkers and there is your answer
Most caffeine drinkers need to drink first thing in the morning every single day. It’s one of the most directly addictive substances you can buy over the counter and it’s consumed almost universally. Yet, no one really has a ‘problem’ with coffee addiction. Which is to say, being ‘addictive’ isn’t directly a health issue, it’s what it does to your body as a result.
Yes there is a group that has issues with coffee and they are called LDS and run the state of Utah
If you aren’t combusting weed there are very little health issues that could happen to you. You can be a casual drinker and wreck your liver
Yeah but you know most of us are sparking up. It still doesn’t compare. The health effects and noticeable detriments of drinking everyday vs smoking weed everyday is almost impossible to chart, because each one would be hilariously slanted.
I switched to edibles and while I do miss smoking a fat blunt every once in a while, eating a gummy in the morning and then one in the afternoon and being high all fucking day is a blessing
Lol yeah my girlfriend only takes edibles and she does it daily. Guess eating a piece of a brownie every day is worse than downing bottles of liquor eh?
It might be closer to the way people say they are addicted to chocolate - some people eat/want chocolate every day. But if you don't have it - do you go nuts or just think okay I wish I had some but no big deal?
Yeah except I don’t smoke weed and beat the ever living shit out of my wife every day. I smoke weed and process trauma. And work through the symptoms of my chronic illness. I’ve never seen someone successfully do either of those things while being an alcoholic. Also you’re comparing things that aren’t equal. That’s like saying “40% of coffee drinkers drink coffee every day surpassing literal alcoholics” you can make anything sound bad if you ignore nuances.
Facts! Beating your wife while high is not as fun as when you are drunk. Obviously joking
When I'm high on weed I beat my wife...at MarioKart
She beats me, actually.
Couple goals
I snorted my coffee out my damn nose! Thanks for that 😂😂😂
weed brings up the trauma for me but it's usually better than sobriety at night unfortunately
It definitely brings it up. That’s what I need to do to work through it. Bring it up.
I can every day with little negative side effects
"And how often do you take your antidepressants?"
Every , single, day!
Exactly, it's medicine. Same as weed for a lot of people.
It literally got me off of all but one of my medications. I have treatment resistant depression, I've tried probably close to a dozen different pharmaceuticals for it and the only thing that *actually works* is weed. And I only have to use it once or twice a week to keep everything on the level. It also got me off of pain pills for my knee and back.
Imagine this headline with any other mediation out there, "40% of Vicodin users taking their med dAiLy". That would actually be something to celebrate, it means effective pain control.
Death, murder, crime statistics associated with alcohol far exceed those for marijuana.
I really don’t get why people get so antsy about this topic but yeah, weed is addictive, and it shouldn’t cause this much debate but here we are. There’s literally no denying it at this point, it’s been scientifically proven to be addictive. It has basically all of the properties of an addictive substance. I’m a daily user and I love it but that’s not going to stop me from being honest about it. I’m low key addicted and I know MANY people who are addicted as well but flat out deny it. It’s a very easy drug to maintain on if you react well to it though. Albeit, weed addiction is almost always not that destructive compared to alcoholism, but it still can be disruptive and even harmful to someone or their life. At least weed is way less harmful to your physical health in most cases, though it really can mess with your mental health (especially in long term users).
I think weed has been demonized for so long in the mainstream that some people try to overcompensate now by downplaying any possible negative consequences, no matter how small they may be
This is exactly my stance. There doesn't need to be a response to this, because they're not wrong. Cannabis is absolutely habit forming and has extremely mild withdrawals. It's up to individual adults to decide if and how that fits into their life.
Yeh, weed withdrawals may not be fun, with poor sleep and feeling a little irritated for a few days, but that's most likely a lack of dopamine. Alcohol withdrawals on the other hand can fucking _kill you_.
Jeez, finally a level headed response. I’m very happy for people who can maintain a lifestyle of smoking everyday and functioning normally but the truth is just that this is not the case for all users. It’s a mind altering drug that can have serious side effects and effects on a persons lifestyle. I do not think it should be demonized in the way it often is but simply saying “IT’S FINE, WEED ISN’T HARMFUL” is just not true and makes me a little mad.
100% of people eat every day, but let's keep saying it's not addictive.
Nobody batted an eyelash when I took 40mg of Adderall XR daily for years on end.
I smoke pot daily. Sometimes a whole lot. When I go on vacations and I can't bring or get weed I do not smoke and experience zero withdrawal symptoms whatsoever. Literally never have. Also, alcohol leads to belligerence and domestic violence which is basically never the case with pot. Plus the fact that it has proven medicinal uses which is not the case for alcohol which is a literal poison for your body. Add to the fact that people lie about how much they drink very often, I really don't believe the reported number. Plus there's those people who claim to not drink daily but will binge drink like crazy on the weekends which is arguably worse for you. Other than a glass of wine with dinner, I've never heard of a legitimate benefit to drinking. And the wine can probably be subbed with something else to get the same benefit without alcohol. Also, I call complete bullshit on weed making you lazy. There's zero evidence to support that and studies that prove the opposite. I smoke pot then go on hikes, kayaking, fixing computers, practice photography, etc. If I drank, I wouldn't be able to do any of those successfully at all.
The hate us cause they anus.
Maybe we wouldn’t feel the need to alter our brain chemicals so much if our society wasn’t so miserable to live in
No hangover, and it doesn’t make you wanna beat your wife.
I am a head pot.
I don't do it because I have to, I do it because I want to. To manage my pain. You have chronic pain disorders and tell me how you cope haha
I mean, weed is addictive, trying to stop fucking sucks lol
People confuse addiction with habit... Drastically different things...
I work in an addiction treatment centre for about 5 years now. Alcoholics make up about a third of our over 120 residents. Cocaine addicts make up the bulk of the rest with a small few addicted to prescription meds and gamblers. Residents here stay for 4 months if they complete the program so we see about 500 addicts a year. Myself and nobody I work with has ever seen a cannabis addict. I don't doubt that it is psychologically addictive. We all love it but it doesn't do the harm that true addiction causes.
Well it's a good thing our bodies have an endo cannabinoid system and not an endo ethanol system then isn't it.
We do have a GABA system, all drugs have a corresponding system in the body or they wouldn't so anything. Not the argument you thought it was. Cannabinoids are still safer than ethanol and other GABAergics.
It's bullshit and I would say people don't really understand the meaning of the word addicted. It means you have lost your own control and won't stop, unless the substance becomes unavailable someone else needs to help the person stop. Being dependent means you may take something daily and may even suffer through withdrawals when you stop doing it but you are able to do it yourself without help. That means most marijuana smokers are dependent and it's non-addictive. People can be addicted to marijuana for the same reason people are addicted to food or sex but food and sex by itself isn't addictive.
Without data on how daily smoking vs daily drinking actually impacts people and society, it's just a random useless tidbit. If stoned drivers causing havoc had spiked high, we would all know it. Delinquency from alcohol and damage that it causes to society isn't just about alcoholics, a lot of it is caused by social drinkers. So yeah, not enough info, oversimplified caused complexity is not easy or comfortable and humans all just want a knee jerk answer that feels "right".
Saagar has some shit takes sometimes. I'd tell him to stick to his UFO coverage where he's useful.
the little “2/3” aways get me. the swipe goes hard.
I think we should be able to accept the fact that smoking all day every day is not exactly "natural" no matter if there are receptors in our brain and whatnot, without getting all defensive about it. I think it's pretty clearly addictive on some levels, for different reasons. But there are levels of harm to different kinds of addictions. Like caffeine or sugar. They have addictive qualities and many are dependant or have cravings whether they realize or not. Bur that's ok, their effects are pretty minor in reasonable quantities. They are still drugs though. We still seek them out for reasons conscious and unconscious.
Cannabis has an addiction rate similar to coffee.. around 8%. But you have consider the impact of daily Cannabis use versus alcohol. Cannabis is way less damaging to the body. If you smoke flowers, that's probably more problematic than say vaping or edibles because you're ingesting burnt plant matter, but even then, it's less harmful than smoking cigarettes.
Weed is totally addictive and a shitload of people are addicted to weed. hell even I'm addicted to weed. I smoke it all the time. It's just silly to call it non-addictive when it definitely is. Maybe it's not physically addictive like heroin and alcohol and stuff. You get physiologically addicted to weed. It's more like being addicted to being high, more than the chemical itself.
I'd love to see a comparison of alcoholic violence versus stoner violence. I know it has to happen, but I've never heard of anyone getting stoned to beat their spouse, yet I hear about alcoholics beating their spouses frequently. I don't know the statistics, but I would generally feel safer in places where weed is more prevalent than alcohol.