There is chemical addiction and there is psychological addiction. Weed might not be chemically addictive but it can sure be psychologically addictive which is true with most stoners.
I don’t agree with that chemical/psychological distinction. Weed and other drugs mess with your neurotransmitters/receptors which are fundamental to our psychological functioning, you can’t draw a line and say this is chemical addiction that causes you to vomit, sweat, and shake, and this is some higher level ”I want it cause it makes me feel nice” addiction. It’s the same thing, just not as severe. And heavy chronic weed use absolutely will cause uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms like headaches, irritability, mood swings, apathy etc.
they hated him bc he was telling them the truth
If you’re trying to argue weed isn’t at least a wee bit addictive, you’ve clearly never smoked it any actual length of time. I love weed, but let’s no kid ourselves lads.
Well it really isn’t addictive as opiates for example are. You wont become chemically dependant to it. The kind of addiction it causes is the same one that social media, TV, gaming, etc might cause. It becomes an habit and you get used to that. I know this is a simplification but this is how I see it.
Marijuana is absolutely physically addictive as much as people want to say it isnt. Mind you im someone who smokes the minute they leave work until they go to bed. So im not here to push any kind of anti-marijuana view point, but i do think we as stoners should be honest. Everyone i know who stops smoking weed has two very common side effects.
- They have a lot of trouble getting to sleep
- Wild/fucked up dreams.
I understand that this is a side effect of lack of REM but you cant say these aren’t physical withdrawal symptoms. Research is needed, but just because we all want it to be legal, doesn’t mean we should ignore the facts.
Dude those “withdrawal symptoms” are a joke compared to any other drug.
That said, I don’t know a single person who identifies as a stoner that isn’t completely and utterly mentally addicted. And the drug is so subtle, stoners rarely try to stop.
Cocaine, even a 2 day bender is incredibly hard on your body. If you’re a person with any kind of responsibilities in your life, you’ll be strongly incentivized to reconsider the habit in no time.
But weed, it’s meh. Most users can restrict their use to when they’re not at work, so it’s fine.
Which makes it more dangerous.
I’ve watched so many promising futures flushed down the toilet by weed. Motivation? gone. Real hobbies? Indoors in front of a screen only. At its worst, I’ve seen friends totally withdraw from socializing almost entirely. Social anxiety combined with the escape of being high was enough to dampen and deny the very real human need to connect with others.
Every single one of these individuals went through some form of depression that was was extended and exacerbated by escapism and addiction in the form of excessive marijuana usage.
I know that’s not everyone. There are people who use it in a healthy, balanced way.
But there are also a ton of people who get heavily addicted because it dampens the pain of something they’re going through. And that pattern can make it a lot harder to make progress and work through whatever that person is dealing with.
Anyone who’s spent any time around stoners knows this is true. And yeah, for a lot of people, it’s a gateway drug. I’ve seen plenty of buddies in college jump from weed to xans to oxy. It’s ruined lives. It made my best friend drop out.
And yeah, these people clearly already had issues. But that’s how drug addiction works. It preys on people who are going through something and it makes a bad situation way worse.
Weed can do the exact same thing. Doesn’t matter if it’s not physically addicting.
This comment hit the nail on the head. It’s no big deal to spend an evening after work getting high and watching movies. But then it becomes every evening. Now you can’t deal with daily life if you don’t get to smoke between work shifts. Maybe you show up to work high to take the edge off. Now you’re high all the time and being sober feels weird. Spending all your time just sort of floating in a dream because being high is your default state now.
Everything becomes more effort so you just stop bothering. Playing an instrument? This requires too much focus. I’m gonna go lay down on the couch. Socializing? I’m too high to drive, I’ll stay home today (man I’m so freaking lonely). It really truly is a trade-off where you sacrifice a fulfilling life for an easily tolerated one. At some point you start to realize this and increase your intake to try to make those uneasy thoughts go away.
Does this sound anecdotal? That’s because it is.
Marijuana is absolutely physically addictive as much as people want to say it isnt.
I mean it scientifically isn’t though. Physical addictions don’t just give you psychological withdrawals, they are physical. Your body becomes dependent on them to maintain homeostasis.
Cold turkeying drugs like opioids and benzos can kill you.
Just because the withdrawal symptoms aren’t as bad doesn’t mean they don’t exist. I said this before, research is needed. Going off of whats been said over the last 50 years of prohibition seems silly to me. And i for sure use marijuana to keep me in homeostasis. We need to stop saying psychological withdrawal doesnt have roots based in brain chemistry. I think everything we have begun to learn about mental health shows what little we actually know.
As someone who smokes weed way too often… I do it because I’m addicted to it and anyone who says it’s ‘habitual not addictive’ or they’re just ‘medicating’ is in denial
As someone else who smokes way too much… I do it because I’m addicted to it. Most people don’t realize that habitual addictions are addictions, and just because weed doesn’t have physical withdrawal symptoms, doesn’t meant you can’t be addicted.
The fun thing is, it does have physical withdrawal symptoms when you stop.
They’re just not nearly as bad some other substances.
I’d rank them worse than coffee’s withdrawal symptoms.
Anyone who says it isn’t addictive is lying to themselves and potentially harming others who may end up getting addicted themselves.
Nobody HAS to. They want to, so why not.
Why do you look at your cell phone every day, are you addicted?
Yes
Because a lot of them probably have undiagnosed ADHD or Autism and don’t realize what they’re trying to help by doing it or why it’s helping.
Prolonged use of use of weed can reduce you brains motivation system which is something that people with ADHD already have a problem with. Long term use of weed may be risky idea for someone with ADHD. source: my doctor who gave me my medical card and my psychiatrist
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I think it fixes itself when quitting for a long enough time but I’m not entirely sure. I’d ask a doctor.
I drink coffee everyday. I will rise my cup of Joe to the stoner. I get you bro.
Thing is, caffeine is physically addictive. Weed is not.
But you can make a habit out of anything.
Cheers! I’d like to pass on this info though, for anyone who enjoys both like myself:
Caffeine drinking potentiates cannabinoid transmission: interaction with stress effects - Neuropharmacology 2009
Our data suggest that the cannabinoid system is implicated in the psychoactive properties of caffeine and in the ability of caffeine to reduce the pathological consequences of stress. Chronic caffeine assumption sensitized GABAergic synapses to the presynaptic effect of cannabinoid CB1 receptor stimulation by exo- and endocannabinoids. The synaptic effects of caffeine were slowly reversible after its removal from the drinking solution. Furthermore, although exposure to caffeine for only 24h did not produce measurable changes of the sensitivity of cannabinoid CB1 receptors, it was able to contrast the down-regulation of CB1 receptor-mediated responses after social defeat stress.
I copied the rest from bloommedicinals.com, just the relevant bits. Also added the links to the studies and the pages with additional descriptions.
TL;DR:
- Low levels of caffeine can help to maximize the effects of THC, but too much caffeine can lessen the impact of your cannabis
- Caffeine and THC can both increase dopamine levels, but too much at once can trigger anxiety, agitation, and paranoia
What Happens When You Smoke Weed and Drink Coffee?
Since coffee and cannabis may offer so many health benefits on their own, you might think it’s safe to assume that enjoying a little bit of weed with your coffee would be okay. The reality is … it might be safe for most, but not for all. Here’s why.
THC and coffee can boost the amount of dopamine in our systems. Although dopamine can promote feelings of happiness and euphoria, too much of it at once can trigger anxiety, agitation, and paranoia. In addition, both caffeine and THC can both increase your blood pressure and heart rate.
This is why many doctors advise that those with heart conditions and those at risk of heart arrhythmia or stroke, should not mix caffeine and THC. So, if you’re new to mixing coffee and cannabis, it’s important to consult your doctor to make sure it makes sense for you. If it does, begin with lower amounts of coffee and cannabis than you would normally consume on their own. Then if needed, you can increase your dosage slowly.
Back in 2014, a study was conducted to measure the effects of mixing caffeine and cannabis on squirrel monkeys. The results of this study were published in the Journal of Neuroscience. (also described here)
The monkeys were given the ability to self administer cannabis whenever they wanted. All they had to do was to pull on a lever. When the monkeys were given low doses of a substance similar to caffeine, they seemed less likely to reach for the THC. But, when they received high doses of caffeine, they seemed to reach for that lever more often.
Then in 2018, a study led by Marilyn Cornelis at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine seemed to back up these findings. This time, the study examined the effects of mixing cannabis and coffee on humans. It found that the more caffeine people consumed, the less cannabis their body was able to metabolize. (also described here)
So, although small amounts of caffeine can help your THC go a long way – too much caffeine can lessen its effects.
Thats why you gotta specify mentally addictive. But thats the same as videogame or tv addiction😂
You get physiological withdrawal effects from weed. Problems with sleep, for example.
Meh anytime I take a tbreak the first few days kinda suck but all I had to do was make sure I was getting enough activity through the day and got to sleep just fine. Only times I really felt the sleep issue in a tbreak is if I was just sitting on my ass all day
Cuz weed fuckin rocks bruv.
🚫not to me🚫
Life is so fucking grim and full of misery and there’s barely anything to help people cope but weed is the hill you die on.
I don’t like it, I’m fine with people who do though. Drugs aren’t for me :)
What about caffeine? People act like “drugs are bad” is a reasonable stance, but they mean illegal drugs which just happen to be illegal, usually without good reason. Most adults are drug addicts, it’s just that the drug of choice is caffeine and they don’t see it as an issue because it’s legal and been normalized.
Animals have been doing drugs for longer than humans have existed. There are many benificial drugs that can help us with manually regulating bodily activity. Used responsibly, drugs can be great.
Caffeine is just a mild stimulant though. Doesn’t have the same affects
Same with medicinal drugs too. They’re fine
Yeah, the point is that drugs are fine morally. It’s when they’re abused they cause issues. There is some line that you’ve made up where drugs become “bad” but it is made up. Recognizing that it’s a made up line is important. I’m not saying you need to use drugs or anything like that, just realize that “drugs are bad” is a blatantly dishonest and untrue statement.
There are also plenty of psychoactive drugs that can be pretty helpful to human mental health. Marijuana also can have many health benefits, and it doesn’t cause people to do dangerous things usually. Most of the time it just causes people to sit around inside and not bother other people, unlike alcohol.
Drugs aren’t bad. Drug abuse is bad. Doing bad activities while on drugs is also bad, but the drugs are not.
Weed is illegal federally, but it keeps getting produced at a state level. This really worries me, si to try to rectify this situation, I have just been buying and burning as much as I can. I don’t know how much of an effect its having because I just keep seeing more pop up.
I will continue despite it seeming more and more like a fools errand.
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Woosh
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There’s withdrawal but of the four drugs i have been physically addicted to (caffeine, weed, nicotine, and SSRIs) it’s the only one I can cold turkey in under a week and feel fine.
Yeah, caffeine cold turkey is unexpectedly tough.
It’s not so bad if you pop a Tylenol the first couple of days, just to get you through the caffeine migraine phase.
Depends on how bad your caffeine addiction is. I tried cold turkey when I had a tooth pulled when I was drinking a pot of coffee a day.
A week in bed on Vicodin and Percocet, didn’t touch that headache and it didn’t improve or go away until I drank coffee.
Oddly, I ate a large bag of mushrooms and got tazed by the cops one night. Ended up in the psych ward. Was able to cold turkey the coffee after that. Not sure if it was the mushrooms or the juice from the tazer.
Yeah, I’m not sure if Vicodin or perc would help a migraine, different pain killers help in different ways. I think opiods are the least helpful when it comes to migraines, if I remember correctly.
I confirm. Taking opioids against migraine gives you still a migraine, but on opioids. Not recommended.
but we’re not talking about migraines.
we’re talking about caffeine withdrawal headaches.
neither of which are 💯 understood but that doesn’t make them the same.
plus, Vicodin has Tylenol in it. so i was taking Tylenol.
Caffeine withdrawal can absolutely trigger migraines, easily.
Not sure about the Tylenol in Vic, but just that opioids in general don’t work well. You can easily Google it.
Because before it my ADHD made it functionally impossible to sleep, since when I’m not on the meds my mind runs too hard and when I am on the meds I can’t sleep either because they’re prescription meth, but weed solves that problem and I enjoy sleeping.
What does Weed with ADHD feel like?
Basically same as the other dude, but no anxiety beyond the norm anyone would have in their daily lives, and no paranoia beyond the legal consequences of excersing what I see as a right yet the state sees as a crime. Were it federally legal it would mitigate that of course, but that’ll never happen because then nobody could use legalization to get votes so we can’t actually go around solving things, now can we? (Bitter? Maybe. Paranoid no lol.)
What do you use? And what’s your dosage? (I know it will vary from person to person)
“Weed.” And I don’t live in a legal state, so dosage is hard to describe I guess. “Some,” not enough to be zombiefied but enough that I feel it, is the best I can do.
Because habitual doesn’t mean addictive, I also have a problem with peanut butter cups.
ya as someone who smokes a lot of weed. its not addictive as in like, i get the shakes if i dont smoke but its def more than peanut butter cups
its def addicting, just not physically so. i feel real uncomfortable if my smoke habit gets disrupted.
That’s pretty much a habit, I also get uncomfortable when I have to go out when I always have that day free. Peanut butter cups might not be a good example because the sugar is really bad for humans.
Personally I thought weed was very addictive, but not in the traditional sense.
Take coffee for instance. When I stopped drinking coffee I had headaches, was a dick for a few days, but that’s it. Which is pretty easy compared to, say, heroin (so I hear).
With weed, I didn’t have any of that, but I craved the relaxation it brought. The feeling of not giving a fuck about anything for a few hours was great, and I longed for it. I still long for it sometimes. And I think that’s the dangerous thing about weed being labeled as “non-addictive.”
Just because you don’t have a physical reaction to abstaining, doesn’t mean the emotional reliance is nothing.
It’s hard to break habits. I’m not naive though, I know what it feels like, it’s a mind battle.
What a portrait of primate anger it is.
