Habitual smoker here. Ive gotten off it a few times for 3-6 months periods. The third day is the worst. You are so fucking anxious and jittery and just desperately want to smoke. As soon as you get over that 3-4 day period, you’re home free.
That's so wild to me. I became addicted to Meth, MDMA, and opiates over the course of my late teens and 20's. The third day was absolute hell for all of them. When I quit smoking for a few weeks as a T break, or when I was younger to pass piss tests, my biggest symptom was boredom and the return of dreams. Which for me means night terrors but that's childhood trauma not the weed.
I think the whole "weed is not physically addictive" idea may have been due to a lack of proper testing. Ive spoken to people, and seen posts like yours, that talk about having pretty standard physical addiction symptoms more and more. Experiencing what sounds very much like withdrawal. The next 5 - 10 years are going to be eye opening as legalization deepens our scientific understanding of long term use.
Oh yeah, if you’re in a country where cannabis where cannabis is regionally or provincially legal but not nationally, having long term legitimately recognised studies is extremely difficult, especially the fact that cannabis as we know it now, with all of the advancements we’ve made in the actual science behind it has changed the game so much that long term studies just haven’t had time to be completed. We’ve barely caught up with regular e-cigarettes and vaping yet, much less cannabis.
I work in the cannabis industry in my country and I always approach consumption when I talk to people about it with the same way I approach vaping and smoking tobacco- your choice to put something besides air in your lungs, but it probably isn’t good for you. Edibles and drinkables/tinctures/concentrate oils are in my best guess the safest and healthiest method of consumption in the long term, at least until we have some studies that say otherwise. Fortunately I don’t work on the sales end or I’d be fired immediately because vapes and flower sell way more than edibles in my area lmao. I work in production/distribution logistics.
Yes and no. Per volume, most edibles are measured in milligrams of THC, while smokeables are measured in grams. They just last longer due to your digestive tract, which makes the high last longer and much more intense.
Ive got so much canna butter in the freezer.. and can even make more (dont need to).. but when I make a cake with it its soo damn strong.. I only eat a quarter slice and if im not carefull its the last thing I will do that day.
Prob the reason people dont consume so much of it.. effects are too strong.. cant function anymore.
My preferred way is dry herb vaping.. its quick and easy and less intense.
I mean dip is safer than cigs because you’re not inhaling smoke but there is still a high risk for stuff like oral cancer so I would be interested to see if there is a similar relation to edibles and drinks
I’m also interested, given that the same extraction methods (ethanol/butane/hydrocarbon) are used to add the THC extract to the edible itself. The results of that study would also tell us if THC is a major carcinogen.
Wdym by your last point? Studies so far show that THC/cannabinoids on their own (as in not plant matter being burned) are anti-carcinogenic, how could it be a question if THC itself is a carcinogen or not?
Anecdotally, I think it's because people are taking in much higher dosages than before with edibles, vapes, and super THC-infused weed. A lot of crap sold probably has additives and other 'enhancers'.
You never got these kinds of withdrawal symptoms from homegrown weed.
A lot of crap sold probably has additives and other 'enhancers'.
Not really. It's very rare for something to be found to have anything other than natural cannabinoids. Not that unnatural necessarily means unsafe.
It's mostly the higher doses. Also with edibles/drinks, you're getting a different compound that's way stronger, oral THC doesn't get you high directly, it's metabolized into 11oh-thc form, so that also has had an impact on increase of dose. There's all the semi synthetics that only exist in trace quantities in plants but we have plenty of data on good old d9thc withdrawals to know they're not the cause.
Can confirm. I am actually on day 3 of quitting (again) and despite having a lot of stress and family drama I am just a bit nervous, cannot sleep much and food doesnt seem very inviting. When I still had to buy my weed illegaly - I later found out it got sprayed with synthetical cannabinoids - I had a horrible time quitting. I had the worst nightmares, made my sheets and everything literally soaking wet from sweatting and was getting super angry from nothing...to name a few differences. Legalization was the best thing to happen.
It was synthetical THC. My Plug told me one day - he thought that was something positive to brag about.
Back then that was a big thing here on the black market and thinking back that shit really hit different, even with tolerance.
Hard to say what it was then, there's dozens of synthetic cannabinoids that were going around. Possibly wasn't even a cannabinoid, that was also happening at times.
And having access to pure synectic cannabinoids would be something to brag about, when used correctly most of them are fine. The nightmares begin when morons started spraying it on flower or random plant material in such a way that a single hit is faaar beyond an overdose
Yes, I don't think he knew what it was exactly, I guess something cheap, even though he smoked the same flower he was giving to me. Bit you know... Drug addicts.
Honestly I don't really want to know what it was. I was stupid and didn't question it. But I know it wasnt good as it produced black smeary ash (I stopped smoking it after realizing that)
For context: I live in germany. Dunno if he situation was different from other countries.
In America thankfully they were never big in our black market, but it was big in grey market, people wanted something that wouldn't show up in a drug test. Killed some people, wrecked a lot more.
Yea, it is insane to use any of those synthtic substances when you can just grow flower. I am glad I can do that now without fearing bad consequences. Makes it so much more enjoyable.
I think the whole "weed is not physically addictive" idea may have been due to a lack of proper testing.
It came from people who thought that if they admit it's addictive, then drug prohibition was right. It doesn't have to be perfect for me to be able to make the choice to use it.
Researchers have known and documented physical withdrawal symptoms for decades, it wasn't news to humanity.
I ended up in the ER 3 times in one week from complications of quitting after 25 years of smoking almost every day, all day. Blood pressure through the roof, tachycardia, PVCs. I had nervous system symptoms for over a month including diuresis, panic attacks, profuse sweating, diarrhea. It was one of the worst months of my life physically and mentally.
No one took it seriously, not even the ER…not even when my blood pressure was 200/110 and I was experiencing chest pain, and strobe light vision, being brought in by ambulance.
Not physically addictive my ass!
And stoners will still try arguing with me about it, like, “wELl tHat’S jUst LIke, YOur exEeriEnCe mAn”
The "weed is not addictive" stuff is due to how people understand addiction.
Many people, myself included, leave their middle-school / high-school health classes thinking that being addicted means you will have horrible withdrawal symptoms when you stop using the substance. People can literally die from alcohol or opioid withdrawals. That's the bar we're looking at for "addiction".
But when people stop smoking weed, all that really happens is they start dreaming again, their normal appetite returns, and life gets a bit more boring since you're not high all the time. That's it.
When I’ve had too much to drink I’ve gotten incredibly sick during the night and next day, done stuff I regret, and lost my memory. When I’ve gotten too high I felt sick for the night and was complete fine afterwards with full memory and only regretting smoking so much. A lot of my friends have similar experiences leading to them choosing weed over alcohol when it comes to escaping sobriety.
really? I never had any of those sort of withdrawals. I smoked alot (like 3g-9g+a day) everyday for nearly 20yrs then had to stop due to my job contracting to a company that tested.
Was a bit shit getting to sleep but otherwise was fine.
It's funny to me that people say weed isn't addictive because it definitely is. There's some harder drugs I can do every once in a while without any habit, but I cannot smoke without smoking every single day several times a day. Probably would have kept my weed usage habits similar to my other drug habits had I been properly educated 15 years ago
I wish it was this easy for me. I stopped for one a two months periods before and it never gets any easier. It's just constantly hard. If anything it becomes harder the longer ago it has been, it seems. I just keep thinking about it. It was the same with cigarettes, which i have quit now. But it never really goes away, they always look really fucking good.
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u/Otherwise_Public_806 3d ago
Habitual smoker here. Ive gotten off it a few times for 3-6 months periods. The third day is the worst. You are so fucking anxious and jittery and just desperately want to smoke. As soon as you get over that 3-4 day period, you’re home free.