Does THC deprivation last a life time?

[achilleas.k]

Exactly how harmful does something have to be for it to be important? Playing video games certainly isnt benefitial or constructive, and certainly sitting on the couch playing them is more harmful than say, going outside and exercising, so is sitting here debating on a forum.

Water certainly can be harmful in large enough ammounts, even when you arent drowning in it, there is hyponatremia. "But you need water to live!" I hear you say. Well watch closely... you use water responsibly and you gain the benefits and mitigate the risks. We dont need marijuana or any other recreational drugs, we dont need a lot of things that occupy our free time, but if you use/do them responsibly you can ENJOY them while mitigating the risks. Maybe you dont enjoy marijuana, and that is fine, I dont think that people need to enjoy everything I do. I dont enjoy DragonBall Z, but I am not about to accuse anyone that does of any pathological problems even if they watch it everyday. I wouldnt call them an addict even if they find themselves wanting to watch it 2 years after they have stopped ^.^

I was reading through the thread and there were some really stupid responses and some really good ones, but I stopped at this one just to say: +1!

Not everything we consume is purely good for us, in any amount. Most things we enjoy are bad for us but we balance the "bad stuff we like" with the "good stuff we don't like", so we eat 1 burger for every 5 or 10 healthy meals instead of the other way around. Why eat the burger if it's bad for us? Because feeling good is just as important as being healthy. We need to indulge to give ourselves a break. Being on this forum for me is, more or less, a waste of time (I should be working now :| ), but I could argue that I need some "me time" during work hours because concentrating on work for 8 hours straight will cause more problems than if I take breaks and don't get as much done in a day (that's not to say I don't overdo it).

There may be more important things said after this but I have a reply to the "snake venom" and "drop book on toe" arguments a couple of pages back:
Yes, dropping a book on your toe is less painful than getting hit by a truck, but I see no reason to do EITHER of those. Certain drugs are (or can be) less harmful than alcohol and I see a few reasons for doing BOTH of those (see above). The argument here isn't that you should do the less harmful thing when there is another, more harmful alternative. The argument is that there are legal, socially acceptable substances that are more harmful. Acceptance of those more harmful substances should, in theory, imply an acceptance of less harmful substances. That is what "weed is less harmful than alcohol" is trying to imply!

PS: Sorry for being slightly off topic

 

[Ruuvan]

Sounds more like the nicotine side of things; assuming that when she smoked weed, she made the spliffs with tobacco and weed and that's that.

I doubt it's THC withdrawal as, unlike nicotine, your mind does not adopt a physical dependancy, only the mental side of "I like this feeling, I would like it again" whereas nicotine is more "My brain needs it now, even if I hate the idea of smoking, I know a nice nicotine rush would stop me being an angry bugger!"

I smoke cigarettes, smoked the other stuff for quite a while at Uni but no more, and I have no urge to do it again, so no THC withdrawal.

 

[mrF00bar]

The chemical addiction is gone. Its just the mental problems. Cant really do shit about that unless you take her to a voodoo doctor to cast out the bad juju. Or in the common vernacular, hypnotists.

There is no chemical addiction for weed I believe, its all mental, that is if I haven't been told wrongly. Also, why do you care and why does it turn you off that she wants to smoke weed? Just tell her its ok but you don't want anything to do with it, so just do it away from me?

 

[4li3n]

An ad hominem attack is by definition trying to undermine someone's argument by questioning their credibility on the subject. He used 'straight edged' for a "you never tried anything like it so you don't know what you're talking about" angle, so therefore, it is ad hominem.

No, an ad hominem is only when the attack is about an attribute of the person that is irrelevant to the disscussion. Like saying "you smell" and implying that means you must be wrong about how much 2+2 equals...

Questioning someone's knowledge about the matter discussed is a pretty legitimate argument... if someone said 2+2=10 pointing out that they failed 1st grade math is not an ad hominem, even if the proper way to do it is to prove 2+2=4, as that actually prove you're right, while showing the other person to not know anything about the subject discussed just shows they're wrong, while saying nothing about your own argument (a lot of people seem to think it does, which is another fallacy).


Also, anything can be psychologically addictive, and alcohol addiction doesn't isn't genetic, there are just genes that make you get addicted easier.

 

[4li3n]

It just might be that she has an addictive personality and feels like she needs it

If she stopped for 2 years it's unlikely that she has an addictive personality...

 

[Jake Lewis Clayton]

I've been clean for a few years (few years back I was smoking it everyday for 7 hours a day), apart from the odd day or two (had about 6 days i've gone back to it).

It's one of those things, if you do it once or twice a year it's nothing to stress about.

If all her friends do is smoke weed, then maybe she will slip back into it, but if she's not surrounded by it 23.5/7 and doesn't want to turn her life into shit she will be able to cope with 1 or 2 nights of getting high.

 

[honestdiscussioner]

Stop debating and watch the video below. It should be all you need to make your decision. To summarize it, yes there are risks. My opinion is that it is up to each individual to figure out whether the risks are worth it.

 

[Crazy_Dude]

To me the risks are worth it. I just prefer the taste of a nice joint then some alcohol.

From both my own and my friends experiences I can tell that weed is not chemicly addictive, only psychological. I could easily stop for weeks in a row.

 

[razer17]

I'm not exactly an expert on the subject at all. When I was a sophomore in high school I finally gave into peer pressure of my friends and tried weed. I gave it no more then 4 or so tries until I decided it wasn't for me, I didn't enjoy it at all.
Anyway my girlfriend quit smoking before we even started going out, which is over about a year and half ago. I hate the idea of her doing it and it's a huge turnoff for me, but now all of a sudden after at least 2 years after the last time she smoked she's going on and on about how she needs to smoke again. I thought marijuana was not addictive, am I wrong? Even if it was, shouldn't it like cigarettes go away in the first 24 hours, let alone 730 days? Am I going to have to keep her from it for as long as we're together?

Smoking addiction goes away in 24 hours!? Hahaha, you've clearly never watched someone quit smoking. My mum was the most horrible person for about a month after she quit. Apparently, they classify you as having quit when you've not had a cigarette in 5 years. Not 24 hours.

As for weed, it isn't addictive in a chemical sense, but people can be mentally addicted, and want some. But the most important thing is that it's not really any of your business if she has an occasional joint. Just because she is your girlfriend doesn't mean you can run her life. As long as she isn't lighting up when she's with you, it's none of your concern.

 

[Turing]

I'm not exactly an expert on the subject at all. When I was a sophomore in high school I finally gave into peer pressure of my friends and tried weed. I gave it no more then 4 or so tries until I decided it wasn't for me, I didn't enjoy it at all.
Anyway my girlfriend quit smoking before we even started going out, which is over about a year and half ago. I hate the idea of her doing it and it's a huge turnoff for me, but now all of a sudden after at least 2 years after the last time she smoked she's going on and on about how she needs to smoke again. I thought marijuana was not addictive, am I wrong? Even if it was, shouldn't it like cigarettes go away in the first 24 hours, let alone 730 days? Am I going to have to keep her from it for as long as we're together?

There's the physical addiction, there's the mental addiction and then there's the mindset.
Kicking the physical addiction is easy, the mental addiction is harder but should easily be doable in anywhere from 3 to 12 months.
Getting oneself out of the mindset is something else. She has to decide for herself that she doesn't want to smoke after all, so its not an addiction at all its simply a matter of choice. That doesn't necessarily make it easy though.

This is based on my own experience with daily marijuana use for 3-4 years and subsequently quitting it, so I'm not just guessing either

 

[deleted_by_strongbad]

I just like that when we want something that isn't 100% socially acceptable we only want it due to chemical dependency or addiction and not because some people find it enjoyable.

 

[Terminal Blue]

It's not physically addictive, but much like food, sex, and anything else that lights up your brain's pleasure centers, it is psychologically addictive.

Just to point out you're only half right.

Weed, especially the higher strength weed you get nowadays, is almost always cut with tobacco, which contains nicotine. Nicotine is physically addictive.

The only thing which protects weed smokers from physical addiction is the fact that they usually smoke less frequently than pure tobacco smokers. The same is true of all the other health risks of tobacco smoking.

Anything which directly stimulates the direct production of neurotransmitters artificially can lead to a blocking of receptors by the brain to compensate, creating a neurological dependency. The idea of a hard distinction between 'physically addictive' drugs like cocaine and heroin and 'psychologically addictive' drugs like everything else is flawed. Most psychological addictions have a chemical or neurological cause.

Sometimes you have a real bad craving for cookies, but it goes away. You can't actually get addicted to cookies, but they taste real good, so you really want to eat them, and it can feel like an addiction at times.

That craving is probably symptomatic of a high level of insulin, which is produced when you eat a lot of sugar (or other food with a high glycemic index) all at once.

Then when you stop eating high GI food, your blood sugar drops because the insulin keeps converting the sugar you do have into gylcogen (the substance your body uses to store sugar for later use) which gives you the feeling of having low energy and wanting to eat more high energy food.

It's not an 'addiction' because it's not neurological, but it has a clear physical cause.

 

[Bobzer77]

That's about the only reason not to occasionally partake; alcohol and cigarettes are both significantly worse for your health.

That's a lot like saying that rattlesnake venom is more deadly than manufactured rat poison, so we should all help ourselves to some rat poison every now and again. It doesn't matter if it's not as bad for you as cigs or alcohol: It's still bad for you.

OT: Yeah, it's likely a psychological issue. I'd try to see if you can get her involved in an activity that she might find as fulfilling as doing weed. Like video games!

Everything is bad for you, the key is moderation.

Anything which directly stimulates the direct production of neurotransmitters artificially can lead to a blocking of receptors by the brain to compensate, creating a neurological dependency. The idea of a hard distinction between 'physically addictive' drugs like cocaine and heroin and 'psychologically addictive' drugs like everything else is flawed. Most psychological addictions have a chemical or neurological cause.

This is partially true, the reason for the psychological addiction is the high brought on by the physical effects of THC. The difference is that unlike anything which causes a definitive physical addiction your body won't go through any withdrawal symptoms from a lack of THC in your system. You can still crave it but not on a level the same as Alcohol or Nicotine.

 

[rokkolpo]

She will want to go back to Cigarettes for the rest of her life.
Just like alcoholism, it can't be cured, it has to be constantly fought.

It's usually a matter of time before someone falls into a bad pattern.

I never encountered the same problem with Marijuana though, I think you're safe.

 

[BodomBeachChild]

Not a life time, no. I stopped smoking for a few years. I quit smoking for a month before ME2 lol. I smoke now, and at work we're all smokers in the kitchen. (Who doesn';t like blazing with their chef before a 300 cover night?) THC isn't as addicting as nicotine or caffine IMO. That may just be me. And on that note... time to go get baked.

 

[AndyFromMonday]

Marijuana does not cause physical addiction. You can become psychologically addicted to weed but that's a completely different thing.

 

[Cridhe]

Weed isn't an addictive substance, a habit is a habit.

I smoked pot from age 12 to 24, and almost daily from 19-24. When I decided to get back to school and accomplish something I knew that part of my life was over. Moving to a new place, doing new things and hanging with new people all my habits changed and honestly I really don't, and never did miss it. It was just what I did at the time.

 

[Xojins]

If she's gone two years without smoking, she's not addicted. Also, she doesn't "need" to smoke like she says, it's more that she just wants to smoke for whatever reason; maybe something is stressing her out, or maybe she's just bored of routine stuff, who the hell knows.

 

[Versuvius]

Chemical addictions do not last a lifetime, the body eventually flushes them out and you get over it. That's the cold turkey period when you feel like hell. Beyond that it's habitual. Sticking some rolled up paper in your mouth can often assuage the habitual part. On another note; i have gotten high what, 4 times in my life and occasionally feel like doing so. But don't. Thats another part, self control. You want to, but probably shouldn't. Thats my two penneth.

 

[Treefingers]

Lololol what? She probably wants to smoke again because it's awesome, not because of any addiction. Certainly not after this long.

Uhhh.... You serious?

Like... For real?

This.