Driving home tonight, the radio was on a station I don’t normally listen to and the Dr. Drew show was on. He got a call from a young man, age 23, about to graduate college and become a teacher. The man admits to smoking marijuana daily since about age 16. Man wants to know how long he needs to stop smoking pot in order to pass his drug test to become a teacher. Dr. Drew tells him two months, tells him he is a marijuana “addict”, responds that there is no such thing as “psychological addiction”, says every marijuana “addict” he treats in California has their medical marijuana card (well, duh, who wants to be arrested?), tells the young man that the marijuana “addiction” has put him in denial and led to “drug motivational” thinking because the young man admitted he only wanted to know how long to stop smoking so he could pass and then start smoking again after he became a teacher.
The problem I have with the Dr. Drew show I heard is this reflexive labeling of someone who uses marijuana daily as an “addict”. This young man sounds like he’s doing OK. He’s graduating college at age 23, just about right on time. He’s becoming a teacher. If he was drinking a beer every day, would he be an alcoholic? Would his promise to drink beer after he became a teacher be an example of “alcoholic motivational thinking?” The only problem he has is the illegality of marijuana and the idiocy of collecting people’s urine to judge their fitness for teaching children.
Some people have an unhealthy relationship with cannabis. According to NIDA, about 9% of users can develop marijuana dependence. All I ask is that Dr. Drew make it clear that 91% of us are not dependent, we just like to use cannabis! Like Hunter S. Thompson said, it’s like beer, ice, and grapefruit – you could live your life without it, but why?
To be fair, Dr. Drew also says that if you want to smoke pot, go ahead, he doesn’t want to stop anyone, but if you want to stop and want help he can help you. (For a hefty fee, of course, though I think he failed to mention that.) I think he’s probably not in favor of arresting and imprisoning pot smokers. But when all you’ve got is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail – he’s a drug counselor who sees only the most desperately addicted day after day, so every pot smoker looks like a future client to him.
He also mentioned Marijuana Anonymous. Now I know my Twelve Steps, Twelve Traditions, Thirteen Articles of Faith (whoops, wrong religion)… my father was an alcoholic and speed addict who then went through recovery, AA, NA, then got a BSW and became a drug and alcohol counselor when I was a teenager. I can spout Stuart Smalleyisms with the best of them. I know many people whose lives were saved by that program, but it was never for me – way too quasi-religious for my tastes.
As I read the “Twelve Questions” that Marijuana Anonymous asks regarding marijuana use in an effort to help you understand if you’re an “addict”, I can’t help but notice how many of the questions merely observe an effect of marijuana prohibition, rather than any particular problem with marijuana use. For example:
#4. Do you find that your friends are determined by your marijuana use? (Well, yes, because outlaws tend to hang with outlaws. I’d love to have more friends that don’t smoke marijuana, but they tend to be afraid of visiting a home where police may burst in at any moment to arrest “criminals”.)
#7 Does your marijuana use let you live in a privately defined world? (Sure! It’s not often that people who are breaking the law like to make that world public.)
#9 When your stash is nearly empty, do you feel anxious or worried about how to get more? (Yes, because I can’t buy it at a store like a six-pack or a cigar.)
#11 Do you plan your life around your marijuana use? (You mean like avoiding national parks, non medical marijuana states, and states with per se DUID laws while on vacation? Or finding clandestine places to smoke marijuana? Sure!)
I also notice how the questions are only scary if you begin with an assumption that regular marijuana use is problematic. If you asked me some of these “Twelve Questions” about my dog, I could give you “yes” answers, does that mean I’m a Jack Russell Terrier “addict” (I am!)
#1 Has walking your dog stopped being fun? (Yes, but not always.)
#2 Do you ever play with your dog alone? (Sure, sometimes being alone with your dog – or getting high alone – is a nice way to relax.)
#3 Is it hard for you to imagine a life without your dog? (Impossible!)
#6 Do you play with your dog to cope with your feelings? (He’s the best buddy to have on a down day – just like pot!)
Addiction is a powerful thing and I just hate the way it is tossed about by pop psychologists like Dr. Drew and Marijuana Anonymous. Yes, there is a consistent theme among those who abuse anything – pot, gambling, sex, shopping, internet, alcohol, heroin, etc. – but “addiction” should be reserved for those substances that alter the body’s chemistry to the point where there is an undeniable physical need for the substance and without it severe complication can arise. Sorry, but if you force the pot smoker, gambler, shopper, or World of Warcraft player to go cold turkey, they do not risk death, but the alcohol, cocaine, meth, and heroin addict may die. The former people may have a serious psychological dependence, but the latter people have a physical addiction.
Maybe it’s just me and my love of language. I feel calling people with marijuana dependence “addicts” cheapens and demeans the people who are truly physically addicted to serious drugs. (Watching your father kick alcohol and speed cold turkey at age eleven will leave a lasting impression. Show me the marijuana “addict” puking, trembling, hallucinating, screaming, and crying from not having a joint for three weeks and I’ll buy the “addict” label.)
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I don’t think marijuana is really addictive as it is a minor habit. I have found it easy to stop smoking for weeks at a time with no problem, and I’m 15. Dont they say the younger you start the easier it is to become addictive, well for me it didnt matter. It may be different for others but I have found it easy to just stop. I have been using marijuana for about a year now to treat my chronic severe asthma. I’m sure most people say..”smoking…TO HELP ASTHMA???” “Thats a lie!” But it helps in the same way that it helps people with multiple sclerosis. Because just like multiple sclerosis where there are muscle spasms that cause the symptoms, the main symptom of exercise-induced asthma (which is what i have) is bronchospasms. The bronchioles are smooth muscles within the aveoli inside the lungs. Bronchospasms are what cause the constriction in the lungs for exercise-induced asthma. And because of marijuanas amazing muscle relaxing qualities, it stops and can prevent bronchospasms for up to 24 to 36 hours. Sadly my home state doesnt have a program for Medical Marijuana yet…but we will this year because massachusetts favors it by about 80% . We are the most liberal state in the country, behind D.C., according to this years gallop poll. So hopefully next year I will be able to use my mmj legally. Sorry for the speech, just had a lot on my mind.
Thank you for that perspective. But I will still maintain that no matter how rock bottom you hit, not being able to smoke cannabis never threatened your physical health like a heroin addict or alcoholic trying to kick. The point I’m trying to make is that we throw the word “addict” around too loosely. “Compulsion”, “habit”, “dependency”, I’ll accept any of those to describe an unhealthy relationship with cannabis, but “addiction”, for me, requires a physical component that compels use.
Cannabis is natural and effective for those who NEED it medically. It is a wonderful thing when used in moderation. But cannabis is addictive. I quit after 20+ years of use. In my opinion, the drug helped me to develop avoidant personality disorder. I have only quit because I literally hit rock bottom. If it works in your life, then great. But don’t spread a lie that it only leads to a dependency. Some of the 420 propaganda is just as bad if not worse than those on the other side. Be honest about this drug, and be honest with the people who count on you for answers,
Re: non-pot users not wanting to hang out with pot users. I was never a pot user but lived in S.F. in my early 20s and did indeed hang around a lot of them. I honestly just got sick of how boring they were while they were on the stuff (and otherwise they were really quite interesting people!) But sitting around talking to them, while they were smoking? Ugh. I hate getting that watery-eyed stare as they look at you and slowly try to comprehend what you’re saying. THIS is why the non-potheads are staying away from you, not because we fear the law. At least a couple of drinks (notice I did not say “drunk”) make a person a little more chatty and lively!
In the new season of Celeb Rehab Dr. Drew is at it again. He claims there is physical withdrawal from pot that lasts 7-14 days and is very difficult to get through! When I was a teen I smoked every day. One day I just stopped and didn’t smoke again for 20 years while I raised my kids. I did not have a single withdrawal symptom. No problems wwhatsoever. Now, if I don’t have my coffee in the morning I will have a migraine in the afternoon. If I don’t smoke a bowl today? Nothing, I’ll just look forward to it tomorrow. What’s addictive?
Oh, I covered that. In fact, Dr. Drew and I had a direct (well, Twitter-direct) conversation over that incident. http://stash.norml.org/dr-drew-controversy-over-lindsay-lohan-comments-with-his-tweets-to-radical-russ
While we’re on the subject of Dr. Drew’s credibility let’s not forget that he ADMITTEDLY stated that he would attempt to frame Lindsy Lohan for drugs she did not use or possess in an effort to secure her presence on his reality t.v. show Celebrity Rehab. He begged for her to sign on for season two and offered her loads of money. When she refused he threatened to FRAME her by stashing drugs on her person and residence in order to get a court order for her to attend rehab freeing her options up to apear on his show. This isn’t a myth or a tabloid story, it happened, Google will tell you all you need to know.
So while he is deamonizing cannabis and it’s users keep in mind his entire career and financial life depends on the belief that cannabis is evil and without it he would have no celebrity persona, no lucrative practice, and yes no reality t.v. show.
Keep that in mind while you take his word on these issues.
BTW framing any persons for any crime is a federal offense of the first degree. The fact that he was willing to break these federal laws for the sake of ratings and money is no different than anyone who sells drugs or robs a bank for money.
Based on this it is clear that Drew Pinsky is indeed nothing more than a desperate criminal himself.
I think that what should be done, in light of these debates, is that a classification system should be drawn up based upon the strength and intensity of the withdrawal symptoms of the drug as well as other factors.
First off I would like to say I enjoyed the article because it definitely challenged what these mainstream have been pushing in recent times. I have to say I am in agreement that I don’t feel like certain things should be called “addiction”, but the definition of addiction in and of itself is broad enough to support many different behaviors.
“Addiction – the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.”
In my opinion it is awfully vague. If you turn on your t.v. today you can see that there are shows that follow people with all sorts of “addictions” to things that don’t produce harmful withdrawals such as sugar, cleaning products, foods, ingesting harmful substances…
So it would seem that basically anything you can think of can, in theory based upon definition, become an addiction.
If it were up to me I’d probably just change the definition of addiction. But I suppose that rather than do that it would be easier to just work with it and instead just work with is and draw up a classification system. For example certain substances could fall under Class A addictions (Class A addictions could be defined as having harmful withdrawals and producing extreme behaviors to avoid withdrawals…etc) and then of course the majority of the harder substances (Meth, Heroine, Crack…) could fall under that….
While the system wouldn’t have a huge impact at first. If it were accepted, people could then begin to debate and try to implement change based on that system. For example, one could debate that people with “Class D” addictions should not be forced to go to rehab.
That’s just my idea though. Great article.
NICOTINE AND CAFFEINE are two of the MOST ABUSED DRUGS on the planet. Nicotine addiction is often as hard to conquer as CRACK or HEROIN. Legal drugs, schmegal drugs. Adiiction is addiction is addiction. Leave MJ alone! Let it be available to those of us who need it for pain and for the plain old stoners, too.
Go piss up a rope, you idjit.
Go piss up a rope.
Hey, not an idiot, you are your bigger fuckin idiot, maybe not as completely ignorant as miro & jason on the subject (but a little) but actually you are a complete fuckin idot for you stateing your OPINION as fact. I’ve experimented with and used alot of drugs and alcohol since a very young age. I’ve been around drug addicts both pharma & street and alcoholics my entire life, in fact all of my grandfathers died of cirrosis of the liver from alcohol and my brother is in an inpatient rehab at this minute for being ADDICTED both physically and psychological. So you say marijuana or pot or whatever the fuck you wanna call it is addictive and that you have physical limitations when you quit using it …well than maybe don’t think or know you have a physcal and psycological issues and cannabis either works for you and maybe you need a mmj card to maintain your health or not… whatever, my problem and point is to everybody really is that it’s SOME people may think or know they need cannibis to MAINTAIN their health in some area, physical and psycological, possibly you may need it. As for me I’m a 23yr pot smoker, there’s been many many times I smoked from the minute I woke up until I went bed again for years and than quit cold turkey for whatever reasons without any physical withdraw “symptom” though psycologically I craved it briefly but was fine and didn’t smoke again for months or however long it needed to be for than I would start again. I believe when I smoke it makes me happIER, MORE mellow, it SLOWS my out of control racing thoughts down, I can focus and concentrate BETTER MOST of the time, etc, etc so am I addicted because LIFE IS BETTER for me, around me, within me, etc and EVERY SINGLE person I know that’s a “pothead” feels the same way? I research Cannabis ALL DAY EVERYDAY so I gotta stomp on some of your “knowledge” and MARIJUANA is not addictive…research buddie before you start spouting off your PERSONAL ISSUES or OPINONS, things are never that black and white dude, EVERBODY IS DIFFERENT!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-85cQpcxB64
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNLxoEz2tE4
http://www.jackherer.com/archives/hero-of-hemp
Make up your mind, Jason. Am I a “dumb ass” or a “dumbass”?
By the way, it’s “Radical”, “you’re”, and “Twinkies”. Dumb ass.
Rebel Russ your just a dumb ass pothead. Go smoke your weed, eat some twinkies and go to sleep dumbass.
I for one, do NOT want to buy my smoke @ a store for 8-10 dollars a pack! I’d rather buy 10 seeds for $75 & grow an unlimited supply for myself! If it’s legalized, it will become regulated & taxed like alcohol/tobacco! And the regulators of liquor & tobacco will NOT let you produce those things legally, “YOU”, HAVE TO PURCHACE THEM! And the same will become true if marijuana is legalized, regulated & taxed! DECRIMINALIZE, for we would want to keep smoking for free and I really don’t like helping the rich get richer! And I don’t appreciate being called a criminal, & that’s what will happen because I don’t & won’t pay for bud! Buy your seeds now people because if it gets legalized/regulated, the government will NOT let any more in!
Um, based on what, Miro? By your logic, I’m assuming Dr. Phil, The Doctors, Dr. Oz, and Dr. Laura are all leaders of their field since the have their own television/media platforms.
Oh yeah… and go fuck yourself, bud.
Sorry, Dr. Drew gets the “pop” label for taking the serious issue of addiction and turning it into celebrity voyeuristic television trash.
The entire “addiction / rehab” industry is propped up by the drug courts that sentence thousands of healthy, responsible cannabis consumers to a “rehab” they neither want nor need. Pot users can hold down jobs, often with insurance, so they can pay for the bed at rehab where the homeless crack addict or heroin junkie can’t.
And I’ve lived through addiction – real addiction – both my own and my father’s… so back atcha, bud.
This bothered me “Pop psychologists”
Dr Drew is probably one of the most qualified individuals in the country, perhaps the world when it comes to addiction pathology.
Also…he is a real fucking doctor. MD, and all that.
Go fuck yourself bud
Lucas,
Is this preventing you from moving out your addiction to pot? What, are you fantasizing about using because Russ has a point? I used pot instead of methadone when I quit using smack. I’ve been sober (all but pot) for 14 years, and like Bob, if I don’t have it, it’s because I’m too busy or something else was more important. I drank soy to get off milk…it’s ok brother, it’s better than taking a ten strip…
Dr. Drew needs money like everyone else and in Cali, the money is in the buds…so what better to do than make everyone that calls in a pothead…Oh, maybe I’m a pot head…I’ll go see Dr. Drew and give him my money instead.
It’s a PLANT…if it’s affecting your life, stop, clean your system out and move on (sometimes that means to one of the 14 states, so you won’t get popped again)
Pretty sure pot saved my life, not destroyed it…any abnormally strong craves I have for pot are nothing anywhere near what I went through 14 years ago…being abnormally tolerant to and dependent on pot
is not an addiction…it’s a choose I make when I feel anxiety, depression, pain, or I really need to concentrate. If you want to say we are rationalizing our passion fine, but I can’t think of one “plant” that does so much good for so many people…It saved my LIFE!!
Dude, if this read is making you think of using LSD, opium, vicadin, zantax or alcohol…I’m really very sorry.
But if you clicked Dr. Drew and pot addicts thinking you were going to get validated for your thoughts then obviously you would be disappointed…Dr. Drew is just feeding us good old fashioned american propaganda, so what else is new.
It’s time…..LEGALIZE, EDUCATE, AND REGULATE!!!
Dr. Drew’s hemphobic and a CNN drama queen…it’s now human rights theory–that broadband internet access is a basic human right in EU…addiction due to insuring rights to broadband downloadable edrugs is his next Larry King appearance. Medical not criminal ? Forced treatment under Warbama vs. the SWAT HELL of Leonhart BUSH DEA ? Don’t say WAR only bring the HELL shot the dogs…terrorize the children–get the fear to have wife divorce the husband ,or the children are lost….pigs from SETH.
Thank you for a reasonable reply.
But I will stand by my assertion that marijuana is not addictive because it doesn’t meet the threshold for reinforcement and withdrawal that I believe should characterize “addiction”. I wouldn’t call sugar or caffeine addictive in that sense, either.
I also don’t sugar coat the possible harms of marijuana use. It’s not for some people, period. Over-use of it can lead to dependency in a minority of users. Some people even get a cannabinoid vomiting syndrome from using pot.
Yes, sugar is addictive. And destructive. I’ve read it’s one of the greater causes or irritants to depression. Caffeine is addictive. If all of these things are addictive, then why is it so ridiculous to state that pot is? Alcohol is addictive, and that is a not a legitimate reason to outlaw it, either. (I don’t understand why you put “lifestyle user” in quotes to mock me. I prefer saying that, as opposed to “stoner” or “pothead.”)
I experienced trouble breathing and the most intense combination of anxiety and depression imaginable when I quit. The phone ringing or a knock on the door would throw me into a panic. This isn’t what I’m like sober. That was my withdrawal. I didn’t seize. But I wasn’t functional.
Still smoking, btw, though very rarely. Something like half a bowl a month, on average. Usually less. Pot is great, there’s just no need to sugar-coat its potential negative effects in order to argue for its legalization. Perhaps you’re trying to compensate for the staggering amount of misinformation, which is understandable. But that doesn’t make it accurate.
Replies from recovered marijuana “addicts” are some of my favorites.
Cannabis is a drug like sugar is a drug. You can safely use both, you can abuse both, there can be negative effects in your health from abuse. If you’re a “lifestyle user” of either you can experience disturbing withdrawals if you cease use. And don’t think sugar doesn’t get you high; ask any mom with a seven-year-old on Halloween. In fact, considering the health consequences of abuse of sugar, the change in mental state from consuming it, and the reinforcement it seems to have with a third of our society, sugar is causing more personal and societal destruction than cannabis.
Sorry to get Clintonian on you, but it depends on what the definitions of “addiction”, “dependence”, and “drug” are.
You are all idiots. Dr. Drew has a problem with pot smokers because of the stoner emotional reactions in this blog post: “NO IT’S NOT HEROIN SO IT’S NOT ADDICTION.” Ridiculous. Pot is a drug. Just because it’s fun and mellow, and just because it should be legal, doesn’t mean that withdrawal doesn’t happen (it does, I speak from experience as a former lifestyle smoker) and that it shouldn’t be taken seriously. Yes, heroin is worse. Red herring much? The point is: pot is a drug, pot is addictive. How many cig smokers have you heard say “I’m not addicted, I’ve quit plenty of times.” HELLO!? Stop being so fucking self-conscious and deal with the reality of the drug. I thought NORML was a respectable, honest organization until reading this propagandist bullshit.
I saw what you did to those David Malmo Levine atheistic anarchists on HP. Now, I see your an atheist also ( that’s why they let you post at CC mag) ,and very fair in your constant logical framework. My Mother was an AA junkie who saved hundreds as a saint,yet hated her hemp activist oldest son . My spiritual epiphany the first time I smoked cannabis in 1969 is ever present in mindal memory. The more i read your stuff the more your at the top of the ladder with Marc Emery ,Rich Lee et.al..
You’ve thrown down the gauntlet. Show me the fallacies and illogic, the comparisons and assumptions you object to. I’m not afraid of constructive criticism. But if all you have is “hahaha”, don’t waste my time.
This is the most illogical rant filled post I’ve ever seen. When you stop making irrelevant comparisons, broad assumptions and committing every logical fallacy in the book, maybe someone other than your drug addicted audience will take you seriously “Radical” Russ. Hahaha.
Ive work late nights and am driving on the freeway around at night and I listen to his show. Its a funny show. I think he has a problem with marijuana users. It seems like every caller who calls in with a problem Drew always asks do u smoke marijuana or does the person with the problem smoke marijuana. Sometimes I dont even see how Marijuana would have an affect on them. Like some girl called saying she wanted more sex from her B/F his response was “Does he smoke pot”… I dunno I think a professional like him should actually state facts about the plant rather than keep feeding people what society wants to hear….
hey, you’re definitely not an idiot. however, it has been my experience that intelligence and success have nothing to do with addiction. addiction takes many different forms and involves many different drugs. i accomplished a great deal while i was using. while marijuana was my drug of choice, i regularly used acid, mushrooms, opium, vicadin, zantax and alcohol to name a few. having used the other drugs, i’m glad marijuana happened to be my drug of choice (actually it was probably LSD but I would only take it a couple of times each week) because marijuana is easier in many ways to make it through the initial stages of recovery. after that, you have to deal with the addict mind. that brings me to my point that despite all that i accomplished in my using years, i wasn’t really living. i’m not saying this is true for you, but it was for me. i was progressing deeper and deeper into isolation and depression. so i think the thing to consider is not how much you accomplish because i’m not really concerned with productivity, but how happy you truly are. if are truly happy beyond any rationalizing thought, then i would guess you’re not an addict. if you smoke to just get high rather than to escape or cope, maybe you’re not an addict. but addiction has less to do with the drugs then it does to do with the mind of the user. as someone who has struggled through recovery, i don’t care about being taken seriously by anyone else… my mental suffering has been sufficient enough that i know to take this seriously. i only respond because us addicts have great rationalizing minds and intelligence can actually be a curse getting in the way of deeper, experiential truths… such as the way we feel. this article, for an addict, is a tool in rationalizing. for a non-addict, it causes no harm… but for the addicts who happen to use marijuana as their drug of choice (and they would use other drugs if marijuana wasn’t around… i know) then this sort of thinking may prevent them from moving out of their addiction. i know my truth isn’t everyone’s truth, but i also know that an addict’s mind will use anything it can get
First off, I’d like to say, I knoe im REALLY late posting this comment, since this blog was written in july of 2009….but anyways….THANK YOU to Russ, or whoever you are that wrote this, not for talking about how marijuana isnt an addiction and that it should be legalized, or whatever, but for mentioning multiple times about how people who throw around the term “marijuana addicts” are degrading the people who are addicted to lets say, HEROIN. after i read this quote “calling a marijuana compulsion an “addiction” demeans the people who’ve suffered through actual physical withdrawals.” i literally said “THANK YOU” out loud, because I myself AM a heroin addict going on 2 and a half years struggling to stay clean because the withdrawals are so bad. These people who throw the word “addiction” around are the people who have NO fucking idea what it feels like to withdraw from a REAL drug.
i could go on forever but all i wanted to say was thank you to russ for actually realizing and acknowledging the fact that there are people out there suffering and having to go through physical AND mental withdrawal pain, so lets leave the “addiction” word to those individuals.
i was listening to Dr. Drew the other day when a young girl called and said that she was addicted to aderol and marijuana and that she had stopped cold turkey after talking to him and it had been about 2 weeks…what really bothered me is Dr. Drew started asking how she was feeling and she said “very sick, throwing up a lot” and the first thing drew said was ‘thats the addiction, you are having MARIJUANA withdrawals,’ then he went on to tell us that marijuana addiction is real and this girl was proof…i sat there thinking to myself…really Dr. Drew, your telling me this girl is addicted to aderol and weed for the past 5 years and its the weed thats making her sick. not once did he say oh yeah thats most likely the pills you have been taking that are making you sick. he just tried to manipulate the whole situation and make it seem like marijuana caused her to feel deathly sick. that shit just bothers me.
We are all just humans and do things by nature.
Russ – ah yes, the power of words. Some call it propaganda – others call it “facts!”
I’m with you – people should use the words that ACTUALLY describe what they intend to describe – not some exaggerated terminology that fits their end goals – ie reefer madness – it will make you “crazy.”
Now that we are all crazy, of course no one believes us….lol
Aaron,
Even if someone has developed a dependence in one way or another to marijuana, it is in no way similar to being an alcoholic. First off, alcohol consumption can lead to death in multiple ways such as: 1. Alcohol Poisoning (drink so much at once that you die… way to go) 2. Long term alcoholism leading to liver failure, heart failure, brain damage etc…etc. You could smoke weed until you fall asleep, come to, smoke more until you pass out, and all that would happen is you would wake up the next day a little groggy and hungry. Now, aside from the fact that alcohol is considerably more dangerous, It also has intense withdrawal symptoms such as vomiting, chills, and seizures. So basically there is no similarity aside from the dependance aspect, but the consequences of both dependencies are not comparable.
That’s your retort? That one has to go to more effort to acquire something non-toxic with the least potential for dependence indicates to you a “horrible addiction”? I almost wish I could wave a magic wand and make your morning coffee as illegal as weed, so we could see just who has the more “horrible addiction”.
Dude, I hate to say it but if you are this worked up and have all these ready made comparisons to other addictions you are really making a case for weed being a horrible addiction. Yes people do get addicted to Ciigars or six packs of beer but they only have to walk to the coner to get it, its much more work (on average) to get yourself some weed.
One of the ways people who have a problem with marijuana could be taken more seriously is if they stopped calling their problem an “addiction”. It’s a compulsion.
Words need to have distinct meanings. We exaggerate words to the point where they lose their original meaning. We call mean people “Nazis”, consensual drunken sex “date rape” and criminal acts of terrorism “war”, demeaning the horror of actual Nazis, rape, and war.
Similarly, calling a marijuana compulsion an “addiction” demeans the people who’ve suffered through actual physical withdrawals. Heroin, cocaine, and alcohol addicts can actually die from withdrawal; a compulsive gambler, shopper, or pothead will not.
One of marijuana addicts biggest problems is to get their addiction taken seriously – witness all the “Stoner Films” “puking, trembling, hallucinating, screaming, and crying from not having a joint for three weeks” doesn’t happen, but none of those symptoms are requirements for diagnosing addiction, or substance use disorder. Sorry about dad, (and I’m not being a dick) and good luck working it out so others don’t get bashed.
Bash my dad? When did I ever do that? I’ve learned more from him about both sides of the issue — the addiction side and the recovery side — than you’ll ever know, my friend.
Yes, I have a terrible problem with cannabis, sure.
It’s just that I was so busy winning nationwide talent searches, performing music in front of 30,000 people, interviewing political leaders and celebrities, consulting on information technology projects on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley, running two businesses, writing for three blogs, hosting a nationwide satellite talk radio show, gathering signatures for initiative petitions, instructing corporate audiences, and flying around the country getting paid to speak that I just missed it.
You get one more opportunity to engage in a civil discussion. I invite contrary points of view. But call me “idiot” just one more time…
You’re an idiot you have a problem and you know it.
Instead of becoming a alcoholic or speed freak like you wasted dad you took up being a pot head.
You bash you dad for being an addict while you condone you own addiction such a hypocrite.
People who smoke every day and more then one joint at a time have problems its the same as alcoholics.
And comparing it to people who drink all the time makes you position even weaker.
Calling Dr Phil, Dr Drew, Dr Gupta…….
(I was trying for a 3 Stooges thing there.)
Here’s the book- “the end of overeating” by David Kessler, FDA commish under Bush 41 and Clinton.
Watch Dr. Drew’s Celebrity Rehab and you will see 90% of the patients sucking down cancer sticks and drinking black death. It’s so ironic.
I quit a pack a day cig. habit about a month ago. It was about 2 days of triggered cravings that I fought by chanting “it will pass” for about 30 seconds. It’s amazing how fast the cravings pass.
On C-SPAN 2 “book tv” last weekend, a former head of the FDA was talking about his book. He looked into the science, that the food industry has studied, that shows combining sugar, fat, and salt can stimulate pleasure in the brain and condition people with mental cues to override the brains ability to resist cravings causing people to eat food all day long instead of at regular meals. Food becomes addictive.
The food industry can combine 3 common items to make food dangerously addictive.
Could it be argued that sugar, fat, and salt need regulation more than cannabis?
Dr Drew just advocating for more brain dead to go to his profession and fellow headshrinks to be called “sick”… makes me sick,sheesh! :thdown:
Dr. Drew really needs to debate this with his old partner Carolla… from 2008… Adam once again makes some fantastic points on the hypocrisy of criminalized marijuana.
-Adam Carolla on the nonsense illegal marijuana-
One thing that i miss about Loveline is that Adam Carolla would always be on to tell dr. drew to shut up. even adam carolla says dr. drew isn’t a great great doctor. and he calls him stupid all the time lol. by the way Adam Carolla supports legalizing cannabis and also smokes it, he talks about it on his podcast the adam carolla show. he’s mentioned many times that it being illegal is ridiculous, but now that Adam Carolla isn’t by dr. drews side, no ones there to tell him to shut up and telling him how dumb he is lol.
[...] News Sources wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptDriving home tonight, the radio was on a station I don’t normally listen to and the Dr. Drew show was on. He got a call from a young man, age 23, about to graduate college and become a teacher. The man admits to smoking marijuana daily since about age 16. Man wants to know how long he needs to stop smoking pot in order to pass his drug test to become a teacher. Dr. Drew tells him two months, tells him he is a marijuana “addict”, responds that there is no such thing as “psychological addictio [...]
After 40 years of every day smoking I have had many times of sometimes months I had to do without because something else was more important