Joyce, 52 and a writer in Manhattan, started smoking pot when she was 15, and for years it was a pleasant escape, a calming protective cloud. Then it became an obsession, something she needed to get through the day. She found herself hiding her addiction from her family, friends and co-workers.
“I would come home from work, close my door, have my bong, my food, my music and my dog, and I wouldn’t see another person until I went to work the next day,” said Joyce, who like most others in this article asked that her full name not be published, because she does not want people to know about her past drug use.
“What kind of life is that? I did that for 20 years.”
She tried to stop, but was anxious, irritable, sleepless and lost. At one point, to soothe her cravings, she took morphine that she found at her dying father’s bedside. She almost overdosed.
Two years ago, she checked into the Caron Foundation, a treatment center in Wernersville, Pa. Even there, she said, some other addicts — cocaine and heroin users or alcoholics — downplayed her dependence on marijuana.
“The reality is, I was as sick as them,” Joyce said. She now attends Alcoholics Anonymous, which is also open to drug addicts, and recently married.
Smoking pot, she said, “was a slow form of suicide.”
Uh, sure, in the sense that if you smoke pot for sixty to eighty years, you’ll die.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: a few people do have an identifiable dependence on marijuana, but calling it an “addiction” demeans the truly physically addicted. Those alcoholics, cocaine and heroin users can die when they quit using their drug. You got “anxious, irritable, sleepless and lost”. You are experiencing the same kind of life and same kind of withdrawal as a problem gambler, the “shop-a-holic”, the sexually compulsive, and World of Warcraft players.
The article goes on to sound the alarm about the new “Super Pot 2.0: Not Your Father’s Woodstock Weed!” that allegedly makes people more “addicted”, as if somehow alcoholics who drink cocktails all night are somehow more addicted than the case-of-beer drinker because liquor is a higher proof alcohol.
“It’s like drinking beer versus drinking whiskey,” said Dr. Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a government agency and a strong opponent of legalizing marijuana. “If you only have access to whiskey, your risk is going to be higher for addiction. Now that people have access to very high potency marijuana, the game is different.”
No, it’s not. My dad was a beer-drinking alcoholic; he had plenty of access to whiskey, but preferred beer, and became addicted anyway. People who become dependent on pot smoke it to get high. If it is low-potency, they smoke the whole joint, if it is high-potency, they take a puff or two. The potency is irrelevant to the nature of the dependence.
I’m happy to see people who truly have an issue with marijuana finding support to help them recover. It’s not for everyone. Some people can drink a glass of wine every day, but for some that would be a problem. If you really need help quitting pot, I wish you all the luck in the world… because then there is more for the rest of us.
You got “anxious, irritable, sleepless and lost”. You are experiencing the same kind of life and same kind of withdrawal as a problem gambler, the “shop-a-holic”, the sexually compulsive, and World of Warcraft players.
This could be the case if you suddenly stop, it needs special attention in order to stop this addction.
[...] what? You simply smoke/vaporize/eat less. Marijuana Prohibition is the cause for this. It’s the same reason bootleggers preferred to [...]
[...] what? You simply smoke/vaporize/eat less. Marijuana Prohibition is the cause for this. It’s the same reason bootleggers preferred to [...]
[...] family has disputed the results, toxicology tests showed high levels of alcohol and marijuana. (New York Times) “It’s like drinking beer versus drinking whiskey,” said Dr. Nora D. Volkow, director of the [...]
[...] madess on ABC News. This is another one of what seem to be an increasing number of stories (NY Times, Dr. Drew, The Tenneseean, CNN, TransWorldNews, Christian Science Monitor) that bring up the idea [...]
It sounds to me that she was smoking something a lot more powerful than just weed!
Yeah. And my son blames Unreal Tournament for his small prick.
Thank you, High East, for writing the exact same thing that I was thinking while reading this. I really can’t stand people who blame bud for all of the outcomes that they created for themselves.
I was a chronic toker (pun intended) for 10 years and w/in that time I went to college and received a degree while working 2 part-time jobs, enjoyed an active social and professional life, hung out w/ many friends who also burned, did all kinds of outdoor activities like surfing and hiking (also trained for a marathon), and dated a few women. As a matter of fact, life got boring once I hit 30 and I went from smoking about 2x a day, everyday, to about 2x in a quarter.
Ahh, the mid life crisis. That point in life when you self examine and may have regrets. Maybe you buy a motorcycle at 40. Or get divorced for a younger lover. Or maybe you’re a boring lazy person and now your depressed and blame marijuana for the choices you made.
I’m tired of lazy shut-ins using marijuana as an excuse for whatever it is that makes them sloth’s. My Mj crew could be described as adrenaline junkies. Everyone is very outgoing and social.