I don't understand weed

[Gabith]

I started smoking weed 1 year ago, I am not addicted but I think I'm not far from developping a psychologic addiction.
 

I don't smoke everyday and don't want to because I want to keep the effects and I don't want to be addicted.
The two past months, I did 3-5 days in a row of smoking. I could notice that the effects were different, it was like background effect but still strong!
It was almost negative, I felt a little bit less confident and happy, less positive. I had like 2 experiences where I would tell myself "If I haven't smoked I would feel better".
I decided to stop 10 days, then I smoked again and it was GREAT, I had all the positives effects I was loving about weed, more presence, more insights, more positive thoughts, more facility to see beauty etc...

Why does the effects have a tendency to become negative when we smoke for several days in a row ? Why do people get addicted and smoke everyday if that make them paranoid or less happier ?
 

[Terell Kirby]

@Gabith Nice profile pic man, looking sharp.

There is no clear answer. Some people are able to smoke weed everyday and get a lot done. I had to cut down because it would make me somewhat paranoid and less social. I’m also not as sharp mentally, although I can still have some profound insights while being high.

If you are at a point in life where you need be active, pursuing business and out socializing with people, weed may not be the best bet. It’s great to be a stoner when you have the majority of survival goals handled to where you can just chill and not have to hustle as much.

Edited November 3, 2021 by Terell Kirby

[AdroseAkise]

Bleh, weed smokers...

Marijuana makes people dumb and idol, no wonder they want to legalize it. I'd (seriously) rather smoke cigarettes, at least tobacco doesn't mess with your head.

[Leo Gura]

Forget weed. Upgrade to serious psychedelics and do them occasionally.

Weed is addictive. Serious psychedelics are anti-addictive.

[Rilles]

10 minutes ago, AdroseAkise said:

Bleh, weed smokers...

Marijuana makes people dumb and idol, no wonder they want to legalize it. I'd (seriously) rather smoke cigarettes, at least tobacco doesn't mess with your head.

Stop spreading D.A.R.E propaganda.

 

"The "audacity of dope"? In his memoir Dreams From My Father, Barack Obama admits having smoked marijuana during high school, but newly released excerpts from David Maraniss' upcoming biography Barack Obama: The Story paint a picture of a truly committed pothead.The "giggle-worthy" details — many attributed to Obama's high school buddies collectively known as "the Choom Gang," after the slang term for smoking marijuana — are "right out of a buddy stoner flick," says Adam Sorensen at TIME."

[AdroseAkise]

I personally actually do enjoy cigarettes, though incredibly rarely. Cigars and tobacco pipes are okay, but do not give me the same satisfaction as an American Spirit brand cigarette.

Before anyone criticizes me, Alan Watts was a lifelong smoker.

[Loba]

Weed has given me great insights as well as paranoia and delusions, but what I do is just work through the paranoia and delusions and it lessens even if I smoke weed.  The weed is trying to show you where and what you need to work on.  It has also given me amazing truths and awakenings.

It is addictive.  I would say that I do feel the need for it in order to have a happy and conscious day.  It all around just makes me a better person.

I think that weed is a double edges sword and you just have to learn how to work with it if you choose to.  I like to smoke sativa and drink a couple cups of coffee in the morning and then go study something, and it is one of my most favorite things to do.  I just love how it helps calms my attention difficulties, provides me with more creativity and empathy.

I would say, if weed is not providing you with benefits by smoking every day, then just enjoy smoking off and on and be sure to use it for the right purposes.

[Guest EmptyVase]

Gotta be careful with that sticky icky. Can be useful, but clearly, there are dangers which other psychedelics do not hold as much as weed.

Addiction, paranoia, social anxiety, staying in the comfort zone, laziness, mental fog, scattered thoughts, loss of verbal memory, worse sleep, little to no dreams, loss of inspiration.

The thing is, if properly used, weed can also cause the exact opposite of what I listed. What fucks it up first and foremost is doing it too much, so that it flips from positive/useful effects to negative/inhibiting effects. That's why there's always that love/hate relationship with weed. It gives ya both. You decide, which offer to take. Or to take it at all.

Oh, and also, the strain you choose make huge, huge differences. Weed ≠ Weed. The chemical makeup of the strain can be the make or break (terpenes, levels of CBD and THC, and other components).

[Gabith]

Thank u

[Preety_India]

What benefits did you obtain from weed? 

 

[Gabith]

@Preety_India In a nutshell, I guess it changed me a lot and my perception of reality as well.

[StarStruck]

Pop 200 ug LSD and you will stop doing weed and stop doing LSD.

[Terell Kirby]

4 hours ago, AdroseAkise said:

I'd (seriously) rather smoke cigarettes, at least tobacco doesn't mess with your head.

No way lol. Say no to cigs.

[Preety_India]

12 hours ago, Gabith said:

It was almost negative, I felt a little bit less confident and happy, less positive. I had like 2 experiences where I would tell myself "If I haven't smoked I would feel better".
I decided to stop 10 days, then I smoked again and it was GREAT, I had all the positives effects I was loving about weed, more presence, more insights, more positive thoughts, more facility to see beauty etc...

This happens to me in the case of coffee/tea. I can feel the positive effects if I take it for a while and when I drink regularly for weeks, it seems to have a negative effect and gets addictive. 

I guess this could be said of all addictive substances. They're addictive because they feel like they are important to the body short term whereas long term the addictive effects tend to overshadow the benefits or positive effects. 

For example coffee makes you feel energized short term whereas long term coffee makes you feel more exhausted. 

 

[something_else]

The few times I've taken weed (edibles mostly, smoking a few times) it's made me feel like shit. All I can focus on is the sensation of the saliva moving down the back of my throat like sticky slime

[Egodeathrow]

Weed is a really powerful tool for me, I smoke everyday and have enlightenment glimpses, It really has skyrocketed my consciousness at times but the only problem is that it feels too good to be true and makes you want to make that your baseline state. I cannot put into words how much it has helped me self inquire and do metaphysics but I just think it is time for me to find another method because I keep having enlightenment experiences on weed but I don't wanna get addicted to it any further so I don't create dysfunctional mental associations with  enlightenment in my head in order for me to keep my expectations realistic, If I keep smoking I will keep having spiritual insight and that is precisely the problem since I keep getting caught up with the method even thought the method works it still makes my baseline nondual consciousness look like peanuts to be honest with you, My body might just metabolize it in a really profound way since I know most people don't have enlightenment experiences from weed

[Egodeathrow]

Also, I feel like the facets of reality weed really shined light on for me is that life is a dream/nothing is material and that existence is a miracle and that reality is a strange loop liminal space (That is an insight that is a little unique to me since I have a personal karmic connection to liminal spaces)

[PurpleTree]

weed is horrible, satan planted it on earth himself

 

[Adodd]

I quit smoking weed a month ago after a couple years of daily use. Dont let stoners fool you, the addiction sneaks up on you and it IS addictive. Weed makes me, as well as most people I see who regularly do it, extremely lazy, dull and unmotivated. Do it once or twice a year and youll probably be fine but if you can stay away from it for that long your probably on the road to addiction.

[Carl-Richard]

18 hours ago, Gabith said:

psychologic addiction.

I see this misconception way too often (conflating dependence and addiction). You have dependence, which can be either physical or psychological in nature, and you have addiction, which is psychological in nature.

Dependence is simply a range of symptoms that occur as result of withdrawing from a drug, either from coming down from a single drug experience or from discontinuing frequent use or abuse. The physical symptoms relate to vital physiological functions and can be life threatening, while the psychological ones relate to physiological feelings like low mood and dysphoria.

Being drug dependent simply means that your body, in order to maintain optimal functioning, has tuned its adaptation mechanisms to accommodate the drug-mediated change in activity, which involves decreasing the activity that the drug is elevating (downregulation). Roughly speaking, dependence happens on the level of receptors. For example with cannabis, it happens at the level of CB1 receptors.

On the other hand, the mechanism associated with addiction is what initiates drug-taking behavior, produces drug cravings, and is for all intents and purposes psychological in nature. Addiction operates technically adjacent to drug-specific receptor activity and more on the level of networks (specific dopaminergic pathways). In other words, it doesn't really matter whether or not you feel dysphoria from drug withdrawal (e.g. low CB1 activity): if you're addicted, it's possible to feel drug cravings despite having been off drugs for a while and having stabilized your drug-related systems (normalized CB1 activity).

So when people say "weed isn't that bad, you can only get psychologically addicted", it's firstly a conflation of dependence and addiction, and secondly it's a misunderstanding of the mechanisms that lead to compulsive drug-taking. While it's true that cannabis doesn't produce physical dependence at the same level as say heroin, it's not the dependence aspect that technically initiates the compulsive drug-taking behavior in the first place. The conceptualization of physical dependence should not be one of "intense, dangerous cravings" but rather "the presence of usually innocuous but potentially life-threatening physical symptoms, ranging from a light cold to intense, seizure-inducing over-activation".

An useful analogy is how a diabetic is dependent on exogenous insulin to survive. The diabetic doesn't feel cravings because of the lack of insulin (he isn't "addicted"), but his body is dependent on insulin for optimal functioning. That is what heroin is to a heroin dependent person. Now, meanwhile it's certainly true that a heroin dependent person is also probably plagued with addiction, it's not actually the physical symptoms that makes you take the drug. A way to make this abundantly clear is to consider the fact that cocaine is not considered to produce physical dependence ("wow?").

Although it's certainly the case that dependence and addiction interact to produce what is normally associated with compulsive drug-taking behavior, the two are to be treated as separate concepts, and it's the activity in dopaminergic pathways that initiates the motivation, movement and reward-seeking behavior that leads to drug-taking behavior, not the downregulation of drug-specific receptors. Repeated administration of such dopamine-elevating drug will strengthen these pathways, increase cravings and reward-seeking behavior, and potentially lead to addiction. This is what is mean by a reinforcing drug (strengthening reward-seeking activity).

So to take this back to cannabis, it's perfectly possible to become addicted to cannabis as it increases dopaminergic activity in major reward circuitry in the brain. Being addicted to cannabis is not the same as being dependent on cannabis (although they certainly correlate). Addiction is a mental phenomena, but this does not detract from its seriousness. Addiction to cannabis, alcohol, cocaine, heroin are all mental phenomenas.