If you’re a regular user of cannabis, the question ‘can I get addicted to weed?’ has probably crossed your mind once or twice. That debate with yourself whether you can take a break anytime you want is a mental tussle we all go through.
Weed is always said to be the ‘least addictive’ and ‘least harmful’ to one’s health, in comparison to drugs like lean and pills. But like everything in life, when you take too much there’s bound to be a harmful element that comes in.
In the scientific and medical communities, the term “cannabis use disorder (CUD)” is used to describe the continued use of cannabis despite impairment in psychological, physical, or social functioning.
While we need to acknowledge that cannabis can be used moderately and responsibly, can enrich lives, and, of course, can be healing for a lot of people, we need to be compassionate to people for whom a moderate or severe disorder exists, and we need good science to understand it and find ways of helping.
Professor Emeritus of Social Work at the University of Washington, Roffman said.
Some of the key indicators of cannabis use disorder are:
- Spending plenty time trying to get high, waiting to get high, or looking for marijuana is a serious red flag.
- If your schedule has slowly been depleted of all physical or recreational activities and replaced with hanging out and getting high, then you could be addicted to marijuana.
- Using the drug to escape from problems or when experiencing difficulties in role obligations at work, school, or home.
- Continued use of marijuana despite having persistent or recurrent social or interpersonal problems caused or exacerbated by the effects of cannabis.
- If you need to get high before you feel comfortable being creative or before you can truly relax, then you may be addicted.
- Important social, occupational, or recreational activities are given up or reduced because of marijuana use.
- If you decide which events to attend and whom to hang out with based on whether or not you can get high, then you are likely addicted.
- If you have important responsibilities in you daily life but begin to consistently fail to see them through because your mind is on getting high, it might be a motivation problem or it could just as easily mean you have a psychological addiction to weed.
- Just like any drug, regular use of marijuana leads to a tolerance for it. This means that you need more and more of the drug in order to achieve the same high. If you need more and more of the drug to get high you are building tolerance
- Cannabis use continues despite knowledge of having a persistent or recurrent physical or psychological problem that is likely to have been caused or exacerbated by weed.
The first step on the journey to recovery is recognizing that you have a problem with drugs. Sometimes, though, it’s difficult to be objective when gauging your own drug use or that of someone you love.
