Hooked On Pot?

This article was in The Miami Herald, May 7th, "Free from addictions, united with families" by Paradise Afshar. It was about ppl getting off drugs:

"Joseph Kirby had his first sip of alcohol at age 6. He 'fell in love with cocaine' at 20. By 45, his twin addictions led him to lose his two children; the Department of Children & Families put them in foster care.

That's when Kirby and his girlfriend Jessica Jackson, hooked on pot, decided to kick their habit. ..."

OK, I just never heard of anyone being "hooked" on pot so I e-mailed the paper:

I have to comment on that, tho I suppose you have had others in this drug savvy community respond already. Since when is cannabis addictive? I smoked pot in my youth, as well as all my friends at the time and none of us got "hooked." In fact, I got tired of the paranoia and just stopped using it by 1973. No withdrawal, no craving, nada! To say someone is "hooked on pot" shows naiveté in drug knowledge and a writer should do a little more actual research into a subject if unfamiliar with it.

Now you can go tell all the people you know who smoke cigarettes that they are hooked on tobacco because that is true.

Shale Stone
Miami Beach

My e-mail went to a couple of editors and to the reporter. So far the reporter responded:

From: "Afshar, Pardis" <PAfshar@miamiherald.com>
To: Shale Stone <shalestone@earthlink.net>
Subject: RE: Hooked on Pot?
Date: May 25, 2010 11:22 AM

Everyone reacts differently to substances, including marijuana.
This woman was "hooked on pot," she went to rehab for it and had her children taken from her because of what she calls her "addiction" to pot.
Jessica and her boyfriend did not have a problem with the phrase.
But thank you for sharing your experience.

Paradise Afshar
The Miami Herald
305.376.3609
pafshar@Miamiherald.com

So, can ppl become "hooked on pot?"
In my experience all the ppl I knew who decided to quit smoking had no problem just walking away from it.

 

Sometimes they put stories like that in womens magazines over here too, I think that they are made-up, lies. They are put there to force the notion into readers heads that pot is addictive and it causes serious damage etc... If more people believe this, more people will not tolerate it being a part of culture and it will remain very much illegal.

Most of the legal highs were made illegal over here just a few weeks ago because of a large group of old-ish women and their angry letters.

 

never knew anyone who had a problem with stopping smoking. thats a weird way to word it, but thats cuz i don't think "quitting" is even appropriate for it. haha
it's pretty much comes down to if you're interested in smoking it or not, ime.

 

I have known several people who claimed to be hooked..

These are the same people who are addicted to caffine, porn, the Internet, and video games. Ie. They have no self control, and want people to take their retarded claims seriously. They want it to look like they couldn't stop watching porn if they tried, thus giving them a reason not to stop.

People just take claims about pot seriously. These people are just idiots who give weed a bad name. If they could, they would go to rehab for their coffee addiction.

 

Hell Yeah!!

 

Meanwhile theres a billion ads for psychiatric pharmaceuticals in them magazines.. Their fucking stupid. The magizines are full of better living ideas but yet the people that buy them have 4 chins, cant make any the crafts, or follow the cookie recipes.. They buy them magizines cause they are failures in life.. you have to be a failure if you cant bake the same cookie recipe thats been written over and over in cook books a billion time.s.over!!
These magiazes are a waste of trees, the people that read them are a waste of oxygen. :coffee:

 

You speak the truth!!
I actually work in a newsagents that sells these magazines and you just described the people who buy every issue, the fat, washed-up, desperate women who settled for less. They think that the more celebrity business that they know, the more important they are. I actually flicked through one that on the cover said "Inside, seven sex tips that will drive your man wild!" and the tips were all stupid, lame, bullshit like "lick his elbow" and "blow into his ear"....
The problem is, these kind of people actually believe anything that is printed on paper, and it's doing damage!

 

Weed addiction isn't an addiction. It's more like a best friend. You don't need her when she's gone, but you miss her. Sure, she gets you into a little bit of trouble and you start to slack off a bit but, you like having her around and you could tell her to leave any time

 

People can form a psychological addiction to anything.
There may not be any specific chemicals in cannabis that specifically cause addiction, the the use of cannabis may trigger a mental state or release certain chemicals in the brain that people become addicted to. So while they may not be addicted to weed directly, they become addicted to what it provides, so it plays a vital role in their addiction.

 

yea, im not gonna lie, sometimes its tough for me not to smoke. But, when I need to stop for a bit, i can. The first three days not smoking sucks but then everything goes back to normal. BUT lets be real, if you keep your weed habit in check and keep it from interfering with your career/work life, then you should be able to balance both. I know plenty of people who do.

 

i firmly thing that 'addiction' as a disease is crap. addicted to porn, gambling, and pot can be overcome with willpower. even substances that HAVE addictive compounds can be quit, if you WANT to. my parents quit doing coke when us kids came alone, except for special grown up occasions. calling addiction a disease in so many scenarios is just giving people permission to be weak. 'im addicted, i can't stop' is crap. if you love yourself, your family, your life enough to stop the negative behavior, then its worth it to stop. some people dont love themselves enough to stop.

now with pot i think its hard to smoke enough to really be a detriment, but some potheads are burn outs and such, so i could see where it might be negative, but i still dont think it should be called addiction.

 

You obviously have never truly experienced addiction first hand and don't understand it at all.
Overcoming true addiction, and yes "true" as in actual disease, requires more than just an act of momentary willpower.

 

I know lots of people who are hooked on pot in a very real way. If you tried to take it out of their life they would go through horrible withdrawl. It would all be psychological of course, but that doesn't make it less real or awful.

 

Having smoked weed for over 30 years on a daily basis, with 3 several year breaks in that time that, as we all know, there is no physical withdraw from pot. Some of those breaks were forced by law enforcement and one was voluntary. (semi engaged, she was not into it, good thing it ended ) There are some mental aspects to quitting that are mildly difficult to overcome, but not a big deal in anyway. Just keeping busy for a week or so did it for me, mind on other things. Of coarse if you sit around thinking of getting high all the time it makes it much harder. But after all this time I come to the conclusion that you cannot get really addicted to pot, not like cigs or heroin. Not having weed just makes life more difficult to deal with and not nearly as pleasant as it could be.

 

I'm psychologically addicted to marijuana. When I don't have it, I constantly think about it, and when it's in front of me, it's impossible to resist.

 

I feel the same way!

 

water is addictive... start living without water see what happens..

 

the other day my dad tired to convince me that there was nicotene in weed, i just laughed.. ignorance.

 

I'm not yhooked on pot. I'm hooked in the feeling it gives me. I woudent steal for budd neither kill or loose my job over. I just love the fack that it relax the shit out of me. I sound like a danmm tobacco user. But if u smoke pot u know what I mean

 

Some people have addictive personalities and can't seem to give up anything, and people like that can be seen as addicted to pot. It's not true addiction, it's more of a craving, and like any craving it can be overcome with just a little willpower. But of course some people lack willpower.