Is weed addictive?

Yes and no.

I remember watching Half Baked when Dave Chapelle’s character tries to attend a recovery meeting because his weed love feels too intense and he almost gets laughed out of the room. There’s a very memorable quote from Bob Saget about fellatio.

And part of me got this scene deeply—while I have met many a hardcore stoner, I can’t say I have met people whose whole lives were utterly destroyed by cannabis. At this time, weed has not resulted in an overdose death nor does it carry the same unhealthy effects of alcohol or nicotine.

And yet, waving off dependence on weed, like weed addiction cannot exist just because cannabis is a magical plant, doesn’t feel entirely right either.

Have you ever watched the show My Strange Addiction?

It’s fascinating, sad, human, and very well, strange. Some of the featured guests on this show are addicted to eating paint chips, drinking animal blood, eating couch cushions, are married to dolls. And their addictions are very, very real. As real as any other substance.

Does eating paint chips and waking and baking belong in the same discussion circle?

Perhaps.

But, I also think we still have so very much to learn about addiction.

“Surprisingly, only 10-20% of those who try even the most stigmatized drugs like heroin, crack, and methamphetamine become addicted,” writes Maia Szalavitz in her groundbreaking book Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction.

This statistic also bears out for marijuana.

Search terms like “cannabis addiction” or “marijuana dependence” and you will find many well-researched articles attesting that cannabis can be “habit-forming” or even “addictive”. An article from Yale Medicine attests that 10% of cannabis users will become addicted and 30% of current users match the checklists for substance dependence.

But this same information would also mean that 90% of users will not become addicted and 70% of current users do not meet the criteria for addiction.

So which is it?

Is weed addictive or not?

I find the book Unbroken Brain so beautiful because it has lovingly disrupted many of my untested ideas of addiction: what addiction is besides what I’ve been told via Intervention, Hunter S. Thompson, and Euphoria, the complicated nature of Alcoholics Anonymous rhetoric, and also cements much of what I believe about substance abuse: that people who face significant trauma (especially childhood trauma and abuse committed by a trusted caregiver or partner and/or sociopolitical oppression and distress), are dealing with mental-illness, living with long-term financial instability, and deep soul hurt are more susceptible to substance abuse.

Because duh: people who are under-resourced will try and help themselves cope in ways that are accessible to their means and settings.

This is what I believe:

• There is no substance that is right for every single human being. I love weed. But I will never say weed is for everyone.

• Trauma, sociopolitical oppression, pre-existing mental illness, and instability will make it more likely that people will self-medicate and fall into cycles of substance overdependence and risky behavior.

• We need to look more closely at the factors contributing to addiction and work to create a healthier, kinder, loving world that prevents drug dependence from even forming, holds people accountable for their actions, and provides vulnerable people with the assistance they need be it living wage jobs, robust mental health programs, holistic healthcare, and safe and dignified housing.

• Addition is a corruption of relationship. Unwilling or unable to meet the uncertainty, pain, or intensity of life, we overly rely on a substance, experience, or person to protect us from what we fear or cannot handle. And we are often doing the very best we can with whatever we have on hand.

Szalavitz suggests taking a more compassionate “harm reduction” approach to addiction, which means treating people living with addiction as full human beings who deserve care and support.

If you’re someone for whom weed has become more habit forming and you feel you are using cannabis to numb out, self-medicate, or distract yourself, please don’t feel like you have to now shame yourself. This will most likely make your issue worse. Cannabis is still so deeply stigmatized and there’s a tendency to internalize the limiting messages about cannabis, especially when we are women, Black, or of color.

If cannabis has become an unhelpful coping mechanism, chances are high that your mind/body/soul chose cannabis for a very good reason and it’s crucial you look at your whole life and why you started to use cannabis in this way. The over-reliance on weed is most likely a symptom of something else much deeper.

And yeah, chances are high you may also need to reevaluate your relationship to weed.

For some of us, this new relationship will mean giving up weed indefinitely because you know that it’s just not for you anymore. For some others, your new relationship will mean a protracted t-break (I did a “lit free” spring detox right before 420 which was helpful). For some others, this new relationship would mean getting your medical card and approaching cannabis from a medicinal rather than solely recreational point of view. For others of us, this new relationship will involve using cannabis as a spiritual portal during cannabis yoga or meditation.

Addiction is complicated and layered. We’re still learning a lot about this complex phenomenon which affects people from all walks of life.

You get to decide what your relationship with weed looks like, when weed is just not it for your life anymore, and when you need professional support to stop your habit. Trust the ones who love you deeply and want the best for you (including yourself) and do what’s best for your life.

I wish you clarity, intention, and joy.

Love,

Hannah