Flip the coin and see the other side A safe high? Is there such a thing as a cannabis addict? By Laura Spinney Robin Lefever regards himself as an addict, yet neither alcohol, nicotine nor any other recreational drug has entered his body for eight years. He is 31, and although he has been "in recovery" since the age of 23, he is not out of the woods yet. The physical symptoms of withdrawal may have subsided long ago, but he still attends group therapy meetings. To him, recovering from addiction is like walking up a down escalator: if he stops, he'll descend back into his "madness". Lefever started taking drugs at the age of 12, and has dabbled in most mind-altering substances you'd care to mention. But the drug on which he became most dependent was cannabis. He dropped out of school because of it, enrolled in a tutorial college, took more drugs and dropped out again. From there, he says, the move into London's financial centre was natural. In the mid-eighties you needed no serious qualifications, and there was the attraction of quick, easy money. As an addict in the City, he was far from alone. For six years he worked as a futures trader - gambling in a high-risk environment where the hours were long and the stakes and adrenaline high. "I got off on the intensity of the markets," he says. "The job I was doing was addictive itself, and it paid for all my other addictions beautifully." He took speed and cocaine on the job, drank in the evenings, and smoked cannabis throughout the day, preferring resin to grass because it was cheaper, stronger and more readily available. "When I drove into the City I would roll up going down the Mall because it's a nice, straight road. I could then spark up on the Embankment and put it out as I parked my car." Knowing he had five or ten minutes before the drug kicked in, he would walk into the office looking relatively alert, then "zonk out" while the analysts gave the rundown on what was happening in Tokyo, and come round again in time for the morning business. During his stint in the City, Lefever made one attempt to give up cannabis. It lasted eighteen months. Now he believes he was doomed to fail because he only dealt with the physical component of his addiction without addressing the underlying psychological problem: the urge to anaesthetise all feeling. "I don't think being stoned is about happiness or unhappiness," he explains, "It's about not having to feel at all." Eight years ago, when he gave up for good, "detox-ing" was the easy part. Unlike heroin, for which recovering addicts are often prescribed methadone to ease withdrawal, there is no substitute. You simply stop smoking. But once he had made up his mind he found the experience exciting rather than frightening: "I found that I would wake up maybe fifteen per cent a day, and I kept thinking, this is extraordinary. I'm becoming more and more alert." His short-term memory improved and visually things began to appear with greater clarity. For the first time in years he could make out detail in the leaves on a tree. Physically, Lefever suffered no withdrawal symptoms. Others have reported cold-like symptoms such as a stuffy head or runny nose. But while the withdrawal is typically mild, the predominantly psychological symptoms suffered by some heavy cannabis users can be more distressing. Sammy, 38, smoked cannabis every day for 20 years. When he gave up two years ago, he found that for the first few nights he was unable to sleep at all. Then, for the next couple of weeks, his dreams were so vivid and action-packed that in the morning he would feel exhausted despite having slept for a good eight hours: "I would wake up having gone round the world twice, had three affairs and got to number one in the charts." When you go to sleep stoned, he says, you don't dream. According to Wayne Hall, director of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, cannabis is not generally regarded as a drug of dependence because it does not have a clearly defined withdrawal syndrome. But that, he says, is an old-fashioned definition of addiction. "While there may be debate about whether there is a cannabis withdrawal syndrome there is no doubt that some users want to stop or cut down their cannabis use and find it difficult or impossible to do so, and they continue to use cannabis despite the adverse effect it has on their lives." Of course, most habitual users never report for treatment, particularly since the withdrawal is mild. And Lefever, who now runs the Promis Recovery Centre, a rehabilitation service near Canterbury, Kent that was set up by his father 11 years ago, says people come to the centre all the time to be treated for cannabis dependence. It is rarely their only addiction, and of all the drug dependences he sees it represents the smallest proportion. But that is partly because public funding is reserved for those whose dependences are conventionally regarded as more serious. Besides, very few addicts are dependent on a single substance or behaviour - which supports his argument that the problem lies in the person, not the substance. Since it opened, Promis has treated around 1700 people for dependences ranging from alcohol, heroin, cannabis and other drugs to obsessive behaviours such as gambling, sex, shopping, exercise and eating disorders. All patients are treated with the same programme - the 12-step Minnesota model adopted by Alcoholics Anonymous, which is based on group therapy - and the average stay there is three months. "We lose hardly anybody in the detox process," says Lefever. "Getting off drugs is a doddle. It's being able to live life and stay off them which is the hard part."
I might be completely missing the point, and if I am I hope someone corrects me. But what it sounds like this article is trying to classify pot as addictive by redefineing "addictive." I can identify ANYTHING as addictive if I change what the word means. If addictive meant "needed to survive" then water and air are addictive substances, that have our youth hopelessly dependant.
Indeed it is slanted towards a point of view, purposely. From a rehabilitators point of view. In which all drugs are bad. I do not think we can classify air and water as dependant drugs. they are survival materials that we can not live without and do nothing for changing our conscious state of awareness. Without them would be not to be alive. Not quite the same thing.
wet1 From what I gather rehabilitators believe it is a gateway drug and that it leads to other worse drugs. In my experience I did smoke pot. I did get kicked out of the house when I was 17. I did dabble in other drugs. The only one I stuck with was pot. about a year and a half ago I stopped for no particular reason or maybe it was because it was just a pain in the ass to get. But ether way it's definitely the easiest habit to kick. Every once in a while if I was in the right mood and someone offered I might take a hit. You guy's will know I'll probably start some very strange threads and post in places I intellectually should not beee!Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I understan that air and water are not the same things as other drugs I was making a point how you can call anything addictive if you change the definition. And I definetly agree with you Patman, it is the easiest habit to kick, someone who can't stop smoking pot just doesn't want to. And you're right it is a pain in the ass to get.
Yes I can remember long years ago what a let down it was for a sure thing to fall through. I believe that it is a gate way drug but maybe not for the same reason. It's where you have to go to get it. It's the attitude that it inspires in regards to the law and authority. Which leads to attitudes about what is right and wrong and who says it is. Because pot isn't as bad as those who were trying to get you not to do it said. So it starts a let me see for myself because I can not trust what I am told attitude. Being as other drugs are heard about there comes that time when the decision has to be made, "Do I want to try it?" It's right there for the getting.
Not everyone just jumps into "the drug scene." Before the first tim I smoked pot, I weighed out everything that I had been told, through D.A.R.E., by my parents, school counselors, etc. And then compared it to all the information that I could find, scientific studies, actual research, case records, anything. And When side by side, everything I had been told didn't hold a candle to anything that I had read. From there I have researched other drugs, and still have found none that pose as little risk as marijuana. Should I ever decide to try another, the only gateway will be the facts that I have compiled for it, not the first drug.
The thing which is important to remember is that you are playing with <b>your brain</b>. It's the seat of your self. If you screw up, there's no fix for the damage caused.
Bowser, I smoke pot for a long time now and my Deeper Self is still very active. No damage done there, really. I used LSD too, I like it a lot, best drug I've ever had. But I should never recommend it to any one, never, too dangerous. But I like it, I haven't had it for 10 years now, so I don't care for it so much any more. Now I only smoke pot, mostly in the evening and before going to sleep, with a book. You sleep so nice then. Without I sleep nice too, so I don't see the difference this moment.... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Oh, sorry, I have smoked a joint, I am just too stoned now, haha Bowser you are a fine man, but be a little less afraid of innocent marijuana, I mean really innocent. If I don't have it, it is alright, I do not care for it then, you see. I am teasing you Bowser, sorry, I'll stop nowPlease Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Banshee, I agree than weed is the least of evils where drugs are involved; but, as with anything else in life, there are dangers; and those dangers specific to drug use involve your brain cells. People need to be aware of what they risk when they mess with their heads. I think this is what concerns me when drugs and youngsters are brought together.
Legal marijuana I have an open mind and respect the opinions of others. But if you do not think that Marijuana should be legalized, you possess a brain that is, perhaps, not even physically capable of understanding the concept behind the word FREEDOM. It's a tough shell to break, but anyone can think for themselves if they try. Or you can be spoonfed lies from the media and goverment. It is MUCH less difficult that way.........
I think Bowser's right here. If I understand him ok, he talks about the danger, the weed also, for damage in your brain cells. There he is right. Sometimes very young children, 9 - 10 years? , begin smoking weed already and they do not know how much damage it can bring. There he really is right, for that is far too young. Young people, teens as well, have to be good informed, so they do know what they are doing to themselves. Isn't this what you mean Bowser? If not, then I am sorry. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! But you have a real good point there.... But I am not to safe any more, haha, I am already smoking the stuff for a long time now. I am a lost case. But happy with, and happy without.... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
If We're Going to Start Banning Things... ...because they're dangerous to people, well let's start drawing up a list: Asprin Alcohol Beef (UK) Lawnmowers Plastic bags Fire Knives Cars Planes What we should all do is stay in padded boxes with high quality food drip fed into us to avoid potential dangers and hope that our government and neighbours are able to keep us all well informed of just what we should be doing, because I for one am simply incapable of making those decisions.
True And so Captain Canada has a poin too. It is all bad for your brain cells, no matter what.... After all, I can cross the street and die......Nothing to it.... So there are risks everywhere, choose the one who's least bad or how you call it in english.... Or do not use anything at all, it is the choice of the person him/herself... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Asprin Alcohol Beef (UK) Lawnmowers Plastic bags Fire Knives Cars Planes Most of the above are not intended for use by children without adult supervision. Don't get me wrong. As an adult you should have the option to zap your head; however, most adults have more thoughtful discretion. Banshee, Yes, you understood me correctly. Drugs should not be a choice for children (that includes teens.), and I think that that is the edge which cuts on this issue.
You are very right what concerns the children and teens. And I didn't mean to take you down. I mean it really, you are very right there..... Don't think I made fun of you. I surely did not! Don't take this wrong Bowser, didn't want to tease you or whatever, you are right here!
I didn't take insult to anything I've read here. My ego is intact. That pot is making you paranoid, Banshee.
This seems to me to be kind of close to internet censorship. we can't outlaw everything that's bad for kids, because it will just piss off the adults who want to use it. It's the adults responsibility to find some way to keep it out of the kids hands.
It is the duty of the adults to teach their children well. Say to them, you take your hands of the stuff, will make them smoke... You have to find the way between, and if you smoke and have a kid, you mostly know how to handle the child. Children are not crazy, you can not hold the marijuana away from them if you smoke as being the kids parent. This does not mean that the child likes it....the parent smoking pot, you understand? Sometimes I do not find the right words in englih immediately and then you misunderstand and that I do not want. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I have a son, he doesn't want to know of the marijuana, but friends at school smoke it, so what makes that him, my son... He is accepted wth his own opinion NOT to smoke, while a lot of his friends do. No problems there for him. So why are there not more children, he is 14, who just can say NO against it.... Maybe because parents say too hard and too loud do not use that, if you do you will be grounded!! That is not the way.... They better find another. And then there are kids, who want to join the club, because they are insecure and want to belong with a group. That is another kind of kids. They are uncertain, maybe teased a lot at school or at home, you never know. They want to belong to a group, and people smoking marijuana are nice to be with, easy and 'free' so they think. They have to learn, all by themselves........Because of bad parenthood or something else, they learn, sadly enough it can turn out pretty bad.............. But it does not have to turn out bad, it surely does not.... And Bowser, I was afool to think I could hurt your feelings, no paranoid, just friendly Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
