I am on opioids now for over three years (Tramadol, and Morphin mostly, which I now get in a substitutions program, and a bit of Heroin) and I feel, well almost normal, except for the physical dependence. Why am I telling you this here, b/c I was smoking weed too, for years, on a regular basis (1-3 times per day), some 15 years ago. More precisely I was smoking it for three years, year and a half on a daily basis, and in this three years it fucked me so bad (and no it is not only me. Everyone I knew, who was/is using in on a daily basis ), that I can only laugh out people who consider it a 'light drug' (This light and heavy drugs classification is wrong and sick IMO.). This three years of cannabis consumption made an intellectual, emotional retard, physically disabled person out of me. I think I needed more than a year to two years to recover, depending on 'area' (for example to be able to speak normal without forgetting in the middle of the sentence what I was talking about, it took me more than a year. Physically recovery happened much faster, but I was quite sporty, also during my first year of cannabis consumption.).
Cold turkey was ok, despite I was always smoking tobacco with it. The problem was the addiction (not physical dependence, the psychical one). I was thinking about it all the time, but at the same time, I actually stopped feeling joy and pleasure while smoking it, and this helped a lot. It was more like a super strong habit made of that silly rituals like going to walk (oh later we/I would just get out and sit on the first free bench.), getting Rizla out of pocket, rolling joints (smoking was just a part of it) that the addiction was made of.
Anyway I feel the cannabis addiction was much worse in my case, than the one from opiates / opioids. This is probably due to the reason I was using opioids more like a medicine. In the last time mostly for pain relief, and that is how dependence happened.
At the beginning, shortly after my cannabis issue, and depression probably caused by it I have started taking Tramadol sometimes. I was taking it sporadically, because I considered it like a poison, and the obstipation was quite bad in my case, which was good acually. I stopped using drugs for 13-14 years, except 'regular' pain killers which 'destroyed' my immune system quite badly. Only after doing some research on the topic pain killers, their consequences etc. and not until I found out that the opioids/opiates are the ones with the less serious side effects I started the f* 'journey', because I snapped...
Sorry for mentioning lot of unrelated things to the topic. If you want me I can edit this, or admin can anyway delete/move it, according what he thinks is the appropriate action.