Update to the thread. I've had no Internet for a week so I've not been active. I had friends come around and I smoked some weed. I fell back into smoking of a night time until my half ounce was gone. Gave some to friends to take home.
The weed has gone now, and I'm back to "quitting". All is good this time around. Not had any problems really except not being able to sleep. I fill that void with blogging and programming.
I've opted to smoke of a weekend. I do like weed. What I don't want to go back to is daily use. My head feels so clear it's unreal. When I started smoking weed it really helped me to hyperfocus. I remember learning about Markov Chains and being baffled. I smoked some weed and it became easy to understand. Shit just clicked into place. But after prolonged used I sort of became more stupid. I'd forget what I learn very quickly. It affected my work.
There's definitely a middle ground. I think I've found it. Or maybe this is denial. Either way it's a step in the positive direction.
Many thanks to all that offered genuine advice and support. It is much appreciated!
The real willpower is being able to restrict yourself to only smoking at weekends! It can be done.
As far as addiction goes, everyone is different, so the naysayers are completely wrong. I've known people able to give up cigarettes with few problems, yet others continue to smoke even after watching their mother die at a fairly young age of lung cancer (And proclaiming that he was going to give up; 12 years later he continues to smoke up to 40 a day). To me, the reason why some people develop a daily habit whereas others can happily smoke occasionally is due to psychological reasons and of course it can lead to physical dependency.
From the age of 16 to 29 I was a daily smoker, clearing around an ounce a week. I never smoked prior to work, but the first thing I did on returning home was roll a joint and then smoke fairly regularly until bedtime. At weekends I'd pretty much smoke from getting up to going to bed. Many times I told myself I would cut down, but every time I carried on. I think I would still be a daily smoker had I not suffered a serious illness. The severity of the illness landed me in the ICU on diamorphine (heroin basically) for a week, followed by a six month recovery from major surgery with oramorph as a painkiller alongside slow release morphine. Obviously I didn't notice any withdrawals from Cannabis at the time! The weird thing is that I suffered no opioid withdrawals with my doctor telling me one day that it was time to stop the morphine. Within two weeks I was totally clean.
I still think it very odd that I found it so hard to kick the cannabis habit, yet I was able to stop opiates with hardly any tapering! Even now I receive prescription tramadol which I take intermittently for chronic pain following the surgery and I am able to take it for a week without feeling the need to keep on taking it.
Everyone is different and I have seen others struggle with cannabis addiction. Nowadays I find myself able to vape weed on an occasional basis with no temptation to increase my intake.
To The MagicCoder: you can use occasionally, but watch out for the danger signs such as starting to use during the week. If that happens then quit again.
Final point: I didn't use cannabis at all for 8 years; my first use after that time was indeed like trying it for the first time. Resetting tolerance is something that is good practice both for you mind/body and wallet!