Marijuana can have temporary negative effects, such as anxiety if you smoke more than your tolerance level etc, and a mild impairment on cognitive processes, but I don't believe it has any long term effects...
Very heavy long term usage may cause mild withdrawal type symptoms (nothing compared to other drugs), which can easily be overcome by cutting down gradually over a week or two.
In my opinion the only people that get heavily psychologically addicted to it are mentally unstable types with deeply ingrained psychological issues that use marijuana to self medicate their inability to face life / regulate their own moods.
I have been smoking for over 20 years. My usage goes up and down. Was one point for about 2 years where I was smoking about 20 joints of pure hydro bud per day. Then I cut down over a week or two and did not smoke for a few months (it was very easy).
Currently I am low on money and only smoke 4-5 times per week.
I have never noticed any long term effects of pot, I believe its effects are entirely transient or placebo type effects.
But I do agree that smoking heavily 24/7 nonstop is abnormal. A normal person does not have time to do this, they work, have family commitments etc.. If you are smoking 24/7, all through the day, there is something wrong with you and your life (unless you have an exceptionally good reason to be doing this such as cancer etc)
Honestly, I agree with everyone who says come back in 10 years and tell us what you think. I started smoking 1-3x a week also, and within a year it was daily, and that was now 8 years ago. I have no appetite without weed (benzos help), I feel the need to get stoned before everything, I freak out if I'm running low on weed, and spend way too much money even when I barely have any on it. Like any other drug, it will have negative side effects if you use it/abuse it long enough...it's still a psychoactive substance.
You've got a mild physical dependence and significant psychological dependence... The physical dependence can be easily over come by a gradual reduction over a couple of weeks, the psychological dependence is due to you, not the weed. If you weren't on weed you'd probably be an alcoholic or doing meth or something, be happy you chose the safest of all recreational drugs.
Don't blame weed for your inability to manage your own money or deal with your emotional/psychological problems. If you could no longer get weed from today onwards I promise you than soon enough you'd find yourself trapped in some other form of maladaptive psychological situation- maybe it would be alcohol, quite possibly you would go crazy on benzos, but it would be something unless you can address your own internal issues (which I am not blaming you for, but I am not blaming the weed either).
Weed is addictive, but only mildly so. Only certain types end up smoking it 24/7, and its not the weed fault they are that way, its just damn fortunate they are not doing something worst (thus weed can be quite protective of people abusing more serious habits / drugs). It can cause paranoid type thoughts, anxiety, laziness and forgetfulness but this is only a transient effect, which might be prominent in some people that smoke it 24 / 7.
I used to abuse it, because I admit, I have psychological issues, but I am self aware, and I have modified my use to healthier levels and I now also have a life.
The VAST majority of people can handle their weeds, but in a junkie forum (I don't mean this in an insulting way), I am not surprised to hear of all the people with super addictive personalities / drug wired personalities to complain they smoke too much weed. Note: I almost never blame people for how they are, but I will defend weed, I think its a good thing, it should be legal. Its not perfect, but in opinion overall it is the best of all drugs. Don't get me wrong, I wish I knew of some "super drug" that was non-addictive, caused lovely moods 24/7, and had no side effects even in chronic usage, but as of yet no such thing has been discovered.
Meh: Sorry for the double post.
