Getting Clean And Smoking Weed Possible?

[SawRED]

Well the title says it all. Do you think people battling a problem with substance abuse can get off of that substance while continuing to recreationally smoke marijuana? Particularly in the case of people with a very high tolerance to weed where it has little effect on them.

In my case I am trying to stop drinking, using opiates, and benzo's but I do not know if I am ready to stop smoking. Granted I definitely smoke an absurd amount (half oz every 3 days) and should probably cut back on it however I also think smokin the righteous herb provides a lot of good things to people when done in moderation or at least in a non abusive manner.

Another consideration is the change in lifestyle/friends etc. For me, most of my friends smoke weed but do not do the other drugs that I feel are really negatively effecting me. In a situation where someone is abusing a drug and all there friends are using and enabling them as well I think they have no other option except to cut out this part of there life if they really want to get sober. Yet I feel if I stop smoking with the intent to be getting clean of these other drugs I may be losing something valuable in my support system of friends and etc. (Not to say that if I stop smoking my friends are all of the sudden going to not hang out with me anymore, but realistically as any pot head knows when most of your friends smoke all day long and kind of revolve around it, its hard to be the guy who just sits there and watches. Less in terms of temptation and more in terms of a situation like "hey do you wanna go smoke a blunt at the lake" "well i don't smoke but i guess ill come to the lake for 5 minutes to watch and then come right back here".)

I guess in the end being honest with myself most people could come back and say that I may be abusing weed as well and if these are my concerns about stopping it's probably already a problem but regardless I do want to know what you think of the matter not only pertaining to me but in general. Do you believe somebody who smokes bud in a "healthy" matter, yet abuses other drugs could try and get sober from these other things while continuing to smoke?

 

[TheLostBoys]

Yes, I have a friend that was into psychedelics pretty hard & smoked weed alot & he quit the psychedelics for good & still smokes pot....hes actually like you, he smokes alot of weed. We use to go fishing, he has a boat & he would ask me & my gf to go along & he would bring his girl, none the less, he would always have 6 philly blunts ready to go.

We would be out there fishing for about 3 hours & within those 3 hours, we would smoke all 6 blunts. This guy loves weed but I stopped smoking years ago. I still hang out with him once a week, me & my girl will go over to his house to watch a movie with him & his girl. He breaks out the water bong & goes nuts, everyone smokes but me, I just dont like weed anymore but it doesnt keep me from hanging out with the guy.

We also go hiking once in a while but he doesnt bring weed along for the hike. Anyway, like I said, its possible to quit other drugs & continue on smoking but imo, just take it easy with the weed. Half an ounce every 3 days is alot of weed to be toking. You dont wanna be smoking weed to maintain(they say weed isnt addictive but I disagree), you wanna smoke weed to enjoy what your doing or watching or whatever. Have fun & be safe is the bottom line........

 

[T. Calderone]

It's a good thing you want to eliminate the addictive substances- opiates,
alcohol and benzos. Not saying that weed isn't addictive but out of the four
I would say weed is the least harmful. Only my opinion though and it might
help you to get off the other stuff. Just try not to smoke so much because in
my experience anyway, less is more.

 

[SawRED]

We would be out there fishing for about 3 hours & within those 3 hours, we would smoke all 6 blunts. This guy loves weed but I stopped smoking years ago. I still hang out with him once a week, me & my girl will go over to his house to watch a movie with him & his girl. He breaks out the water bong & goes nuts, everyone smokes but me, I just dont like weed anymore but it doesnt keep me from hanging out with the guy.

Haha i have never been much into fishing but six blunts and a day out on the lake doesn't seem too bad, i like your friends style. It's also cool that you and your friend still chill, I quit smoking for a while back in the day and although all my friends who I toked with were still close to me it seems that outside of school we just didn't chill that much anymore.

Thanks for the advice from everyone I was definitely afraid a lot of people would say that if you want to get over your substance abuse you have to go completely clean but I'm glad to hear success stories that say otherwise.

None the less I am going to try cutting down a bit, I agree that while weed is not physically addictive it certain is mentally...and all things aside at this point I smoke so much I honestly don't think I even get high (except maybe the first smoke of the day).

 

[burn out]

A half oz every three days? I would say you have a major problem with weed and I would hate to hear the amounts of the other drugs you consume (hopefully nowhere near that bad or you are gonna have one hell of a withdrawal) but in my personal opinion you should quit weed too. That doesn't mean you can't ever smoke it again but take some time off and experience life sober for a while.

 

[ahkwa]

A little under an o a week is alot. lol i go through a bag every week and im high all the time

 

[Legerity]

There's no reason for it to be impossible to do so. Whether or not this is the best approach for you is up to you to find out. Some may benefit from just giving up the entire lifestyle altogether while others find it easier to take a more gradual approach.

You will see for yourself if continuing to smoke makes it more difficult to avoid using other substances. You can then adjust your plan accordingly

 

[SirTophamHat]

I had a psychological opiate addiction for a while (used for 3yr, uncontrollably for 1yr) now over 9wks clean *knocks on wood*

Weed helps me relax a lot but it still burns me out if I abuse it. I have to save it for bedtime/vacation or else it warps my motivation in a bad way by increasing complacency.

That said, weed is probably the least harmful of all recreational drug evils. If you manage to quit all that other BS and only smoke, well damn. There is a lot to be proud of in quitting booze/opes/benzos. If you're worried about weed's effect on your life after that, then you can try to mitigate your usage by using a reward system or similar. I seriously wouldn't fret about pot if I were you, especially if you are using it as a crutch. And that isn't a bad thing really. Your average joe on the street is addicted to multiple things in life. There are worse things in the world than being a pothead.

 

[n3ophy7e]

Well the title says it all. Do you think people battling a problem with substance abuse can get off of that substance while continuing to recreationally smoke marijuana? Particularly in the case of people with a very high tolerance to weed where it has little effect on them.

Two things:

1) If you have a very high tolerance to weed then that indicates you smoke a lot of it, and you most likely have a problem with weed as well as whatever substances you have issues with, in other words you are addicted to marijuana.

2) If you quit all other substances and are still smoking marijuana, then you are not clean. Plain and simple. Marijuana is a drug just like amphetamines, opiates and alcohol are. If you acknowledge that you have a substance abuse problem, if you really want to get clean and if you are serious about it, then you will have to consider quitting marijuana as well.

 

[SawRED]

Two things:

1) If you have a very high tolerance to weed then that indicates you smoke a lot of it, and you most likely have a problem with weed as well as whatever substances you have issues with, in other words you are addicted to marijuana.

2) If you quit all other substances and are still smoking marijuana, then you are not clean. Plain and simple. Marijuana is a drug just like amphetamines, opiates and alcohol are. If you acknowledge that you have a substance abuse problem, if you really want to get clean and if you are serious about it, then you will have to consider quitting marijuana as well.

I definitely acknowledge that marijuana is a drug and I guess clean is a bit of a poor choice of words on my part. What I want is, to be able to use or maybe not use drugs to a point where they do not negatively impact my life. If I could quit using opiates yet one day be able to use them in a non harmful recreational way I probably would; however I don't think that would be possible for me personally.

Also (although I don't think this is what you were trying to say) tolerance alone does not make someone addicted. I admit I probably use marijuana abusively but I also don't find it very difficult to cut back to a much lower amount or go a few days without it and so I would not call my self addicted in that sense.

And I agree with your last statement fully which is why I made this thread . If a lot of people were advising me against trying to stop my other drug problems while continuing to smoke I would be very open to it. I guess as someone earlier said that I will have to try and find out and adjust my opinion based on how it goes and although I hope I don't have to I am not opposed to quitting if I feel that's what I need.

 

[Lucy's Lover]

Alot of my friends quit everything apart from drink and smoke after they overcame dependancy issues with another substance.

Some people see weed as different to other drugs, but i think this is just them trying to avoid the fact that weed can have negative effects

 

[SirTophamHat]

Two things:

1) If you have a very high tolerance to weed then that indicates you smoke a lot of it, and you most likely have a problem with weed as well as whatever substances you have issues with, in other words you are addicted to marijuana.

2) If you quit all other substances and are still smoking marijuana, then you are not clean. Plain and simple. Marijuana is a drug just like amphetamines, opiates and alcohol are. If you acknowledge that you have a substance abuse problem, if you really want to get clean and if you are serious about it, then you will have to consider quitting marijuana as well.

The amount he smokes does indicate a strong dependence on the drug, however if it helps him cope without the others wouldn't you agree that leaving it in place for now might increase his likelihood of staying away from the other drugs? I concur that minimizing all drug use now would be helpful if the end goal is to remain clean. I only know that if I personally stay abstinent from everything, the desire to use everything increases.

 

[embers_fading]

Well the title says it all. Do you think people battling a problem with substance abuse can get off of that substance while continuing to recreationally smoke marijuana? Particularly in the case of people with a very high tolerance to weed where it has little effect on them.

Replacing one addiction/abused substance with another is still an addiction/problem. If you have such a high tolerance to marijuana, why continue to smoke it? Don't you think that is indicative of abuse? Someone who uses cannabis so often that it has little effect is obviously abusing it.

In my case I am trying to stop drinking, using opiates, and benzo's but I do not know if I am ready to stop smoking. Granted I definitely smoke an absurd amount (half oz every 3 days) and should probably cut back on it however I also think smokin the righteous herb provides a lot of good things to people when done in moderation or at least in a non abusive manner.

It sounds like you aren't serious about getting clean then. Smoking that much cannabis is ridiculous. Maybe you need to do far more than just "cut down". If you're smoking that much weed I think you have a serious problem with drugs of all kinds. Maybe it'd be better for you to try to stop abusing all drugs. If you're smoking a 1/2 ounce every few days I don't think you'll have an easy time "cutting down" on your intake. Don't get me wrong, it's great that you want to stop using the greater of evils (opiates and benzos), but it seems like you may be blind to the bigger problem you've got going on.

Another consideration is the change in lifestyle/friends etc. For me, most of my friends smoke weed but do not do the other drugs that I feel are really negatively effecting me. In a situation where someone is abusing a drug and all there friends are using and enabling them as well I think they have no other option except to cut out this part of there life if they really want to get sober.

(Emphasis mine)

Maybe you should take your own advice and cut out the benzos, the opiates, and the weed.

Yet I feel if I stop smoking with the intent to be getting clean of these other drugs I may be losing something valuable in my support system of friends and etc.

How are your friends a support system if you are trying to get clean and they all use weed?

(Not to say that if I stop smoking my friends are all of the sudden going to not hang out with me anymore, but realistically as any pot head knows when most of your friends smoke all day long and kind of revolve around it, its hard to be the guy who just sits there and watches.

Then stop hanging around with them. You don't have to try to sit and watch them while you are trying to get clean. You can go to NA meetings and make new friends who don't do that kind of crap. If you hang around those people you are going to keep abusing weed. If you keep abusing weed, it might be easy to justify beginning to abuse the benzos and opiates again, too. Hell, you might even start using other stuff.

I guess in the end being honest with myself most people could come back and say that I may be abusing weed as well and if these are my concerns about stopping it's probably already a problem but regardless I do want to know what you think of the matter not only pertaining to me but in general. Do you believe somebody who smokes bud in a "healthy" matter, yet abuses other drugs could try and get sober from these other things while continuing to smoke?

If the amount of weed you claim to smoke is accurate, then buddy, you don't smoke weed in a "healthy" manner. You're far from it. You might want to read back and see what you've written here, take a long pause, and figure out where you're going to go from here on out.

If you want to be clean and you want to be sure that you'll have a better chance of not picking up worse drug habits again, you need to kick everything. Weed included.

 

[n3ophy7e]

Also (although I don't think this is what you were trying to say) tolerance alone does not make someone addicted. I admit I probably use marijuana abusively but I also don't find it very difficult to cut back to a much lower amount or go a few days without it and so I would not call my self addicted in that sense.

Yeah for sure man, I hear ya. That's awesome that you feel able to cut down and go for a few days without pot, that is a very good sign. How long have you gone without it, in recent times? (just out of curiosity, and you don't have to answer that if you're not comfortable discussing it of course )

I guess as someone earlier said that I will have to try and find out and adjust my opinion based on how it goes and although I hope I don't have to I am not opposed to quitting if I feel that's what I need.

This is a great attitude to have man, good for you. Try it and see, and readjust your plan if it's not working for you. Just as long as you stay aware and super-honest with yourself about the situation, then you should be fine.

The amount he smokes does indicate a strong dependence on the drug, however if it helps him cope without the others wouldn't you agree that leaving it in place for now might increase his likelihood of staying away from the other drugs? I concur that minimizing all drug use now would be helpful if the end goal is to remain clean. I only know that if I personally stay abstinent from everything, the desire to use everything increases.

You do raise a good point STH. There are pros and cons for both methods of approach (i.e. quitting smoking at the same time as the other drugs, vs. using weed to cope with the psychological withdrawals from the other drugs).
However, it is my opinion that if someone is trying to learn how to cope with life without using drugs, they need to be completely sober in order to really be able to achieve that. Otherwise they still haven't really dealt with the underlying problems that caused them to abuse drugs in the first place and whenever any adversity comes their way they could be more likely to turn back to drugs in order to cope. But that is just my opinion

 

[SawRED]

Replacing one addiction/abused substance with another is still an addiction/problem. If you have such a high tolerance to marijuana, why continue to smoke it? Don't you think that is indicative of abuse? Someone who uses cannabis so often that it has little effect is obviously abusing it.



It sounds like you aren't serious about getting clean then. Smoking that much cannabis is ridiculous. Maybe you need to do far more than just "cut down". If you're smoking that much weed I think you have a serious problem with drugs of all kinds. Maybe it'd be better for you to try to stop abusing all drugs. If you're smoking a 1/2 ounce every few days I don't think you'll have an easy time "cutting down" on your intake. Don't get me wrong, it's great that you want to stop using the greater of evils (opiates and benzos), but it seems like you may be blind to the bigger problem you've got going on.

(Emphasis mine)

Maybe you should take your own advice and cut out the benzos, the opiates, and the weed.



How are your friends a support system if you are trying to get clean and they all use weed?



Then stop hanging around with them. You don't have to try to sit and watch them while you are trying to get clean. You can go to NA meetings and make new friends who don't do that kind of crap. If you hang around those people you are going to keep abusing weed. If you keep abusing weed, it might be easy to justify beginning to abuse the benzos and opiates again, too. Hell, you might even start using other stuff.





If the amount of weed you claim to smoke is accurate, then buddy, you don't smoke weed in a "healthy" manner. You're far from it. You might want to read back and see what you've written here, take a long pause, and figure out where you're going to go from here on out.

If you want to be clean and you want to be sure that you'll have a better chance of not picking up worse drug habits again, you need to kick everything. Weed included.

Sorry if this post is not very well written but I just wrote an extremely long response and my internet some how deleted it!!!

Anyways, I mean this in as non offensive way as possible but for someone telling me to read my own posts you clearly did not read them very well yourself. I believe in one of my earlier posts I stated that getting clean was not my goal and was a poor choice of words. My goal is to be able to use (or not use) drugs in a healthy and non abusive matter. Now for me this may mean cutting out weed but that is why I am hear asking for peoples opinions. I am open to doing whatever I need to do to reach that goal. Looking back on the thread there have been mixed responses but there have also been success stories so there is no reason to consider this IMPOSSIBLE. For the record I also respect your opinion but seeing what you wrote earlier I think your opinion was not based on the facts I gave you.

Also I said that cutting down would not be too difficult for me based on experience not opinion. When I was younger I quit smoking for over 6 months, recently on multiple occasions I have gone for over a week without smoking, and even in the past week have probably only smoked an 8th tops. However in my opinion with marijuana in particular, the focus should not be on how much is smoked but rather how the drug is used. For example I could roll up an 8th into a fat ass blunt, smoke it in 10 minutes, be high for 2 hours and being consuming a shit ton of weed. Yet I could also take that 8th, only smoke out of bong, and be much higher all week long using less then half that amount of bud (and also be using more abusively). To me what matters is am I using it as an escape, is it effecting me financially and can I stop using without a problem. I admit I have used and probably use marijuana abusively, but I also find it does not hurt me financially and I do not have much of a problem stopping/cutting back. In the end I will have to find out for my self as I try to get "better" whether or not I am able to cut back and use appropriately, and if not I will definitely be doing my best to quit.

As for my friends they are a support system because 1) well there my friends 2) most them do not use weed abusively and 3) if they knew about my other drug problems would probably be very into helping and encouraging me to take the right steps toward getting better.

Neo, I think that is a very valid opinion and I do think for a lot of people it would be very hard to quit abusing any drugs without living sober for at least a little while. Hell it may be too hard for me but that is what Im trying to find out and I think the only way to answer that question is to try and see what works and doesn't. But your advice is most definitely appreciated and taken to heart! So i guess we will see.

 

[n3ophy7e]

Neo, I think that is a very valid opinion and I do think for a lot of people it would be very hard to quit abusing any drugs without living sober for at least a little while. Hell it may be too hard for me but that is what Im trying to find out and I think the only way to answer that question is to try and see what works and doesn't. But your advice is most definitely appreciated and taken to heart! So i guess we will see.

Sounds like a plan dude Best of luck and keep us updated with how you're going

 

[SirTophamHat]

Perhaps my initial post was a bit overly empathetic.

Good luck OP, you can do it.

 

[SawRED]

Funnily enough I have barely smoked since attempting to be clean(ish), day 2 of not drinking, but all of this may be due to the fact that I have been making/drinking a whole bunch of PST. It's not fair that they sell opium in supermarkets!! !8)

 

[Wolfmans_BrothEr]

I absolutely do. I've been a huge pothead/drug addict since '03. No matter what other drugs I was using, weed was the only constant. For the longest time, up until about 8 months ago, I thought I had to have weed in my system in order to function. Whenever I would stop using, since I would continually be smoking I would still be exposed to that lifestyle, which led me to be exposed to and eventually become addicted to other drugs.

A while back I sort of came to the realization that I didn't wanna be using drugs anymore, almost like an epiphany. So I upped the amount of classes I was taking to 16 credits, I wasn't really talking to most of my old friends anymore since my actions burned some bridges, and I started exercising and putting forth more effort towards school. And my need for weed slowly deteriorated as I got into my new routine, and there are some days now where I won't even think about smoking. I'll go a few days and realize I haven't smoked in a week.

For a huge pothead like myself to go to barely thinking about it is huge. But it was easy for me since I kept structure in my day, as well as didn't surround myself with the same people i was used to 24/7. In the past for example when I finally stopped doing coke, I was still chillin with the same people all the time, and they used and I would eventually get sucked back in.

Now that I cut off ties with a lot of the older people I chilled with, I have less opportunities to get high and less drugs in my face. you've known some of these people for a while, and I'm sure you guys are close and have been thru some shit, but when it gets down to it, i realized a lot of the people I had been tight with for so long, and been thru so much shit together, didn't know how to be real friends. A lot of them were just lazy potheads, whos only solution to everything is to get high. I dont know what kind of "support system" your expecting from these guys, but ill tell you now you can expect a lot of "i dont know dude" or "you gotta get drunk man" when you go them with a problem. I'm not saying this is how it is all the time, but a majority of the time friendships that were built around using don't have much else to them.

How old are you? Currently I'm struggling with opiate addiction, and I enjoy weed occasionally because it levels me out and it feels good. The main difference is I make sure that smoking doesn't get in the way of my other priorities. If its doing that, then I'd say you have a problem. But I'm getting good grades on all my classes, I work out 4 days a week, make sure the house and my room stay clean, and smoke weed here and there. Having constructive things to do throughout the day give you less reasons to smoke, but still make you feel good. Especially when it's something you want to do. Depending on your age go to college if your not already, or get a job, start lifting or anything that can take your mind off it. It's not that difficult, the older you get the more mature you become. In theory

 

[SawRED]

I absolutely do. I've been a huge pothead/drug addict since '03. No matter what other drugs I was using, weed was the only constant. For the longest time, up until about 8 months ago, I thought I had to have weed in my system in order to function. Whenever I would stop using, since I would continually be smoking I would still be exposed to that lifestyle, which led me to be exposed to and eventually become addicted to other drugs.

A while back I sort of came to the realization that I didn't wanna be using drugs anymore, almost like an epiphany. So I upped the amount of classes I was taking to 16 credits, I wasn't really talking to most of my old friends anymore since my actions burned some bridges, and I started exercising and putting forth more effort towards school. And my need for weed slowly deteriorated as I got into my new routine, and there are some days now where I won't even think about smoking. I'll go a few days and realize I haven't smoked in a week.

For a huge pothead like myself to go to barely thinking about it is huge. But it was easy for me since I kept structure in my day, as well as didn't surround myself with the same people i was used to 24/7. In the past for example when I finally stopped doing coke, I was still chillin with the same people all the time, and they used and I would eventually get sucked back in.

Now that I cut off ties with a lot of the older people I chilled with, I have less opportunities to get high and less drugs in my face. you've known some of these people for a while, and I'm sure you guys are close and have been thru some shit, but when it gets down to it, i realized a lot of the people I had been tight with for so long, and been thru so much shit together, didn't know how to be real friends. A lot of them were just lazy potheads, whos only solution to everything is to get high. I dont know what kind of "support system" your expecting from these guys, but ill tell you now you can expect a lot of "i dont know dude" or "you gotta get drunk man" when you go them with a problem. I'm not saying this is how it is all the time, but a majority of the time friendships that were built around using don't have much else to them.

How old are you? Currently I'm struggling with opiate addiction, and I enjoy weed occasionally because it levels me out and it feels good. The main difference is I make sure that smoking doesn't get in the way of my other priorities. If its doing that, then I'd say you have a problem. But I'm getting good grades on all my classes, I work out 4 days a week, make sure the house and my room stay clean, and smoke weed here and there. Having constructive things to do throughout the day give you less reasons to smoke, but still make you feel good. Especially when it's something you want to do. Depending on your age go to college if your not already, or get a job, start lifting or anything that can take your mind off it. It's not that difficult, the older you get the more mature you become. In theory

Glad to hear your doing well with only using weed recreationally! For me at times it has probably made me lazy and unmotivated but currently it is not harming me in that way. Actually it's not infrequent I don't smoke all day... I am a college aged pilot and I never smoke (or use other drugs) anytime before flying. In fact with most of my drug problems as long as I keep my self busy all day doing laundry/cleaning/flying/running errands and although it's only been day 1 in the gym hopefully getting back to lifting, I am usually fine. It's at night that i lose control, i just can't go without something, although the only substance I actually don't have trouble with is smoking herb. I guess it's probably because my addictions are more psychological then physical, when I'm distracted I'm fine but give me sometime with nothing to do (except think about all the things I probably don't want to think about) thats when I can't help myself.

As for my friends being a support system I would have to disagree. Like I said most of my friends only smoke weed and are constantly giving me shit about some of my other questionable life decisions but I'm sure if they knew about my drug abuse they'd probably be the first ones telling me to get clean and get my shit together.