Marijuana withdrawal as bad as withdrawal from cigarettes

swilow said:
Don't you realise that it is you that gets addicted; the drug doesn't get hooked on you, its the opposite....theres no shame in that though; a lot of people are addicted to things. The worst thing you could do is pretend its not happening though. I don't think that Lacey is saying anything deragatory, simply that suseptible individuals are more likely to get addicted. Therefore, it can be said that it is you that causes the 'problem'- after all, you are not forced to take the next hit? None of this, howver, negates any of the helplessness of addiction at all; its just a good thing to know that, if you caused the problem which 9/10 you did, then you can fix it. By you, I mean the generic 'you'. :)

no, lacey was clearly being derogatory. she implied he was a troll.
 
I have a hard time believing it is really all that addictive... I've never met someone who really doesn't like smoking and wants to quit who still smokes. I think it's more of a "i really want it thing" that an actual addiction. I may be wrong but thats my 2 cents.
 
merrygoround said:
i got to a point where if i didn't stop smoking it, it would of definately killed me.

How the hell can smoking weed all the time kill you? You can't overdose on it or anything so i have no goddamn idea about how it could kill you. As for the smoke itself harming you eating the stuff in brownies or whatever would totally bypass that harmful effect.

In case your wondering i smoked hash and/or weed everyday for about 8 years before stopping and had no problem in stopping it.

I was also addicted and i mean really addicted to alcohol and i finally managed to quit that. That would have killed me if i hadn't have given it up no doubt about it. I tried quitting cold turkey a few times but the withdrawals (hallucinations, delirium, real bad body pain, etc) was too much. With the help of valium, oxycodone, temazepam and hash and weed to i finally did quit. I mostly used cannabis to help with the godawful boredom and depression i had after the acute withdrawals where over.

I don't think smoking weed is a addiction as such. It's more like you wanna get stoned on weed and what the fuck is wrong with that. Everyone ive met who smokes it everyday likes it. Also smoking weed sure as hell cannot kill you. It's not like drugs such as alcohol, cocaine and methamphetamine where being on the stuff can actually kill you.

At the moment im still addicted to cigarettes, i take opiates daily (my prescription is for everyday use i actually need them for chronic pain but i tend to use more then im prescribed sometimes) and i take benzos daily. Although with benzos it's all physical i feel no need to take more clonazepam then prescribed.

So you can't say that i don't know a thing or 2 about addiction.
 
How the hell can smoking weed all the time kill you?

there are several potential mechanisms by which smoking weed all the time could kill you. one of course being the smoke, since there may be a link between cannabis smoking and bullous lung disease. and then there is always the possibility of it causing a heart attack or stroke.


Marijuana's cardiovascular effects are not associated with serious health problems for most young, healthy users, although occasional myocardial infarction, stroke, and other adverse cardiovascular events are reported.


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...ve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=12412837

so anything that has the potential to trigger myocardial infarction or stroke obviously has the potential to kill you, even if it's very rare.

towards the end of my own addiction to marijuana, the way my body responded to it began to change and every time i smoked i would get an extremely elevated heart rate. 150 bpm resting heart rate while i was completely calm and sitting or laying down. if i stood up, my heart rate would shoot up well over 200 bmp and i would start to black out. this was when i realized marijuana wasn't so harmless and that if i kept on smoking it, it would probably kill me as i don't think my heart could have taken that kind of daily abuse for much longer. i was experiencing chest pains at this point as well, even as long as 24 hours after smoking. and don't even get me started on the anxiety, if i would have an anxiety attack when high my heart would beat even harder to the point where i was too frightened to even take my pulse. to this day i am left with what appears to be a permanent case of postural orthostatic hypotension from my years of marijuana abuse, although luckily the doctors say my case is mild enough to be considered benign (although it still drives me crazy to have my heart pound out of my chest whenever i stand up after sitting for a long period).

here are a couple of case reports of young men with no cardiac history who suffered myocardial infarctions after smoking marijuana:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/466984?dopt=AbstractPlus
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16175062?dopt=AbstractPlus

Also smoking weed sure as hell cannot kill you.

the fact that death from smoking marijuana is rarely documented by no means indicates that it is impossible. the body can have an adverse reaction to just about any substance, especially when it is abused heavily over a long period of time.
 
pr0ficient said:
what a worthless sample size
Not at all. A trend in a small study is worthwhile, to show that there could be results that are worth studying on a grander scale to further knowledge.

Weed addiction sucks. Not in a I'm throwing up and shitting myself way of suck, but it certainly sucks balls in your mind.
 
having been an addict of both substances, i can say the withdrawl IS actually pretty similar.. neither is life threatening in any way and really it's mostly irritability, depression and icravings which are the worst symptoms of the withdrawal from both substances. Though if you're severely addicted to pot you likely use it to regulate your appetite and thus when you quit you get the added effect of not being hungry very often plus super upset stomach/nausea which is more unpleasant than anything I ever felt from quitting cigs

i do think it's a lot easier to get hooked on cigs than pot though.. almost anybody who smokes enough cigs will become a smoker and have difficulty quitting but often times even heavy pot smokers can just decide to quit without major problems. it takes years or extremely heavy use to get severe withdrawal symptoms with pot, which is something most people don't have the time or money for lol
 
Last edited:
frizzantik said:
having been an addict of both substances, i can say the withdrawl IS actually pretty similar.. neither is life threatening in any way and really it's mostly irritability, depression and icravings which are the worst symptoms of the withdrawal from both substances. Though if you're severely addicted to pot you likely use it to regular your appetite and thus when you quit you get the added effect of not being hungry very often plus super upset stomach/nausea which is more unpleasant than anything I ever felt from quitting cigs

i do think it's a lot easier to get hooked on cigs than pot though.. almost anybody who smokes enough cigs will become a smoker and have difficulty quitting but often times even heavy pot smokers can just decide to quit without major problems. it takes years or extremely heavy use to get severe withdrawal symptoms with pot, which is something most people don't have the time or money for lol


i agree 100%. this is pretty much what i said pages and pages ago.
 
burn out said:
there are several potential mechanisms by which smoking weed all the time could kill you. one of course being the smoke, since there may be a link between cannabis smoking and bullous lung disease. and then there is always the possibility of it causing a heart attack or stroke.


Marijuana's cardiovascular effects are not associated with serious health problems for most young, healthy users, although occasional myocardial infarction, stroke, and other adverse cardiovascular events are reported.


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...ve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=12412837

so anything that has the potential to trigger myocardial infarction or stroke obviously has the potential to kill you, even if it's very rare.

towards the end of my own addiction to marijuana, the way my body responded to it began to change and every time i smoked i would get an extremely elevated heart rate. 150 bpm resting heart rate while i was completely calm and sitting or laying down. if i stood up, my heart rate would shoot up well over 200 bmp and i would start to black out. this was when i realized marijuana wasn't so harmless and that if i kept on smoking it, it would probably kill me as i don't think my heart could have taken that kind of daily abuse for much longer. i was experiencing chest pains at this point as well, even as long as 24 hours after smoking. and don't even get me started on the anxiety, if i would have an anxiety attack when high my heart would beat even harder to the point where i was too frightened to even take my pulse. to this day i am left with what appears to be a permanent case of postural orthostatic hypotension from my years of marijuana abuse, although luckily the doctors say my case is mild enough to be considered benign (although it still drives me crazy to have my heart pound out of my chest whenever i stand up after sitting for a long period).

here are a couple of case reports of young men with no cardiac history who suffered myocardial infarctions after smoking marijuana:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/466984?dopt=AbstractPlus
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16175062?dopt=AbstractPlus



the fact that death from smoking marijuana is rarely documented by no means indicates that it is impossible. the body can have an adverse reaction to just about any substance, especially when it is abused heavily over a long period of time.

Alright so it might be possible. Anything is possible i guess. But in the great scheme of things the chances of weed killing you is nil even if your a heavy smoker.

You have a much better chance of being hit and killed by a car on the way to your dealers house.
 
towards the end of my own addiction to marijuana, the way my body responded to it began to change and every time i smoked i would get an extremely elevated heart rate. 150 bpm resting heart rate while i was completely calm and sitting or laying down. if i stood up, my heart rate would shoot up well over 200 bmp and i would start to black out. this was when i realized marijuana wasn't so harmless and that if i kept on smoking it, it would probably kill me as i don't think my heart could have taken that kind of daily abuse for much longer. i was experiencing chest pains at this point as well, even as long as 24 hours after smoking. and don't even get me started on the anxiety, if i would have an anxiety attack when high my heart would beat even harder to the point where i was too frightened to even take my pulse. to this day i am left with what appears to be a permanent case of postural orthostatic hypotension from my years of marijuana abuse, although luckily the doctors say my case is mild enough to be considered benign (although it still drives me crazy to have my heart pound out of my chest whenever i stand up after sitting for a long period).
wow burnout, i thought i was the only one. whenever i smoke even a cigarette my pulse goes fuking crazy and then i feel really anxious and up tight and cannot relax. even when i'm not smoking my pulse and general CV system is fuked. this is the main reason i cannot smoke it anymore. all from my heavy smoking years from high school and up. i'm not going to mention the other effects that it has caused me cause the post will be too long. i always use to have a cigarette after a session(great combo!) and the majority of the smoking period was with hydro, which is obviously worse than bush. i also had asmtha when i was younger, which may have contributed. but thing is guys, you don't get alot of warning before this shit happens, you'l be sitting there smoking, and then bang, you'l notice your pulse and heart rate have ridiculously increased. it scares the shit out of you. then the next time you smoke it will be the same. you'l also notice the capacity of your breathing is fuked. i've quit for over two years now and i'm still trying to rebuild my CV and breathing functions to how they once were. i don't want to sound like a sore thumb, but this can only be educational. stop smoking heavily guys.. it will happen to you too :\

paranoid android said:
Alright so it might be possible. Anything is possible i guess. But in the great scheme of things the chances of weed killing you is nil even if your a heavy smoker.

You have a much better chance of being hit and killed by a car on the way to your dealers house.

Ok, it may not kill you, you just won't beable to speak to people clearly(due to severe shortness of breath) or beable to sit in a crowded room of people, because your 50 mile/hour pulse rate is going so fast your just feeling one prolonged PANIC ATTACK. Hmmm, i think i'd rather die, wouldn't you?
 
Last edited:
It all depends on how frequently you use, someone who smokes themselves stupid all day long for 2 weeks straight and then just suddenly stops will certainly feel withdrawl.

To you guys who mention the elevated heart rate, I used to get that in the beginning when I first started smoking weed. Take 2 hits off a blunt, the first thing I'd notice is my heart rate skyrocketing uncomfortably, then it would start freaking me out... what if it was mixed with something? what if I'm dying...? Luckily the paranoia went away as I became more use to the effects.

I've experienced withdrawal from marijuana at different times of life, but with responsible use and spreading it out a bit I note no real withdrawal. I think there is a big difference between using marijuana and abusing
 
Last edited:
QuasiStoned said:
It all depends on how frequently you use, someone who smokes themselves stupid all day long for 2 weeks straight and then just suddenly stops will certainly feel withdrawl.

To you guys who mention the elevated heart rate, I used to get that in the beginning when I first started smoking weed. Take 2 hits off a blunt, the first thing I'd notice is my heart rate skyrocketing uncomfortably, then it would start freaking me out... what if it was mixed with something? what if I'm dying...? Luckily the paranoia went away as I became more use to the effects.

I've experienced withdrawal from marijuana at different times of life, but with responsible use and spreading it out a bit I note no real withdrawal. I think there is a big difference between using marijuana and abusing


for me when i first smoked, i also got the racing heart but in a more "normal way" and i "knew" you couldn't die from weed so it didn't concern me (and i don't believe there was any danger to my heart back then). i soon developed a tolerance to the elevated heart rate and it didn't even concern me. but then like i explained before, years after abusing marijuana on a daily or near daily bases, the way it affected me (both physically and mentally) changed and i would get these out of control racing heart beats which felt VERY different from the initial increase in heart rate i experienced when i first started smoking. like a moron i just kept telling myself "you can't die from weed, don't worry about it". then i began experiencing EXTREME heart rates, coupled with chest pains and severe postural orthostatic hypotension. this is when i finally realized "wait a minute, maybe marijuana can kill you if you abuse it hard enough and for long enough" and so i finally stopped. but to this day i have a lasting postural orthostatic hypotension, so i believe marijuana has permanently affected my cardiovascular system. i also can't play sports the way i used to anymore. for example, when i play tennis, if i try to push my body really hard, i begin to feel faint and my heart beats erratically again like as if i had smoked some pot.
 
merrygoround said:
Ok, it may not kill you, you just won't beable to speak to people clearly(due to severe shortness of breath) or beable to sit in a crowded room of people, because your 50 mile/hour pulse rate is going so fast your just feeling one prolonged PANIC ATTACK. Hmmm, i think i'd rather die, wouldn't you?

No id rather live. I had the same thing happen to me all the time for a long time and it had nothing to do with weed. I had really bad anxiety and panic attacks that where ruining my life. At one point i would almost puke going into a crowded place like a shopping mall because my panic attacks got so severe. Id also hyperventilate and feel like i was going to pass out so all in all it was no fun whatsoever.

I eventually sought treatment and got put on clonazepam. Now i have no anxiety problems.
 
burn out said:
but to this day i have a lasting postural orthostatic hypotension, so i believe marijuana has permanently affected my cardiovascular system.

Or maybe you had the condition and it has increased as you aged.
 
PsyGhost said:
Or maybe you had the condition and it has increased as you aged.

i am in my early 20s, i have hardly "aged". marijuana is a known cause of postural orthostatic hypotension. it's not very hard to put two and two together. it's quite possible i had a predisposition toward it but there's no doubt that in my mind that it would have remained dormant for quite some time (if not my entire life) had i not triggered it with a drug.
 
Last edited:
This is a great example of scientific rhetoric. ....good find, lol. I like how in particular the conclusion is that they are "just as bad as". Such a statement is so logically invalid i don't even know where to begin picking it apart.

reeee-fuckin-diclous.

In my own experience....I found quiting weed to be WAAAAY worse than cigarettes, but only b/c i never became addicted to Cigs like I did with weed. Plus I quit cigs when i still smoked TONs of weed so i could still satisfy the oral thing...and get baked and not give a shit. When i quit weed I couldnt eat because my appetite was completely displaced by my weed habit. If you dont believe this can happen then you have some studying to do. blah...ah well nuff said
 
Well as with all things YMMV but a good friend of mine quit smoking weed cold turkey after 3 years of daily usage, and said he had absolutely no physical/psychological symptoms of withdrawal at all. In his words it was just like "turning off a pot switch"

%)
 
Crazeee said:
Well as with all things YMMV but a good friend of mine quit smoking weed cold turkey after 3 years of daily usage, and said he had absolutely no physical/psychological symptoms of withdrawal at all. In his words it was just like "turning off a pot switch"

%)

how much was he smoking per day just out of curiosity? cause there is a HUGE difference between smoking .5 grams a day and smoking an 8th a day.
 
Whatever! While I have never smoked a cigarrette before in my life,I've seen plenty of people try to quit and fail. I smoked pot for years and when I was put on probation,I quit and haven't had the urge to pick up another joint in over a year now.
 
whatever indeed! See it's more addictive for some than others and affects some more than others when they withdraw from it and yes you have to be smoking a shitload per day for it to be significant

From my experience and a close mate of mine we both smoked almost suicidal amounts of it for years and upon quitting would become very mentally unstable I mean VERY as in we were head cases for about 3 weeks after quitting cold turkey. My parents threw me out cause I was phsychotic and becoming a danger when I quit cold turkey, while when say my mate quit and I was still stable he would crap on about hallucinations and all sort of crazy stuff then if he started smoking again he would stabilise. Now Im not sure exactly what that means but it is enough to indicate to me some mental withdrawal symptoms are very possible in SOME people with VERY heavy use.

Sure maybe means we each have mental issues that were aggrivated by the pot use but there were undeniable links to marijuana consumption, inpaticular upon withdrawing from THC mental destabilisation to a significant degree. Different for different people of course other mates didn't have the same reaction but it was definately there for myself and this particular mate. So it IS possible from my experience.

I recall now thru the haze of it all a psychiatrist saying don't whatever you do quit cold turkey, well being the Einstein I was I did just that and went temporarily insane for my effort. So he must have known about possible side effects from quitting from my dosage of THC
 
Top