@rave_itsrealfun!!! - Are you really trying to tell me that you've never known a single person who's benefited from the use of cannabis? I find that pretty hard to believe - either you were hanging out with the wrong crowd or you may have just never talked it out in-depth with other potheads.
I understand what you're saying, but come on, you're really generalizing about weed smokers - I'm pretty sure you haven't met every chronic pothead in the world...just saying. Empirical evidence isn't always going to be 100% true with other people just by matter of fact. Just think about sexuality for a second - a lot of people have totally different, even contradictory, views about what's pleasurable, what's sexy, etc.
Personally, I have always had great social anxiety, going back to elementary school when I'd sit by myself on the playground and pull apart pieces of grass since I didn't think anyone else wanted me to play with them during recess, which weed reduces tremendously. Taking weed allows me to think 'outside of the box', as it were, and be more creative, almost instantaneously after having taken a few puffs of the green stuff. One of the most tangible benefits of weed use would just have to be its ability to make you want to eat when you don't want to (such as with AIDS patients) and its ability to alleviate nausea or general digestive issues.
(To relate this post to the discussion of the thread in general, I personally think that, yes, strains of cannabis with higher THC content, like kush, are much more appropriate to use in a medical situation - of course, further, just because a cannabis strain can be considered as 'medicinal' doesn't mean that the average person shouldn't be able to obtain it without having to get the approval of a doctor, as, when used alone, it really does seem to me to be about as harmless as drinking a soda, maybe even less harmful in some ways).
Hell, there are literally a TON of other medical benefits that are still being only casually looked into by the medical community mostly due to the outright prohibition of weed in most places around the world.
I understand that withdrawing from smoking, say, 1-2 grams, at least, a day is not the best situation to be in, but, as with any drug, moderation is key. Let's put our logic cards on the table - it is next to physically impossible to actually overdose from weed, or even get anywhere close to that mark, like with almost all truly debilitating drugs, like heroin, coke, meth, speed in crazy high doses, etc. so, I don't know your whole story, but, since I've definitely been in a similar place and mindset before, if you really are just talking about withdrawing from WEED and only weed, then, I mean, just saying, but it's likely largely a psychological, and not a physiological, issue.
That being said, obviously, everyone is idiosyncratic, and you're free to give your point. Just let me say that I've smoked just as much as you have, going through on average a few pounds a year for a few years, and I have had next to no withdrawal symptoms from smoking weed. I have, though, at times had PAWS from stopping usage of amphetamines, which is completely and utterly different. I've even had close friends who smoked upwards of an ounce A DAY and are doing better than me health-wise because they just stuck to weed.
And I'm sorry if any of this sounds like I'm putting you on the spot, I'm just giving an opinion which I have at this particular point and time. It's all good.
