What Makes Marijuana So Addictive? 5 Contributing Factors

Both cause a great deal of cost to society in terms of crime, lost productivity, tragedies and deaths. Both have significant health risks, and both have significant negative social impacts on learning, occupational performance and relationships. Behavioral symptoms of an alcohol abuser and cannabis abuser are very much the same. These studies opened up further exploration to what was once termed “amotivational syndrome” with cannabis users.

A pathway to abuse

Today, cannabis products sold in dispensaries have the average sample reporting 22% THC concentration. These fluctuations in THC levels can be risky, as they can https://ecosoberhouse.com/ result in greater effects than intended when ingested and create a false sense of tolerance for those who regularly use a predetermined amount. Cannabis use disorder involves continued use of the substance even though the person experiences negative health or life effects from it. NAC is being investigated as an anticraving agent in cannabis addiction therapy due to its regulatory role in glutamate and dopamine signaling (Samuni et al. 2013). NAC helps regulate the intra- and extracellular levels of glutamate through the cysteine-glutamate antiporter. Increased extracellular glutamate levels activate inhibitory metabotropic glutamate receptors, reducing glutamate neurotransmission (Samuni et al. 2013).

Treating Marijuana Addiction

For instance, marijuana confiscated by law enforcement today contains an average of 15% THC compared to less than 4% in marijuana confiscated in the 1990s. Researchers are investigating if higher potency is the reason for an increase in emergency department visits by people testing positive for marijuana. The NIDA reports that the higher potency of marijuana available today—specifically in regard to why is weed so addicting its THC levels—may be a factor in the rising number of people who develop a problem.

Cannabis Users Ask: Is Weed Addictive?

Methadone was superior based on retention or longer duration of treatment, fewer treatment dropouts, or discontinuation against medical advice. Alcohol use disorder (AUD) imposes a significant burden on society. In the United States, most afflicted individuals do not receive treatment, and closing this treatment gap is an ongoing challenge.

• Awareness of familial history with substance use is also helpful, as it can highlight a personal susceptibility to addiction.
• Cognitive dysfunction, specifically impairments in executive domains, after chronic cannabis use is a key feature of the neurobiological model of addiction (Koob and Volkow 2016).
• The negative effects of marijuana are not limited to recreational marijuana.
• It’s true that it doesn’t carry the same physical withdrawal symptoms as, say, heroin or alcohol.
• As we wrap up our journey through the complex landscape of weed addiction, let’s take a moment to reflect on what we’ve learned.

Some are even dependent on the drug, using it daily and going through withdrawal if they try to quit, but they still remain functional. They’re not driving under the influence of the drug or using the drug at work. They don’t get caught with marijuana and never enter the legal system. Instead of marijuana’s sedating effects, a person might get insomnia. And instead of marijuana’s characteristic dream suppression, someone in marijuana withdrawal might have intense, vivid dreams when asleep.

• In the United States, about 3 in 10 people who use marijuana have cannabis use disorder, the medical term for marijuana addiction, according to the US Centers for Disease and Prevention.
• Brief ketamine exposure causes long-term suppression of futility-induced passivity, reversing the “giving-up” response.
• Current research supports that cannabis is both physically addictive and psychologically addictive.

By Buddy TBuddy T is a writer and founding member of the Online Al-Anon Outreach Committee with decades of experience writing about alcoholism. Because he is a member of a support group that stresses the importance of anonymity at the public level, he does not use his photograph or his real name on this website. People are drawn to marijuana because of the effects of THC, or delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, which is the main psychoactive component in the cannabis plant. Marijuana addiction can be challenging both for the person experiencing the addiction and for those around them.

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Estimates suggest less than 8% of adults needing treatment receive any treatment (behavioral or medical) within one year. “Current medications largely target hallucinations, but they don’t address symptoms that make it difficult to manage social relationships, work, or school,” says neuroscience PhD student Belen Blasco, from McGill. “Not every cannabis user will develop psychosis, but for some, the risks are high. Our research helps clarify why,” says neuropharmacologist Romina Mizrahi, from McGill University. We know there’s a link between cannabis use and psychosis, though the odds vary widely from study to study. But it’s still unclear exactly how the drug triggers psychosis, which can progress to schizophrenia. Current psychosis medications, researchers say, succeed in targeting hallucinations, but fail at curing these difficult-to-treat symptoms.

• The method of ingestion (smoking versus eating, for example) largely determines the effects of marijuana.
• At the heart of this green monster lies THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the primary psychoactive compound in cannabis.
• As far as addiction is concerned, research over the last decade has shown that the drug can be addictive to people who use it long enough.

The system activates naturally to distinguish input that might contribute to our flourishing—for instance, a good source of food, a potential mate, or other meaningful connections, information, or stimuli. Natural cannabinoids and their receptors are all over the brain because such input might be carried Alcoholics Anonymous in any number of pathways, depending on the exact nature of the stimulus. Of course, we didn’t evolve the machinery to produce these complicated receptor proteins or spend the energy to put them all over the brain just in case someone offers us a hit. The wide and dense distribution of cannabinoid receptors has profound implications.

Behavioral Therapies

• Unfortunately, some prescription medications can be addictive, and medical marijuana can also lead to cannabis use disorder.
• If you’re struggling with cannabis use, don’t be afraid to reach out for help.
• It’s more like the minor leagues of addiction – still serious, still capable of causing harm, but perhaps with a better chance of recovery.
• There is hope our patients can improve with their goals when it comes to cannabis, and we can do a lot when we’re trying to align with them on those goals.

Some researchers believe that because today’s marijuana is much more potent, it makes it more likely that some people will develop physiological dependence. Two of the most common signs of cannabis use disorder are physical dependence and withdrawal. Cannabis use disorder, or marijuana use disorder, results from chronic cannabis use. It is defined in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) as a result of either dependence or abuse of marijuana. You’re more likely to get CUD if you misuse other drugs, like alcohol. Your chances also go up if you use marijuana a lot and by yourself.

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After I got sober, it took me a little over a year to go a single day without wishing for a drink, but it was more than nine years before my craving to get high abated. For the longest time, I couldn’t go to indoor concerts, especially if I was in proximity to pot. During this nearly decade-long purgatory, I broke up with a pretty good guy (great cook, decent skier) only because he occasionally wanted to get high. Though it was not even around me, I was unable to bear the idea that he’d be somewhere laughing his ass off, while I’d be totally straight, missing the joke. Among study participants who did not use cannabis, there was no notable difference in brain activity when the cannabis related pictures were shown. They were more apt to derive pleasure from pictures of other things, like fruit for example.