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Giving up the weed
Smoking cannabis is a heavily ritualistic habit. There's the rolling of the joint and passing it around a group of people. That's partly what makes it different from tobacco. When you light up a cigarette, you don't normally pass it to six people.
The social drug
And it's also what makes it so difficult to give up for some people. Cannabis is very much associated with hanging out with a social group. And many people feel that if they give up dope, they'll have to give up their friends too. In the under-18 age group, it's the number one drug that people present with, according to Addaction.
There's a lot of evidence from doctors, psychiatrists and just anecdotally, that if you smoke a lot, you spend a lot of time lying around. Or, there comes a point for some people when they realise it's the most important thing in their life and that's when they know they've got a problem.
What works?
Having a strategy for giving up the weed will very much depend on why someone got into it in the first place. 'There are a lot of depressed kids out there who just want to 'drift' away from all of their problems. If they want to give up, it's not a case of addressing a physical addiction but of addressing their personal problems too.' says Harry Shapiro, editor of DrugLink.
Gary Sutton, head of drugs service at drugs advice organisation, Release, agrees that giving up cannabis is often a decision about choosing another lifestyle. 'People come to us because they want to get a job on the buses or trains and need to give it up to avoid detection.'
Withdrawal
There's no heavy 'cold turkey' phase like that associated with harder drugs and alcohol and usually the effects are flushed out of the system in 10 days. It's worth remembering, though, that chemical traces of cannabis will persist in the body for up to two months, even though the effects have long since passed.
Disturbed sleep may perhaps be the hardest withdrawal symptom as it may have been the reason users turned to cannabis in the first place. People may feel nervous too, as the sedative affects of cannabis are withdrawn.
Techniques
- There are techniques to adopt for being in the company of others without smoking.
- Counselling may help individuals resist peer pressure and make decisions about their life.
- Or it may be helpful to avoid certain groups for a while.
- Going to the cinema or other public places where it's not feasible to smoke may help.
