An interesting study on marijuana withdrawal at McLean Hospital in Boston shows some interesting results. Harvard trained psychiatrist Harrison Pope, who was one of the researchers involved in this study, says its results show “there is a clear (marijuana) withdrawal syndrome”. The study involved taking marijuana smokers who had smoked about 5,000 times in their lives and have them stop smoking (they were monitored via urine samples) and then observe the results. The withdrawal from not partaking in daily marijuana use primarily involved subjects becoming irritable, sleepless, and having little appetite. This lasted about 7 days and then subsided, the study said. Pope note that they did not “see craving even remotely to the degree you would with heroin or alcohol or cocaine,” but that some people in the study, having not been able to smoke marijuana, were “quite miserable.”

According to studies funded by NIH (National Institute of Health), long term marijuana usage can lead to marijuana addiction, which they rightly define as seeking marijuana compulsively in spite of understanding and experiencing its negative and harmful effects related to the users family, career, schooling, or recreational life. NIH also reports what seems to be the consensus in regards to the possibility of marijuana withdrawal, which is that it is a real problem for long term users when quitting pot, resulting in the user being irritable, experiencing insomnia, anxiety, a psychological craving for marijuana, and also losing their appetite. These marijuana withdrawal symptoms start about a day after stopping smoking, are worst on days two and three, and go away within a week or even two weeks after quitting.

A study on marijuana addiction by the Department of Psychiatry at John Hopkins found similar results in regards to people who have quit smoking marijuana. Researchers stated that the withdrawal experience of that from quitting marijuana is similar to that of cigarette withdrawal, an interesting parallel that many can relate to with cigarette addiction being entirely widespread in most countries of the world.

What are we to make of such researcher? I think a good logical case can be made that habitual usage of marijuana makes the body dependant on its continued usage, and cessation of marijuana usage results in withdrawal symptoms commonly associated with drug addiction and detoxification, with negative effects on the users mood, sleeping habits, appetite, while simultaneously experiencing a strong drug craving during this withdrawl period.

Does that mean marijuana is addictive? What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!

Marijuana usage is so entirely common, and many find it to be non habit forming and have the attitude that it is not harmful, especially compared to other drugs. While this latter aspect may be true in the sense that it’s less harmful than other drugs, withdrawal from marijuana when you’ve become addicted to smoking weed is a very real experience.

I think to prove this point it’s a bit more interesting to quote from others who have openly written online about their experiences trying to quit smoking and what the forthcoming marijuana withdrawal experience was like.

Here’s a snippet from a person in Vancouver Canada, who is in his early 30’s, who wrote to say that he was able to quit cold turkey using discipline and the force of his will, but “I was not expecting to get my ass kicked by the withdrawal pains of not getting high. I was going through flu like symptoms, shaking and getting cold as hell suddenly, then hot, and back and forth! According to my wife, I was also a real pain to be around for 2 or 3 days, just whining and being quick to snap at her or the kids. When I started smoking weed at 15 I never thought 15 or so years later I would ever experience what I felt in those 3 days from marijuana withdrawals. Until this, I didn’t even think marijuana withdrawal existed.

These symptoms mentioned here are fairly common it seems. Another person writes that after smoking every day for more than 2 decades that he “went through terrible marijuana withdrawal that lasted for about a weed. My life was just headaches, mood swings, and generally a mess for that first week without any marijuana. I never truly realized how addicted to cannabis I was until I quit. It was like some kind of crazy post marijuana psychosis in those first 48 hours.”

Like many other drugs, marijuana can be for good (think medical marijuana) or bad (think weed addiction), and the truth is that it takes common sense and a good drug policy approach to find a solid middle ground between the two. Being that drug users who’ve tried to quit – and drug counselors who have seen it all – truly understand that going through cannibus withdrawal is a reality for people who have become addicted to marijuana, what makes sense as far as society’s response to such a drug and its – some say – forthcoming legalization for medical and possibly recreational use in the United States?