Stopping any behavior that we’ve become accustomed to is very hard. Behaviors that are repeated daily become reinforced daily. When it comes to substances we put in the body – be it cigarettes, alcohol, weed, or even something like McDonalds food some think (like Morgan Spurlock) – the body can respond by craving said substances when it is denied them. The term addiction is highly controversial, and a definition everyone can agree on doesn’t really exist. Nevertheless, people who want to argue should go somewhere else – if you are here reading this article, I assume you are here because you’re interested in quitting marijuana and learning how to stop smoking weed.

These tips are not professional medical advice from a drug counselor. Rather, these are real life tips I want to share with you from my research into marijuana usage, addictive behavior, and from all the “marijuana addiction stories” I’ve learned over the years in the course of my work. Read this with an open mind and take it for what it’s worth.

1. Understand Why You Want to Stop Smoking Pot

It’s vital that you’re desire to stop smoking marijuana is intrinsically tied to a gut-level reason for wanting or even needing for quitting marijuana. I suggest taking out a paper or opening up a Word document on a computer and start adding your thoughts on why you want to stop smoking weed.

As an example, you might want to stop smoking marijuana because you’re about to have a son or daughter. Or you might want to stop smoking because you’ve swear you do not want to miss another job opportunity because of the drug test. Or maybe your reason for quiting is that someone you love died of lung cancer from smoking all their lives, and you’ve seen the toll this had on their family, and you never want to risk putting your family through the same thing.

These are all examples I’ve made up. I hope they don’t offend anyone. The point is – you need a reason to quit that hits you in the gut. You need a reason to quit that makes maybe upsets you or makes you tear up. Quiting a drug or an addictive behavior is tough, and having a “reason to believe” will increase your chances of not giving up when life gets rough and you want to solve the problem by getting high.

2. Commit to Quiting But Understand Mistakes Happen

Perfection is not realistic. I’m not saying that the second point here is to give yourself an excuse for using again. But what I’m saying is that it happens to the best of us, and before you throw in the towel forever, realize that THAT is just another excuse – the truth is, if you make a mistake, dust yourself off and move on.

Really what this point is about is accepting that you are human and that making a mistake once just means that you made a mistake – but it doesn’t mean you’ve given up on your commitment to quit smoking weed.

3. Get Support From Family and Friends

This is a tough one for many. Sometimes it’s friends and family who are threatened by your actions when it comes to trying to stop smoking pot. For them, you are a reminder that maybe they should look at their actions. Nevertheless, it’s very important to establish support where you can get it. If this is from family, great. If this is from your current friends, awesome.

However, if your family and friends won’t support you, then seek out new people in your life who will. This could mean going to drug abuse groups like Marijuana Anonymous or Alcoholics Anonymous. Or it could just mean trying new activities and meeting new people and never making drug use the focus of the social activities.

Some level of social support is practically mandatory here – get it where you can.

4. Consider Exercising, Taking Up a Hobby, Joining a Club, etc.

Often times when trying to end one habit, a trick to help is to replace it with a new habit. For our purposes here, doing something like joining a gym and establishing a daily exercise routine can be incredibly beneficial as part of your overall plan for how to stop smoking weed. But it doesn’t have to be this – it could be a hobby you’re passionate about or some kind of club you participate in.

I hope you’re reading this nodding your head and understanding how this can apply to your own life and your own goals in relation to marijuana. Marijuana addiction is something you don’t have to live with your whole life. You can quit. I hope this article point you in the right direction from how to stop smoking weed.

If you have quit marijuana or are trying to quit smoking marijuana, one thought at the forefront of your mind likely relates to what’s known as marijuana withdrawal. The term “withdrawal” here in this context refers to the body’s response to suddenly not getting a drug its grown accustomed to continually getting; in this case, we’re talking about marijuana (or weed, pot, etc.)
Is marijuana withdrawl real?

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?

Todays guest post comes from an anonymous author whose wants to be known as J. He contacted Marijuana Addiction Help after noting some interesting observations amongst his friends and folks at school and wanted to write a guest post. Here it is, unedited for your reading pleasure. Thanks J. for your input! I think his observations are dead on insofar as how our culture polarizes usage of drugs and especially marijuana. If you’ve got any thoughts for JF, please leave him a comment here on this post and he will see it and try to respond to you.

Something I’ve noticed growing up in todays world is that marijuana, or weed as it’s more commonly called amongst the people around here who use it, is that it’s considered really cool to smoke pot. It’s almost to the point where straight up weed addiction is what some idiots think make them cool. I’ve noticed for instance, that some people at my school seem to wrap their entire identity around how much weed they smoke.

I will admit, I tried getting high once before (actually more than once!), and it was OK – it wasn’t the greatest thing ever, nor was it all that bad. It just was what it was. But it’s nothing to get so crazy over as to wear “Chronic” shirts and write poems in English class about smoking (or god forbid, the ever popular “Why Marijuana Should Be Legalized” essay paper – gag!) and being addicted to the green stuff.

There’s a no so small crew in particular of so called stoners at my high school who I think are purposely trying to get addicted to weed. I swear, it’s like the goal is for them to wake up one day after smoking daily for months, take a weed addiction test they find online, and then happily check off all symptoms for weed addiction one by one on a chart while listening to some Cypress Hill.

This type of identity characterization or drug culture worship is just plain silly. I wish I could start the next sentence with “For one thing, no one cares..”, but the sad truth is, a lot of people do care. This group of kids are not outcastes. They’re what you’d probably call “the cool kids”. They wear nice clothes, have lots of friends, buy their etextbooks on their fancy iphones, and go to lots of parties on the weekends.

On the other hand, there’s even a few “straight edge” kids at my school who have their identity wrapped up in the opposite problem, that of being entirely drug free. (Some won’t even drink caffeine or eat meat. What this has to do with drugs, I do not know!)

Anyway, it’s strange growing up in a culture that seems to only allow for extremes. On one hand, you can be a stoner, on the other, a straight edge kid. What about the rest of us normal people in between? Where does our story fit in?

Editors note: Any other students or young folks out there who like to write about marijuana addiction, weed addiction, or drug use in general and their experiences with it – good, bad, for, against, etc – are welcome to submit an anonymous guest post. Please see About for more information.