A new study out from the University of Vermont suggests that teenagers in drug treatment facilities report withdrawal symptoms when quitting near-daily or daily use of marijuana. Let’s take a look, shall we?
BURLINGTON, Vt. — Often considered a relic of the 1970’s culture, marijuana is no longer a baby boom generation issue. Today, nearly 50 percent of U.S. teenagers try marijuana before they graduate high school, and by 12th grade, about 21 percent are regular users.
Wait a minute. You’re telling me that 1 out of 5 high school kids are regular pot smokers? Define “regular”. Daily? Once a month? According to studies from the University of Michigan, in the year 2004, 45.7% of 12th-graders have ever used marijuana, 34.3% within the past year, and 19.9% within the past month. All these figures are in decline from 1999 highs of 49.7%, 37.8%, and 23.1%, respectively. I guess you could call 45% “nearly 50%”, like you could call winning an election by 0.726% a “mandate”.
OK, so we’ve got 20% (I’ll give them the 0.1%) of 12th graders using pot at least once a month. That would be a figure that includes an A student who takes two puffs on a joint at a weekend party along with Slater-from-“Dazed and Confused” daily bong-a-thon contestants. But please, do continue…
Consequently, treatment for marijuana dependence is on the rise…
Whoa, hold on a minute. If “regular use” declined over the past five years from 23.1% to 19.9%, where’s the logic in that statement?
Marijuana drug treatment admissions have risen, fueled primarily from a criminal justice system (like “Drug courts”) that compel addiction treatment. How many of those admissions are voluntary is unknown. If eating Big Macs was a crime and the judge was sentencing people to Weight Watchers, there’d be a similar spike in diet center admissions, too.
…but, researchers have discovered, there’s a catch — withdrawal symptoms, much like those experienced by people quitting cigarettes, cocaine or other drugs, may make abstinence more difficult to achieve.
Typical drug war conflation of marijuana with harder, physically-addictive drugs. Withdrawal like cocaine? Please. When marijuana users are breaking their bank accounts, robbing people, and (to paraphrase Chris Rock) sucking dick for some weed, then it will have attained cocaine-level withdrawal status.
Nearly two-thirds of the participants reported experiencing four or more symptoms of marijuana withdrawal, including anxiety, aggression, and irritability. More than one-third of participants reported four or more symptoms that occurred at a moderate or greater severity level.
Hmm, perhaps could some of these kids be anxious, angry, or irritable from being locked up in a treatment facility?
Look, I’ve never advocated marijuana use for those under 18. That said, if a teenager of mine were smoking weed instead of cigarettes or binge drinking, I’d worry a lot less about his health. Of course, I’d be terrified about him getting arrested, but that’s not the marijuana’s fault, now, is it?
“Overall, our research indicates that the majority of people who abruptly stop daily or near daily marijuana use experience some withdrawal symptoms.”
And I don’t doubt that, at least in terms of psychological dependence, not physical. No one, not even a daily smoker, is going through the delirium tremens (the shakes), vomiting, hallucinations, or fever like a heroin, meth, alcohol, tobacco, or cocaine junkie who quits cold turkey.
Marijuana does affect your perception of reality. If you are avoiding your problems by smoking weed on a daily basis, then being forced to quit and cope with reality is definitely going to make you anxious, aggressive, and/or irritable. But to scare readers with arrest-inflated statistics and comparisons to hard drugs confuses the issue of people who voluntarily wish to get clean and furthers a prohibitionist agenda.
