Is Marijuana More Addictive Than Alcohol?

a reply to: Mianeye

My advice is not to do as you can be addicted from various causes and being addicted is actually not fun at all.

we are addicted to a variety of chemicals that many of us know nothing about. how much of wha we put in our bodies is necessary and how much is indulgence?

a reply to: CardiffGiant

Well said mate. End the war on drugs. Nothing good has come from it and people should be able to make their own decisions about what they want to put in their bodies. That includes ALL illegal narcotics.

PS: Buckethead is awesome!

The only thing that's addictive about weed, is that there is no addiction.

It more or less just the habit it self, where the only downside is that it would cause irritability for a little bit, but it easily goes away after a while. Also, it almost impossible to even overdose on weed, since you need to smoke your own body weight.

Which is a lot of weed, and money to spare, plus, you'd pass out after a few grams.

In my life I've met, known, lived with, been related to, and/or cared about
several alcoholics--working alcoholics, alcoholics that are going to quit,
friends in prison for DWI.

I have also met, known, lived with, been related to, and/or cared about
many many pot smokers, including myself. But I have never met a marijuana
addict...not one...I've heard about them on the news, but I have yet to
see even one...

Heck NO its not, Unless people are getting siezures, the shakes, and a lot of other potentially deadly detox symptoms from not smoking there daily marijuana. People will say anything to demonize this magical plant with healing properties, If it goes against the war on drugs, and takes money away from the government or Private prisons then its bad for business. Ridiculous I for one am All for the legalization and distribution for people that need this amazing Herb

originally posted by: Specimen
The only thing that's addictive about weed, is that there is no addiction.

It more or less just the habit it self, where the only downside is that it would cause irritability for a little bit, but it easily goes away after a while. Also, it almost impossible to even overdose on weed, since you need to smoke your own body weight.

Which is a lot of weed, and money to spare, plus, you'd pass out after a few grams.

Don't jump the gun too quickly. Marijuana is DEFINITELY addictive and even has withdrawal symptoms for long term users. But it certainly isn't as addictive as alcohol (or just about any other drug recreational or medical). Heck the only drugs that I can think of that would potentially be LESS addictive than marijuana are ALSO illegal (hallucinogens).

One of my coworkers was an alchoholic actually there was two but one of them and me were printing some banners together one morning. This guy was about ten years younger than me and I sat there watching him as he lined up the banners to print. Have no idea how he did it really his hands were shaking so badly! I'm sorry but I've watched many of my mother's friends die from their liver disease with drink still in hand as well as watched some as they tried to cope with a low blood alchohol level. And we just won't talk about the one who needed his booze badly enough that he pushed his pregnant wife down the stairs took her hard earned money out of her hand and left for the bar as she miscarried on the floor!
Nor will we talk about the many addicts our driving their cars on pain killers they are addicted to.

Let's see we have a choice we can let you use this plant here that could be grown in you own backyard is much safer and far less addicting or we can prescribe these pills that come with a long list of side effects that you will become addicted to and take more and more of till you either kill yourself or figure out that they aren't doing you any good and go for the more potent stuff like oh I don't know heroin! Well my kid is going to yale so I need the money here take the pills!

a reply to: Krazysh0t

Nope, not at all.
Alcohol triggers pleasure and reward in the brain, the more you drink the more you want.
Your body can also become dependent on alcohol, weed it cannot.

Also, alcohol withdraws are the ONLY withdraws people can die from, heavy alcoholics literally NEED it to survive.
Have you ever wondered why the 'hair of the dog' is actually the best hangover cure? It's because it gets your body back to it's stable state that it had known for the last 12 hours or so. THAT'S how addictive it is.

Smoking weed is a casual or social thing, people smoke it with friends, they smoke it to relax, but if you smoked a pound of weed a day, your body wouldn't NEED it if you just quit cold turkey.

Personally Marijuana has been more addictive than alcohol..... in my life anyway.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

Alcohol is clearly more dangerous than ganja if we start look up all the potential harms from each subjects, crimes committed under neither substances, its really no fair to keep ganja banned and its obviously banned because wrong reasons.
I fail to see good enough reason to keep ganja banned and i wonder why so many countries have banned it with same BS laws against the plant and users, to me its yet another way of corruption inside our system. What if alcohol, tobacco etc companies could patent the plant and create their own ganja mixed chemical toxic legal products, how fast they would be in the stores and laws would change like magic. Pleah corrupted world..

originally posted by: dawnstar
Let's see we have a choice we can let you use this plant here that could be grown in you own backyard is much safer and far less addicting or we can prescribe these pills that come with a long list of side effects that you will become addicted to and take more and more of till you either kill yourself or figure out that they aren't doing you any good and go for the more potent stuff like oh I don't know heroin! Well my kid is going to yale so I need the money here take the pills!

Don't forget that once the side-effects become bad enough, you'll have to take ADDITIONAL medication to treat the side-effects (which come with their own list of side-effects that "luckily" the pharmaceutical industry has more medicine for).

a reply to: Mianeye

My opinion is that it's addicting as much as the person want it to be, and the same goes for alcohol, if you can lay of or just enjoy once in a while, obviously you are not addicted, and the other way around is of course you are addicted, but it's a personal preference to do or not to do.

That statement implies that people set out to become addicts and this is clearly not the case. I think a key point that seems to be missed in both the article linked in the OP and your own statements is a lack of distinction between psychological and physiological dependency. Even long-term, heavy users of marijuana do not experience serious physical withdrawal.

Alcohol causes a physiological dependency with extreme withdrawal symptoms that in the worse case scenario are potentially fatal. Death from DTs (delirium tremens) is estimated in the 1%-5% range.

a reply to: Krazysh0t
I have to ask if you are speaking from personal experience or
relating knowledge from a study? Because from MUCH personal
experience around MJ I have never ever seen even one example
of a MJ addiction. I've seen cravings and people go out of their
way sometimes because they wanted to smoke, but never
any behavior more dangerous than an urge or craving one might
suddenly have for ice cream or pickles.

And I've NEVER seen any physical signs of addiction like those
that manifest with alcohol, coc aine, or addictive prescription
medications.

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: CardiffGiant

Well said mate. End the war on drugs. Nothing good has come from it and people should be able to make their own decisions about what they want to put in their bodies. That includes ALL illegal narcotics.

PS: Buckethead is awesome!

yup. this should really be the only option.

it is so clear that it being illegal was about cash its not funny. its also very clear that legalization AND regulation AND taxation will save the US(as an example cause i live there) billions of dollars a year. it will free up millions of man hours of law enforcement and perhaps most importantly, it will stop making criminals out of otherwise totally innocent people.
seems pretty friggin easy to me.

* spend billions of dollars every year. break up families and create criminals by putting them in jail. prevent people from using it medicinally. and on and on and on to actually get nowhere and see zero results

*legalize, regulate, and tax and watch results pour in.

tax money alone should be enough of a reason to get the ball rolling on this.
medical use alone should be enough of a reason
and on and on

a reply to: skyblueworld

Seems to be a bit of blurring over what is a clinical addiction and what is a preference there.
You are not addicted to either (in the clinical sense) however you prefer one over the other.

Best way to avoid disinfo is to stop reading as soon as anyone uses the Marijuana moniker- MJ is a kind of wild tobacco - nothing to do with Cannabis.

a reply to: rival

You should read the comments on that article from the readers. There are MANY people who got upset with others for trying to say that withdrawal symptoms aren't real.

I have to ask if you are speaking from personal experience or
relating knowledge from a study? Because from MUCH personal
experience around MJ I have never ever seen even one example
of a MJ addiction.

First, I NEVER talk about personal usage on ATS. If you want to know, U2U me. Second, a study is ALWAYS more reliable than personal experience. Personal experience is just anecdotal evidence and can vary from person to person. A study tries to utilize the scientific method to get an idea of an actual base line for these activities. Are you trying to say that you would trust personal experience over a scientific study?

a reply to: CardiffGiant

It's funny. Since the War on Drugs began, never has drug use been so prevalent than ever. Almost like the WoD is having the OPPOSITE effect as its intentions. Yet they try to tell us that they are "winning" the war on drugs. Whatever that means.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

True, but I doubt it as bad as the withdrawal symptoms for an alcoholic. I had an uncle who had suffered a seizure because he hadn't drank anything for 48 hours. Scary thing was is that he was about to take a bath when it happened, so he could of drowned.

So far, the only withdrawals symptoms are insomnia, having vivid dreams, the brain balancing itself and anger.
www.marijuana-anonymous.org...

However, anger comes with any type of withdrawal, if anything cigarettes are a good example of irritability.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

I would image that "winning" is that right ppl/companies are making sh1tloads of money because of it and rest of the benefits comes with it.

a reply to: Specimen

Of course not. That was the point of my article. I just didn't want to create or push the misconception that marijuana wasn't addicting and didn't have withdrawal symptoms. Disinformation is disinformation and wrong, even if it helps your cause. Not to mention, it doesn't even need to be used since the truth is just SOOO illuminating about this plant that it easily conquers any negative press you through at it.