Think Before You Use: Cannabis and Dependency

With the prevalence of cannabis products available on the market, many people use cannabis for concerns such as sleep, anxiety, depression, or a way to relax. However, there are certain long term effects associated with cannabis usage that individuals should be entitled to know about before they use.

Cannabis dependence

It is often stated that cannabis is the “least addictive drug”, but this is not true. Addiction is a syndrome characterized by frequent and uncontrollable engagement with the drug despite harmful consequences. People can develop a dependency to cannabis. Dependency frequencies are as follows:

• Ever used cannabis - 8.9%

• Used cannabis in the past year - 22-30%

• Adolescents who try cannabis - 22%

• Primary care patients in legal use state - 25%

• Uses cannabis daily/near daily - substantially higher risk 

  Withdrawal symptoms are physical adaptations which the body makes in order to cope with exposure to a substance (in this case - cannabis). Studies show that these are the symptoms which appear in cannabis withdrawal:

  • Irritability, anger, aggression

  • Anxiety, nervousness

  • Sleep difficulty (insomnia, disturbing dreams)

  • Decreased appetite or weight loss

  • Restlessness

  • Depressed mood

  • At least one physical symptom causing significant discomfort:

    1. Abdominal pain

    2. Shakiness or tremors

    3. Sweating

    4. A fever

    5. Chills

    6. Headaches

    Note that these symptoms are similar to those found in common illnesses, and go unreported as a result. 

• Reduced judgement

  Cannabis doesn’t just blunt your responses to other rewards, but also can reduce your insight and judgment into your usage. In fact research shows that it directly affects the part of the brain that is responsible for insight and judgement. For example if someone brings to your attention that your functioning seems limited you may ignore or deny it. Many people who use cannabis are unlikely to view their usage as problematic, even when confronted by a knowledgeable healthcare practitioner. 

• Memory dysfunction

  Cannabis can directly limit your ability to make accurate memories as a result of degradation of the hippocampus, where memories are encoded. Cannabis also makes you more susceptible to experiencing false or incorrect memories.

• Mood dysregulation

  Cannabis can actually increase stress when you’re not using it. In a brain that has not been exposed to cannabis, the nerve cells communicate at a regular pace, leading to stress signals that are appropriate to the situation. However, when the brain is withdrawing from cannabis, nerve cell communication is irregular and spotty, which increases stress and negative moods. This can lead to a need for more frequent usage in order to compensate. Cannabis can blunt your responses to other rewards as well. In this way we no longer gain excitement from things that used to bring us joy. This decreases motivation in turn, worsening the symptoms of depression when they are present.

• Effects in adolescents

  Cannabis can lead to accelerated deterioration of the brain in adolescents, alongside decreasing myelination (formation of linings which protect the nerve cells in your brain from such deterioration). The deterioration of the brain occurs in adults as well, but it is accelerated in adolescents. Studies have shown that cannabis use decreased IQ scores in adolescents, worsening their school performances and increasing their susceptibility to the use of other substances, alongside increased risk for other mental health conditions. 

Instead of using cannabis there are numerous healthier activities you can engage in to relieve stress:

• Spend time with friends or family

• Exercise

• Practice mindfulness through exercises such as meditation

• Engage in hobbies

• Avoid excessive screen time (especially before bed)

 If you are having thoughts of harming or killing yourself, you can access the suicide hotline at 988 and/or call 911 or bring yourself to the nearest emergency room. 

If you or a loved one are struggling with cannabis use disorder, make sure to contact a clinician such as an addiction psychiatrist, or groups such as a drug dependency program, or Marijuana Anonymous. Sometimes it seems easier to resort to quick ways to sustain ourselves, but if those ways are detrimental, then we need an alternative. Make sure to find healthy alternatives in your life, and advocate for others to do the same.