Can You Experience Marijuana Withdrawal?
Is it possible to withdrawal from marijuana? Not really….at least not in a physical sense. Not in the way that people withdrawal from alcohol or opiate based drugs or tranquilizers.
These other drugs, including alcohol, produce much more severe physical withdrawal symptoms when people stop taking them. For example, if you are heavily addicted to painkillers or heroin, and you stop taking them suddenly, the body will go through a very noticeable detox process in which most people will have flu like symptoms. This will include a variety of symptoms, such as an upset stomach, sweats and chills, anxiety, body aches and pain, and so on. For some people, these symptoms will actually be more intense than a serious case of the flu, and can last for around 5 days or so.
The same thing can happen with alcohol withdrawal. Someone who is seriously addicted to alcohol that suddenly stops drinking could go through a very serious and very dangerous physical withdrawal. In severe cases, a person might have a seizure or even die….just from not taking a drink. Continuing to drink alcohol would have prevented the seizure, would have prevented their death. That is how serious and how severe alcohol withdrawal can be.
photo credit: dblackadder
So this withdrawal from opiate painkillers and from alcohol produce physical withdrawal symptoms. Any drug that you withdrawal from can produce psychological withdrawal, but some drugs also carry with it a strong physical withdrawal.
Marijuana is not like that. You do not get a strong physical withdrawal when stopping marijuana. Now in some extreme cases, you may have someone who is so addicted to smoking marijuana every day, that they do have some slight physical withdrawal symptoms when they stop using the drug, but these are extremely mild and very rare. For instance, they might be fatigued when they first quit smoking for a day or two. This is harmless and nowhere near the physical aspect of withdrawal from other substances, not to mention the fact that even this symptom will be very rare.
So essentially, there is no threat of withdrawal when quitting marijuana. Anyone can stop, cold turkey, at any time, without any threat of serious consequence to their health. The only real withdrawal from marijuana is psychological in nature. The marijuana addict will miss out on the aspect of being able to self medicate with their drug. They will have to face reality and deal with normal, everyday life without the use of their crutch. Thus they may feel that they are deprived. But physical withdrawal? Not so much….
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{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
ive smoked for 2 years. last 6 months have been super heavy, each night:
1 blunt with one friend
1 joint for myself
3~4 bowl hits from the bong
this would be within 2~3 hours as my tolerance was gone up.
marijuana cultivation has gotten very accurate every season and their potency is extreme.
2 months ago ive quit marijuana cold turkey. i experienced the usual withdrawal symptoms (before i read that there WERE actually any symptoms):
-anxiety
-panic attacks
-sweats (while feeling anxious)
-hypochondria
-depression
after i quit, my muscles started to ache (fibromyalgia symptoms). and then my bones started to ache. I’m still going through detox. 3 doctors have told me this is detox.
marijuana is just marijuana..but u have to remember the potency of it has gone up high. this means the temperature at which it is burned and the chemical it creates with the lighter fluid is also part of getting in your system.
bone marrows and vessels all over your body takes months to years to fully detox all the chemicals. the chemicals aren’t only limited to TCH… but many other intoxicating chemicals that result from combustion (lighter fluid) are also existant.
everyone has a different response. there have been individuals who smoked for 20+ years and didn’t budge. mostly it’s all in the head and lifestyle.
2 years of smoking marijuana isn’t alot compared to some troopers out there. but 6~8months of smomking everynight and quitting has caused me alot of problems..
but again, this might not happen to everyone. everyone’s psychology/chemistry/physiology is different.
I’ve been smoking for almost 10 years now. The last 3 years I’ve smoked everyday( give or take a few). The last 8 months since working nights, I smoke every two hours without missing. Unless Im in bed. I’d wake up out of sleep and have to smoke to even think about returning to sleep. I stopped yesterday and feel flipping terrible. I’m grumpy, muscles Hurt really bad, dizzy/headache, and it’s hard to eat because I’m having horrible stomach pains(why?) id love to know. I can’t sit still. I feel lost, off/ not right. Is it ok to take ibuprofen for the stomach and headaches?
lol bs the artical and most of the comments, if you stop smokeing herbage and you have odd symptoms go to a doctor , its not from not smokeing its something else. Im a lifetime stoner and almost all my friends are the same and none of us have withdrawals lol when we decide we have to stop smoken for a couple of months. Like I said trust me its not withdrawal you most likely have an underlying illness that you dint notice because you were smokeing. Its like the bs there tryen for legalizing it as a pain managment option, it dosent block the pain like opiates, instead you just cant tell if its real or not lol. btw when you light a lighter… the flame is what is consuming the fluid lol, unless you just held your lighter to the pipe with the button held down while no flame was there is the only way idiots would inhale lighter fluid lol cmon guys who paid you to write that crap.
I don’t know who started this website, but they don’t have a clue to what they are talking about! Weed does have withdrawal symptoms and they are a lot like alcohol withdrawal. For one thing, the dope smoked today is about ten to twenty times stronger than the good ol’ days, 70′s, 80′s and even the early 90′s. Today we got some potent crap. Unkewl is a fucking idiot and must smoke some really weak ass shit he grows in his basement in which he still lives with his mother.
I have no problem with chronic being legalized, as a matter of fact it should be. It definitely has its place in the medical field. Besides, if you can drive to a bar and have a drink, you should be able to do the same with weed.
Also, if it were legal, the big war on weed between the Feds and the drug cartels would end as well as the violence. Because if you wanted some, just grow your own or buy it from a store. Then there wouldn’t be so much bloodshed. Of course the government would have to tax the hell out of it, but any way.
Oh, and how do I know there are withdrawal symptoms? Because I’m up at 3:30 am after changing my shirt two times from extreme sweating. Oh and the fact that I’ve practically killed everyone in sight that says or does something I don’t like in the past few days! Hmmm, wonder what caused that? Wait, I know! It’s because I just stopped smoking chronic cold turkey a few days ago and I am suffering from??? Yep, you guessed it! Cannabis withdrawal.
It’s simple. If its mind altering, there will be withdrawal. Some strong, some not so bad. But it does have withdrawal symptoms!
So all you non-believers, stick that in your fucking BONG and smoke it bitch!!!
Really no one has been able to prove whether it is or not, you can tell us all your stories and make pot look bad, but you can never really prove it. Personally I think it’s all mental, that pot isn’t addictive cause I have never ever NEEDED it. So to all the people spreading your bullshit (on both sides not just the anti-weed people) STOP cause no one can prove it. Just let people live and do what they like. If someone thinks they can’t stop and they want to seek help then thats their choice, vice versa if someone hasn’t done it and wants to then thats their choice. So everyone, step off and legalize pot and other drugs cause no matter how many people you lock up it will never stop. Remember Movies and Music may make poor, uneducated, ghetto-living, bad ass, abused, born that way people look like the only criminals, drug smugglers, murders, and gangsters. Truth is anybody can steal, kill, smuggle, and become one greedy sonofabitch. So even rich boy, Harvard attending, straight A, goody goody, four eyed Steve Urkel wannabe can be the same guy selling weapons to the bloods and drugs to the crack fiends. Also not all druggies are bad people. Peace everyone.
To NOITALL- agreed. The person who wrote this article obviously never tried to kick smoking pot. I’m one week into it and like you I sweat like crazy at nigh plus I have the most vivid and crazy (some good, some bad) dreams. I do have cravings but my desire to stop is stronger. My reasons for quitting were simply because I’ve had enough. All the years I’ve spent working out and trying to stay fit while high were counter-productive.
To all you people going through withdrawal hang in there from what I’ve been told the worst is over after 2 weeks and symptoms are gone in about a month. Sure they are not as severe as withdrawal from other drugs or alcohol but they are real and should NOT be downplayed.
Ive been smoking over a gram a day every day for the last 5 years. I’ve decided to go cold turkey for health reasons and am not feeling the best. Yes I agree it is very psychological but it is physical aswell. Im actually having more trouble quitting the dope than I did quitting ice because marijuana had become such a huge part of my life. I’d smoke in the middle of the night if I’d woken up, a mix before I took the kids to school at least another 2 mixes throughout the day and up to 3 or 4 mixes of an evening. So to all u who think that the withdrawals are in ur head u might be right but at the end of the day it is our mind that controls our body. If u feel u need help then get it. Marijuana is a drug and should b treated as such.
The symptoms of marijuana withdrawal are weak for those who smoke weak weed.
weed withdrawals are real. but you cant have a seizure or anything. its mostly mental. xanax is ten times harder to kick.
There is major symptoms so anybody says there is not. They didn’t have the best chronic or they did not smoke enough.
I do agree, who ever made this site is an idiot. They do not no nothing about these symptoms. It sucks Im going through them right now and it sucks. Sweating and the chills are killing me bad. It’s my 3rd day now and wondering will it ever stop. I’m up all night and have a little appetite. It sucks bad….I need to do this though. So to all that think there is no withdrawals you know nothing. Good luck to anybody trying to stop.
I too am experiencing withdrawal, I smoked for several years and stopped cold turkey around 22 yrs old when I had children I do not remember feeling withdrawal, but over the last 2 years I have been smoking daily, I stopped a few days ago and have been suffering from insomnia and loss of appetite, my bones also ache, I don’t feel like I HAVE to smoke, so I agree there is not the dependency feeling like with other drugs, but I am definitely suffering withdrawal symptoms and if you stop and don’t have any, your probably smoking weak shit
Withdrawal isn’t a verb. I stopped reading after the first sentence. Yeesh. Get a clue.
K so i got the flu like a week ago before this i smoked at least 3 grams of marijuana a day for a year and on many occasions i smoked more than 3 gs a day more like a Q a day. when i got this flu i decided a few days without dope would be good for me but i have had only one hoot in that week and i cant sleep , I feel like crap and have no appetite for the first half of everyday then it slowly goes away im not quitting dope I just want to say that the withdrawal symptoms are real as i have no fever and am not sick any more so the only thing that can be making me feel this bad is the lack of weed. From your pal Coolin the chronic
Also me and my boys are the biggest chronic’s in my town we love marijuana and we can fight anyone here on the facts about weed so take it from me you can get addicted to marijuana as me and my boys are. i will tell you that we are addicted to the point where we don’t smoke doobies any more because they don’t get us high we are known in my town as the bong boys and smoking the bong like we do is the way to get addicted so don’t talk shit unless you can come to Cornwall Ontario and beat us in a bong hoot competition. The 613s CKC SWED!
Wow….I’m going thru withdrawl now…night sweats…can’t sleep….not eattin….headaches…wow…but I wanna stop its really not a good look anymore..its fuckin with my head I have trouble remm shit and its not worth it…..I said I would stop after the nyew year but id rather jus stop now and get it done and over with..
I smoked everyday for 2 years and only quit close to a week ago. I haven’t experienced any withdrawal symptoms (yet), but I must say I miss the stoned feeling and crave for it. I will hit it every now and then socially just for fun after maybe six months…still deciding.
I had a seizure! Ended up passing out getting a concussion. Withdrawl from MJ is no joke. This is the second time it has happened.
Mikey. Anxiety from quitting weed makes me think you have other issues. like not telling the truth.