Marijuana addiction and overall cannabis abuse is hot topic in our country addiction. People are abusing the drug in their spare time illegally to get high, while others are using medicinal marijuana for their mental or physical illnesses. Not every state awill completely agree with the use and distribution of medicinal marijuana as well, so not everyone is in the same boat for their available resources for marijuana addiction treatment. Before taking action, it’s important to understand what possible signs of marijuana addiction are before anything dangerous happens.

Marijuana is not as physically dangerous as other drugs like heroin, cocaine, alcohol, stimulants, or opioids, but marijuana addiction can still progress to a fully-fledged disorder that disrupts a person’s regular life. They may suffer from withdrawal effects, financial loss, and broken relationships as a result of an intense marijuana addiction if they don’t get help and treat their problem responsibility. For the country overall, marijuana still interferes with people’s daily life and can lead to the same economic problems caused by other types of addiction in every community. While the public opinion of medicinal marijuana has eased up over the past few years from scientific studies done on its benefits, we need to fully understand its risks and what ways it should be used responsibly.

Marijuana addiction is a huge problem in our country.

Signs of Cannabis Abuse

Some signs of drug addiction can be more difficult to detect than others, especially if a person is a high functioning marijuana addict.A high functioning addict is someone who is highly skilled in covering up their secret and will appear like a normal and functioning human being to the outside world. They could be fooling their spouse, their friends, and even their close family if they are careful enough to cover up their tracks. Unfortunately, this facade only lasts so long as a marijuana addiction can snowball into a much deeper problem.Many people who have a marijuana addiction may either think they do not have a problem or won’t know how to handle the addiction with affordable treatment. Some of the most common red flags of someone having marijuana addiction include:

• They are heavily in denial. No matter what people say or question about their habits, they tell them and themselves that there is no issue. They believe that their marijuana addiction is the new normal or is totally okay because other people who are successful have a similar habit. Just because the rich or famous practice cannabis abuse doesn’t mean it’s right, healthy, or fashionable to do the same. In most cases, people who don’t treat their cannabis abuse problem will end up in a crisis from losing hours of time, thousands of dollars, important relationships, and even potential careers that could’ve led them to freedom. Don’t let the short term excuses and justifications shadow the bigger problem at hand if you have a marijuana addiction.
• They have odd behavior. Someone might be even experiencing family members who turn a blind eye to their behavior which further enables their beliefs that everything is okay. Someone with a marijuana addiction will likely experience either weight loss or weight gain, find themselves lying more than often, experience scenes of sudden panic, emotional dependency on the high, and even anger towards people who can sense something is off. Someone may not be able to even last an hour throughout day without thinking about their next hit of marijuana and how to support their out of control cannabis abuse. Their friends may be bad influencers or judge them in general, so they have more of a reason to not tell someone about their problem. People who pressure us or make us feel inadequate are the last people we want to come clean to about a marijuana addiction. If someone starts to come home from work later than before or tend to hide their financial activities something is most definitely off.
• They look off. Someone who has full-fledged marijuana addiction will start to look more tired, agitated, and just weak in general. They could show up with more dark circles than usual, look a little more underweight or overweight, and seem like their mind is just not present at all. If someone with a marijuana addiction is clever enough, they may play off their difference in appearance as a joke or a response to their friend not believing in them. As someone who lived with a roommate during college who had an intense marijuana addiction, look out for these expressions of dark humor, frequent disappearing, and odd sleeping habits. Humor always has some grain of truth to it you know the person well enough.
• Someone with a marijuana addiction will suffer from lower productivity. The easiest way to spot someone doing so in college is to see how many classes they are missing, how many times they blow off your plans, or how many hours they oddly sleep in on a weekday. They aren’t present anymore and so is their mind. For a working adult, they routinely show up to work late or take longer than usual lunch breaks once everyone returns back to the desk. They may avoid office parties or after work outings that they once took part in before their marijuana addiction. They’re likely rushing to the car or somewhere secret to get their next hit after going through hours of painful sobriety. Most of all, they could show up with the lingering scent of marijuana and may have bloodshot or tired looking eyes. Watch out for all of these signs of “MIA” behavior to get a sense of a possible habit of cannabis abuse.
• They start to have different friends. Someone who smokes a lot of marijuana for recreational purposes will seek out people who encourage their behavior. We’re the average of the five people we spend the most time with, so look out for differences in their social circle and locations they seek out. If they’re often at the club or a new guy’s house, there may be something fishy going on. If they are also routinely creating an alibi or are even making up fictional friends, they absolutely need an intervention as soon as possible. Don’t wait until it’s too late to bear the consequences of marijuana addiction

Combating Marijuana Addiction

Although some people have no problem checking themselves into treatment, not everyone will be as brave. Our social influencers and work environment can play a huge role in our ability to recognize we are brewing a dangerous marijuana addiction. When someone is frequently taking drugs on and off of work or in the middle of their school classes, their internal drive to get their responsibilities down will be nonexistent as well.  If you or someone see often is starting to perform much worse than usual, help them talk about their daily routine and try your best to go to treatment. Even talking to a school counselor or getting a consultation at nearby rehab clinic can make a world of a difference.