I’m talking about any thing that can be produced from cannabis of any strain, not laced and not something that’s glycol-based or a dry-plant vaporizer; and consumed via inhalation of it’s smoke or digestion (ex: edibles). Not discussing the legality of it or any other unnecessary nuances, just the benefits and harm of it. Studies are extremely encouraged btw. =p
well it’s a fairly addictive drug and physical and psychological dependency can creep up on you. your life can begin to revolve around the next joint at a certain point and it can make you apathetic to a depressive routine of not going out much or pushing yourself to do anything other than play videogames and smoke. some people will attest that it aids motivation for them but i find the inverse to be more common. in terms of purely physical detrimental effects it’s definitely nbd compared to cigs or alcohol, but knock-on effects from ending up in a sedentary lifestyle and eating poor quality food can be a concern with heavy users, it can also exacerbate depression or anxiety with heavy dependency. you can end up depending on it just to go to the store or do social interaction or even pull yourself out of bed. speaking as a 10+ year stoner who has had better and worse periods with this stuff. ultimately it’s a massive reduction in harm compared to say alcohol dependency but people definitely underrated the damage it could do for a while, up until a few years ago where that started seeing some healthy pushback. it obviously has legitimate medicinal applications too but ime self medication can spiral into recreational dependency quite easily.
Just to clarify - there is no direct chemical addiction mechanism with mj. You can become emotionally or psychologically dependent on it but there’s no physical addiction mechanism involved.
Without litigating terminology it is true that there are not like single receptor effects, or that there is a potentially fatal rebound. However it does mess with homeostasis in ways that can make it difficult to stop. Sudden cessation can cause difficult sleeping, anxiety, nightmares, appetite suppression, restlessness, and low mood. It’s relatively easy to deal with compared to stuff that messes with gaba, opiod receptors, or dopamine but it’s still much harder than changing what you eat or whatever.
Ye, it should always be clarified that while there is no physical / chemical addition, physiological addictions can also be detrimental and hard to break and WILL have negative side affects.
A litmus test I ask, is if someone consumes a lot of something that provides an easy dopamine hit (games, processed sugars, alcohol, etc) and if so warn them them to track their intake and take regular breaks (currently on one myself).