Cannabis as addictive as heroin, major new study finds

[Teh One Who Knocks]

The Telegraph Staff


http://i.imgur.com/PuGN23B.jpg

Cannabis can be as addictive as heroin or alcohol, causes mental health problems and can lead to hard drug use, according to a major new study led by a leading British expert on addiction.

The research, conducted over 20 years by Professor Wayne Hall, an adviser to the World Health Organisation, links use of cannabis to a wide range of harmful side-effects, from mental illness to lower academic attainment to impaired driving ability.

Smoking the class-'B' drug while pregnant is linked with reduced birth weights, while long-term use can cause cancer, bronchitis and heart attacks, according to the paper.

Prof Hall, a leading expert in addiction at King's College, London, also found that:

:: One in six teenagers who regularly smoke cannabis become dependent on it, as are one in ten regular adult users;

:: Cannabis doubles the risk of psychosis and schizophrenia, with withdrawal symptoms including anxiety, insomnia, loss of appetite and depression;

:: Driving after smoking cannabis doubles the risk of a car crash, with the risk heightened yet further if you have had a drink;

:: As many teenagers now smoke cannabis as cigarettes.

The Daily Mail quoted Prof Hall as saying: "If cannabis is not addictive, then neither is heroin or alcohol.

"It is often harder to get people who are dependent on cannabis through withdrawal than for heroin. We just don't know how to do it."

Less than half of users stay off the drug for six months or more following treatment, Prof Hall found.

Despite the fact that no cannabis user had died from an overdose, long-term use could be seriously damaging to mental health.

"The important point I am trying to make," Prof Hall writes, "is that people can get into difficulties with cannabis use, particularly if they get into daily use over a long period.

"There is no doubt that heavy users experience a withdrawal syndrome as with alcohol and heroin.

"Rates of recovery from cannabis dependence among those seeking treatment are similar to those for alcohol."

Drugs campaigners said the study showed that heavy cannabis use by teenagers amounted to them playing "Russian roulette" with their mental health.

Mark Winstanley, of the Rethink Mental Illness charity, also called for the Government to focus on educating young people about the dangers, rather than classifying and then reclassifying the drug, as the last Government did.

Mr Winstanley told the Mail: "Too often cannabis is wrongly seen as a safe drug, but as this review shows, there is a clear link with psychosis and schizophrenia, especially for teenagers.

"The common view that smoking cannabis is nothing to get worked up about needs to be challenged more effectively. Instead of classifying and reclassifying, Government time and money would be much better spent on educating young people about how smoking cannabis is essentially playing a very real game of Russian Roulette with your mental health."

Tony Blair's government relaxed the law on cannabis, reclassifying it from class 'B' to 'C' in 2004. This was reversed after Gordon Brown entered Downing Street in 2007.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

That's just false

[Loser]

This will just encourage kids to try heroine.

Weed is NOT addictive.

[Muddy]

Hot picture, false story.

[Hal-9000]

of course it's addictive, don't be silly.....it changes your physiology to give you an effect (otherwise why do it) and then when you remove it, your body misses it...

like everything else, if you do something every day for years....changes start happening. Booze, weed, cigarettes, wanking....

[Hal-9000]

That's just false

How long you been smoking Willis?....be honest from the first year

[Hal-9000]

This will just encourage kids to try heroine.

Weed is NOT addictive.

How long you been smokin Arnold? :-s

[PorkChopSandwiches]

of course it's addictive, don't be silly.....it changes your physiology to give you an effect (otherwise why do it) and then when you remove it, your body misses it...

like everything else, if you do something every day for years....changes start happening. Booze, weed, cigarettes, wanking....
Its not physically addictive, I would even say its not addictive at all. I enjoy, I do it, but I can live without it

How long you been smoking Willis?....be honest from the first year

almost 25 years, but I dont get "sick" when I have to travel for a week or two and dont have it, like you would with heroin.

[Hal-9000]

then you're just not smoking enough....get on it! :x

[Noilly Pratt]

Maybe the people they studied had personalities that get easily get addicted to stuff ...wouldn't matter if it was pot, booze, Dr. Who...whatever, they'd go apeshit over it.

[Hal-9000]

anything that causes a physiological change in your body, means it's changing the body chemistry.....that feeling of euphoria, red eyes, munchies...it's all because your body is being altered.

keep doing it daily and you'll have withdrawal symptoms...kinda like when an alcoholic stops drinking and gets the DT's....it's because his body is used to operating a certain way and has adapted to the effect

withdrawal can be a lot of things from sleeplessness to not being able to focus to being just plain cranky :lol:

I could make a list of what happens to me when I stop smoking weed for a week...but I'm special and tend to smoke metric fucktons nightly :thumbsup:

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Nobody gets dope sick or DT's from weed, give me a break.


Withdrawal symptoms from opiate abuse (such as heroin/morphine) include anxiety, sweating, vomiting, and diarrhea. Alcohol abuse withdrawal symptoms include irritability, fatigue, shaking, sweating, and nausea.

These things just dont happen, possibly irritability. But to compare weed to heroin is asinine

[Pony]

I used to smoke a lot. Daily.

One day I just quit and had ZERO ill effects.

[Goofy]

I used to smoke a lot. Daily.

One day I just quit and had ZERO ill effects.

Ditto. I still have the odd smoke now and again tbh but i certainly wouldn't agree with it being addictive on a par with cigs/booze/heroin etc. I reckon i smoked it on a daily basis for more than 5 years........ then just didn't buy any more when i got back from a holiday one year :)

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Pretty sure that denial is one of the stages of addiction :-k

[Goofy]

Pretty sure that denial is one of the stages of addiction :-k

No it isn't :x

[Hal-9000]

Nobody gets dope sick or DT's from weed, give me a break.



These things just dont happen, possibly irritability. But to compare weed to heroin is asinine

I didn't say that...give me a break....it was an analogy from putting substances in your system and then removing them...



cranky? :lol:

[FBD]

Pretty sure that denial is one of the stages of addiction :-k

and for some reason we have a gaggle of fuckers addicted to telling us weed is addictive and on par with hard shit. I think they're the ones in denial.

[Loser]

Anybody that has seen true addiction, knows what addiction is.

Weed is NOT addictive. I grew up around heroine addicts.

[Hal-9000]

How long you been puffing Loser?


and yes, it is addictive....and no, the withdrawal is not on par with heroine but withdrawal is there


if you've never been through it, you haven't smoked daily for decades....

[FBD]

*displays universal symbol for vag*

[Muddy]

I've smoked it and I wouldn't say it's addictive.. This is coming from an ex cigarette smoker. No shakes, no tremors, no selling pussy down on the boulevard for one more hit..

[Hal-9000]

I've been to NA meetings and have a fair amount of personal experience...it's an addiction like any other. Some people can smoke cigarettes for 10 years, throw them away and never look back...some people can't. Weed is similar.


It's a lot of body chemistry but weed has cannabinoids that interact/change your normal body functions. Particularity your brain and other organs. It's easier to get off than heroin, but the fact remains that when your body adapts to a substance over the space of years, real physical changes are happening. When you remove the daily substance, those same neurotransmitters in your brain and things like functionality in the liver try to recover too. It's science, not a personal feeling on the subject...

For all those who think weed is doing nothing to your body...then why do you smoke it? You can eat a full Thanksgiving dinner, then smoke two fatties and all of sudden be hungry again? Why do you think that happens?

Like any other drug, when you first start doing it your body has no problem evacuating the harmful change. Resetting back to zero so to speak. With increased usage over time, the physical changes become more permanent.


If you don't think a substance that changes your physical sense of the world has no long term effect...that's great. Keep on truckin....go to one NA Meeting and listen to a lifetime smoker try to get off weed. The crack and heroin addicts will be laughing at times over the weed person's 'trials', but they all understand the commonality....

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Your high Hal, so you can take your opinion and blow it out your ass

Nobody is saying it isnt doing anything to your body, of course it is....its the whole point. That doesn't mean you suffer withdrawal afterwards.

[Hal-9000]

:lol:


I believe science and what addicts say PCS.....why do you go for the personal attacks and insults on this subject?



There's physical withdrawal from eating sugar and removing it from your diet you GIANT FUCKIN MORON:lol:

[Hal-9000]

guy who drinks 6 beers a night for 10 years and stops....physical withdrawal

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I was just fucking with you because your wrong ;)

The story says weed as addictive as heroin, nothing you can say will make me agree, thats just a blatant lie

[Hal-9000]

yeah man I'm sorry for calling you a moron....the story is not accurate with that comparison... but I'm only telling you the other part because I care :oops:


glaucoma in the most simple terms is a problem with the pressure behind the eyes.....they prescribe weed to alleviate the discomfort and pain

interestingly, they've discovered that in some long term patients that use weed daily, that when they remove the weed, the glaucoma symptoms return with a vengeance....medical science will never say that weed cures glaucoma, because that's not true....but it does halt the physical progression of the disease.

a form of withdrawal? Perhaps not but it says a fair amount about how cannabis can affect your body and starts to make long term changes, thus physical withdrawal when it's removed...





we'll have this chat again in ten years when you're feening for a hoot and offering bj's on Hollywood Blvd :lol:

[Muddy]

You really are wrong, Hal.. Nicotine, Heroin, and THC are completely different in their terms of being addictive.

[Muddy]

AND you spend too much time in that gay thread of yours...

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Hal you are delusional, are you the doctor who penned this drivel :dance:

[Muddy]

I know real Heroin addicts... There's a big BIG difference.

[FBD]

Hal I think the thing is, physical and psychological withdrawals are two entirely different things. Anything one does habitually, even if its picking your nose, will have that psychological habituation to it.

Inertia, habit-energy. Much of spiritual cultivation relies on establishing the habit energies of cultivation and then keep on working with it and it amasses like back in the day when a bank would actually give you interest for storing your money with them.

So damn near anything can be psychologically addictive. You may feel used to that little dopamine bump at a certain time of day, and if it is not there, you may psychologically miss it because you have an established habit energy in that direction.

To the extent that weed is physically "addictive" it is so far buried in other related bodily processes that it shares the chemical train with that it is statistically impossible to assert that it is physically addictive - it is really only psychologically addictive, and people's ability to deal with issues of a psychological nature come into play, which is why some people WILL freak out and get pissy if they dont have their doobie.

This fucking doctor is an absolute idiot and is saying a 500lb bomb is the same thing as a nuclear warhead, since they both explode.

[Hal-9000]

You really are wrong, Hal.. Nicotine, Heroin, and THC are completely different in their terms of being addictive.

Didn't say that they were the same. They are all addictive.

[Muddy]

Didn't say that they were the same. They are all addictive.

Maybe psychologically...

[Hal-9000]

Hal I think the thing is, physical and psychological withdrawals are two entirely different things. Anything one does habitually, even if its picking your nose, will have that psychological habituation to it.

Inertia, habit-energy. Much of spiritual cultivation relies on establishing the habit energies of cultivation and then keep on working with it and it amasses like back in the day when a bank would actually give you interest for storing your money with them.

So damn near anything can be psychologically addictive. You may feel used to that little dopamine bump at a certain time of day, and if it is not there, you may psychologically miss it because you have an established habit energy in that direction.

To the extent that weed is physically "addictive" it is so far buried in other related bodily processes that it shares the chemical train with that it is statistically impossible to assert that it is physically addictive - it is really only psychologically addictive, and people's ability to deal with issues of a psychological nature come into play, which is why some people WILL freak out and get pissy if they dont have their doobie.

This fucking doctor is an absolute idiot and is saying a 500lb bomb is the same thing as a nuclear warhead, since they both explode.

Weed changes your body's physiology...said nothing about the mental process of withdrawal or the psychology of addiction ie a cig smoker is used to doing something with their hands 25 times a day = psychological portion of the addiction.

.....weed gives your body a physical effect, because why? Oh that's right it's changing processes within.

Do that over time and physical parts of the body change. Neurotransmitters in the brain etc etc etc.....ask a doctor sometime if the idea is too far fetched to understand.

Remove that catalyst (weed), withdrawal ensues from operating on the drug for a long period of time. No the drying out symptoms are not like heroin, but they do exist.

Anyone who smokes weed on along term basis and says it doesn't cause a physiological change is a complete idiot and liar.

[Hal-9000]

Maybe psychologically...

go ask a doctor Muddy...you have little experience with the subject and are trolling

[FBD]

Weed changes your body's physiology...said nothing about the mental process of withdrawal or the psychology of addiction ie a cig smoker is used to doing something with their hands 25 times a day = psychological portion of the addiction.

.....weed gives your body a physical effect, because why? Oh that's right it's changing processes within.

Do that over time and physical parts of the body change. Neurotransmitters in the brain etc etc etc.....ask a doctor sometime if the idea is too far fetched to understand.

Remove that catalyst (weed), withdrawal ensues from operating on the drug for a long period of time. No the drying out symptoms are not like heroin, but they do exist.

Anyone who smokes weed on along term basis and says it doesn't cause a physiological change is a complete idiot and liar.

:lol: That's what we're saying, the change is almost entirely physiological and a small extent physical - because the chemical train that weed uses is a common chemical train for a million other things the body does. That right there is why it is "physically impossible" to be (physically) addicted to weed. All your body can do is say "well this flow is a little different" and then its on to the aforementioned physiological game.

UNLIKE, cigs, alcohol, heroin, cocaine, etc...