Advice please on quitting marijuana...

[hawaii808]

hi everyone... ive been an every day (more like every hour) smoker for the past 2 years and need to quit in about 2 weeks. just wanted to get opinions on what would be the best way to minimize withdrawal symptoms for me. (ive tried to quit before and it was really pretty bad...very uncomfortable, bad insomnia, no appetite, nausea) i have a small amount of weed left, should i just smoke it all asap and would it be better for me to just go cold turkey or to gradualy cut back leading up to the date when i need to stop (2weeks). how bad are days 1-4 vs. days 12-15.. i would like to feel the best i can in 2 weeks when i dont have to option of smoking so should i just get rid of the weed as quick as i can or use it to gradually taper? thanks in advance for any opinions

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[Forthesevenlakes]

Tapering is usually the best way to quit any drug with the least withdrawals. HOWEVER, this can often be difficult to do since the natural tendency is to want to get high. If SWIYou has a trusted friend they can have hold the weed and dispense to SWIY, that would be the best. Slowly work down the dosage over a couple weeks. Smoking every day isnt even necessary since marijuana has a half life of 48-72 hours if SWIM remembers correctly. So work down the dose, try not to smoke enough to get high, just enough to stave off withdrawals, and that will help too. Think of some alternative activities to get involved in to take your mind off getting high and hang out with non-smoking friends as much as possible. SWIM does not really smoke marijuana so maybe someone else can help more. Good luck!

[CrookedEye]

Well, maybe SWIM is a bit unsensitive, but he has smoked everyday (multiple times a day, meaning morning, afternoon, and night) for 13 years, up until about 5 days ago... It's not really hard to quit, and almost any withdrawal SWIY would feel is psychological.. Swim lives with people who smoke 4+ grams a day easy by themselves, and constantly are tying to give it to SWIM, but he hasn't had any trouble abstaining..

Maybe one should try to get a little will power.. Swim has kicked methadone, heroin, other opioids, cigarettes, sweets, soda, and cocaine (although, he wasn't really ever addicted to the coke, just more of a binge user with it).. Trust SWIM, some of those were REALLY tough, but cannabis just wasn't one of em.. He did have to quit for 18 months once, and after about 3-7 days, any anxiousness, restlessness, or irritability begins to fade..

This also may not be the most healthy choice, but SWIM has found having a couple drinks/beers seems to take the edge off, and if SWIY is quitting for a drug test, alcohol leaves the system pretty quickly..

SWIM has always found with tapering, he has to have a lot more willpower to moderate his usage than to just quit altogether.. Everyone is different, so what works for one may not work as well for SWIY, though.. Hope some of this helps...

[hawaii808]

yes it does help, thanks for the reply. swim realizes that marijuana is not the hardest drug to quit. swim was perscribed oxycontin for a year because of a back injury. the physical withdrawals from that we're much much worse than what happens when swim stops smoking marijuana. however, when swim quit opiates swim was able to do so in the comfort of swims home and just took a couple days off from life and was feeling much better in a matter of days (swim also had marijuana to help the whole time). this is different b/c in 2 weeks swim has to go on a trip and doesnt like the not being hungry, feeling nauseous when swim does try to eat, and just feeling anxiety all day when having to interact with people that occurs when swim doesnt smoke for a day or so. swim knows that different people are affected differently by mj withdrawal, and for some it is a non issue. this is just not the case for swim.

pretty much swim was trying to figure out if withdrawal symptoms would be minimized on around days 12-15 by just stopping asap so that there is the most amount of sober days before the trip... or if days 12-15 would feel better by attempting to taper up to the day of departure. (even though swim agrees with swiy that having the will power to taper (not smoking when it's there) seems harder than just stopping all together )

thanks for the responses

[izzy31]

Tapering off and remember to tell yourself "It's actually not chemically addictive, it's all in my head!" (even if its not just in your head). THat helps me effectively somehow...

[Pinkavvy]

With marijuana it IS all in your head as there are no physical withdrawls as there is with opiates. The hardest part of quiting marijuana is getting past your "routine" and find something else to do to fill your time you would normally blaze. Try a brisk walk when swiy would normally blaze up or make some tea.

Save swiys last bit of herb and use it for a 'good night' puff to help with insomnia over the next 2 weeks. (trying to do only every other day the last week of it.)

Reputation Comments on this post:

Nice to see some common sense in this thread.

[Akewstick]

Maybe use Diphenhydramine to help sleep and maybe nausea aswell?

[tonymontana]

just stop. swim was the same way and swim just stopped one day. swim went back after a month, and, swim is currently drinking alot because he cant smoke, but, swim has quit for a month without becoming a lush in the process. masturbate furiously. the sex drive goes through the roof afterwards. oh and get a hobby, like cooking, or playing bingo with seniors or something.

[Nature Boy]

A good way to quit marijuana is to save money that would be spent on it otherwise. Throw those dollars in a jar and watch your money grow because marijuana is expensive and people tend to spend a lot more on it than they would expect. Go buy something nice with the saved earnings (how materialistic does that sound?). One could also get into the habit of saving marijuana use as a treat. There's nothing more satisfying than completing a productive week and enjoying some marijuana at the weekend or whatever. Whatever you do, don't fall into the habit of being less productive due to quitting marijuana use. This is a pitfall that people can fall into especially if their marijuana use was frequent and heavy.

Withdrawal symptoms aren't even a problem. It's entirely psychological. Once a routine sleeping pattern is formed after the first three or four days, there is no withdrawal to speak of.

[snapper]

Make sure that if SWIY gives someone the rest of SWIYs weed to not harrass that person too much. When SWIM had to quit once, SWIM gave the rest of SWIMs stash to someone, and drove her so nuts SWIH eventually threw the rest back at SWIM and refused to police it any more.
Quitting weed is a lot like quitting smoking cigarettes, and the best way to quit cigarettes is cold turkey. Tapering weed for SWIM always ends up becoming a mind f*** ! It really is not that hard to stop, and most of the pain is in the apprehension.
Good luck

[Bajeda]

heh, well the threadstarter didn't come back it would seem. Ah well.

Anyways....


A few months ago swim wouldn't know what to say to this thread. He has been a daily cannabis smoker for about four years, plus another couple of years progressively more regular smoking before that. He smoked hash for most of that time (and by hash he means good shit straight from either Lebanon or Central Asia) and switched to weed for the past few years.

Swim wouldn't have a problem quiting for a bit over the summers when he was somewhere he couldn't find anything, or maybe for a few other reasons, but he never really stopped smoking. It was always something that would just force him to stop for a little bit and then he'd be back at it.


This year has been a bit different for swim though. He was at his general university level pace that he's been going up and down on, ranging from smoking anywhere from 1 - 2 - 6 times a day, though the first few weeks he had little tolerance and was just constantly incredibly ridiculously high, which wasn't too good for getting in a good routine of going to classes. Then around about a month plus a week or two ago swim got some coke for the weekend. By some, he means multiple people he knew had "some" so he kept buying "some" and next thing he knew it was Monday and he was doing lines before his test, then after the test he felt pretty good about himself, so ya know... why not do more?! Hours later, time to buy some more, etc. Think he stopped doing it by the beginning of the next weekend or so, though he had been slowing down by then. It wasn't too healthy a time for him. The funny thing was, when swim was doing all this yay he didn't think about smoking at all, and maybe hit a few js that people were passing around. Swim didn't even really realize till a few days after the binge, but he hadn't smoked in a number of days, which was quite amazing as he hadn't missed smoking weed at least 1-2 times in a 24 hour period in the year so far.

Swim bought some weed with a friend the next week, maybe an eighth, and it ended up lasting a week and a half about. He split an eighth the next time he bought some, and then, having done coke a few more times really (including one binge night I think I posted about for him in the How Much Do You Use thread) hasn't bought pot in.... who knows. He can't remember. For the past few weeks swim has been down to smoking a few times, and by that he doesn't mean like few times of old which = several fat spliffs, but rather just a puff here and there. He can even say no to a joint when its passed to him, which is pretty ridiculous for him when you consider that before the past few weeks he can't remember a single time he turned down a smoke passed to him (though there might have been a few in the past where he was really high and said no till his friends slapped him out of it).

Basically swim is doing good right now. He would still smoke if he felt like it, but if its in front of him and he doesn't want to smoke he can say no without any twinge of guilt, and he hasn't attempted to really buy any since the last time he split an eight he thinks. He may need to throw some friends some money since some of them smoke him down occaisionally, but its not too much of a big deal as he isn't spending a big chunk on green each week.




So thats swim's interesting story of the day. Next term he has a tougher schedule, so its doubtful he will go back to smoking heavy again. Its not just that either, its that he doesn't have an urge to smoke at all anymore unless he really feels it would be enjoyable. After smoking so long just because its there and thats what he does, he finds that its much better value to chill on the smoking and just relax every once in a while with not too much pot. Swim hasn't even been liking too intense highs lately, a few puffs and he's in a good place.






Now, the only problem with this whole little story is... well there are a few problems.

1. Swim's change in attitude towards smoking came after a coke binge. I don't think he would recommend that to anyone, even if it could help them. You may just end up trading addictions or getting nasty acute effects.

2. Swim has been smoking for a decent amount of time now. Probably not much compared to some people on the board, but its been a decent chunk of his life, and its just not the same smoking all the time as it used to be back when he was younger and new to drugs and a good bowl of hash between a few mates would have them tripping balls practically.

3. Swim just can't get what he used to. Weed is pretty nice, he guesses, but he just loves hash way more. Thats what start getting bud to not be as fun, just when the novelty of rolling with it and learning the differences from hash and such went away. Swim can get decent chronic here, and some good name strains come through, but at this point swim stopped tried for the highs he used to want and wouldn't mind just chillng with a little pinchy of blueberry or a small j of schwag.



The yay probably did help with the sleeping problems though, as swim was most likely just attributing the difficulty of sleeping to the coke, not the lack of weed. Swim finds it insanely hard to get to sleep normally (hes been up 34-35 hours straight at this point, which probably explains how difficult its been for him to write this), and every time he tried to stop smoking it was always the sleeping problem that would get him.

Melatonin would probably help. Swim doesn't use sleep aids much as he likes just letting himself stay up (otherwise he will just lay in bed for a few hours trying to pass out), but melatonin does him pretty well when he needs to get to bed early to rest. He tried Kava a few times, but it either didn't do enough, or he did too much and slept in really late (gelcaps didn't do much, paste did too much).



If you are feeling apprehensive or uncomfortable about the level of smoking you are at swim would suggest just finding a busy week of some sort, or just a week where you can keep yourself occupied easily, and just focus on not smoking the whole week. You can get yourself through by promising to smoke right after if you need, plus a bit o' sleep meds maybe. Then smoke a lesser amount than you would. It gets you pretty high without spending as much money, and its less hard on your throat, is more relaxing, etc. Resist the urge to smoke the next day, and the next, until you really feel you should indulge, then do the same thing.


Now swim has to go, he is a bit "out of it" to say the least, and has pretty much figured hes going to need to have Bajeda come and edit the hell out of this post at some point so it makes a bit more sense.