Continued from our previous post ‘Interview With a Long-Time User Part 1’, here is the conclusion to the interview from a potential MMJ user to a three-decade-plus user …

• The next question is — Do a lot of people get obsessed about something like running or learning to play the piano?

Everybody is different. I would say it’s far more likely that people would get obsessive about running or playing piano or something like that once they start doing marijuana. You will find that it is conducive to doing a variety of different things. Everybody’s body reacts a little bit differently.

It makes some people calmer and more relaxed. It gives me energy. In fact, when I used to be extremely active before some of my accidents, I would get stoned and go running for miles.

You may be thinking of people who use it completely for recreation, like Beavis and Butt-head or Cheech and Chong – super hardcore recreational stoners. If they stop smoking, usually kind of like a cloud is lifted off of their heads.

• Will quitting marijuana affect your creativity?

It affects mine in a negative way. Marijuana actually enhances my creativity. If I stop using it, it’s much harder for me to write and to read. I was a project manager for a long time, dealing with all those details, even looking at code, evaluating what developers were doing. Looking at computer code is so much easier when you’re stoned!

I would say that would probably be true for most people. Again, we’re not looking at it as a drug. We’re not even looking at it like the Cheech and Chong crowd — those guys were just hardcore stoners!

Remember from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Jeff Spicoli and his gang falling out of the van? And there’s just all this marijuana smoke coming out! Those people are going to have some different effects than the people that are using it for specific purposes.

• Is it harder to quit if you’re older?

I wouldn’t say it’s any harder or easier at any age. It just depends on the reason you are quitting.

• Are there medications you should plan to have on hand?

Nope. If you just go cold turkey with marijuana or even quit gradually, there’s nothing that you need to have on hand.

I will say that when I’ve given myself a cannabis break, I usually do just drink a lot of orange juice because it contains antioxidants. It helps with whatever minor smoke damage I may have done to my throat.

There is combustion but they’re not the same carcinogens. I’m not sure what that word is that cigarettes have — so whatever burns in a cigarette that really does the damage to your lungs is not in marijuana. but you are still inhaling smoke, so there’s that sort of damage that can happen.

• Is marijuana a gateway drug?

Nope, it is not a gateway drug. This is a misconception from back when marijuana was truly demonized. There was a really horrific stigma around marijuana. This is an idea that really died out back in the 90s.  Because marijuana is a weed and it’s so easy to grow, all of the authorities realized they needed to paint this picture of it being a gateway drug.

Also, the ‘War on Drugs‘ … but that’s a whole other discussion.  What a CF that was.  Well, still is …

We’re seeing the real changes resulting from this idea finally dying out — the expunging of criminal records, and making marijuana not just decriminalized but legalized.

If anything, it is an anti-gateway drug. I think a lot of the states are realizing that legalization is the right thing.  I think it’s just a matter of education.

• How do you handle seeing friends who still use marijuana?

When I take my cannabis breaks, of course, I’m kind of irritable, but people usually won’t have any problems. You’d probably just laugh and say, “It’s something that I used to do.”

It’s not like an alcoholic going to a party and seeing people drinking and being triggered.  I have done this many times with cannabis breaks and it’s been totally fine. Once I’ve reset my endocannabinoid system, I’m glad that I can boost calm thoughts and kind of calm my ‘monkey mind’ down.

• Is journaling a helpful practice when quitting marijuana?

Honestly, journaling is a really good practice in general.  In terms of journaling to help you through your journey of detoxification, or overcoming an addiction — it’s not like that. If somebody’s going to quit cold turkey and wants to “fill the void” — pick up journaling, or go back to the previous question about getting obsessed with a new activity. That activity is going to be great for you, no matter if you smoke or don’t smoke.

Do you have questions about medical marijuana and/or general marijuana usage?  Drop us a line!  We just might feature your question in an upcoming blog post!