Why quit weed?

[Carl-Richard]

Most accurate thing ever said about weed and drugs in general:

 

[meta_male]

On 21.6.2025 at 4:39 PM, Nemra said:

I quit weed a month ago.

I smoked it about 5 times.

5 times? How is this quitting? 

[Nemra]

8 minutes ago, meta_male said:

5 times? How is this quitting? 

Perhaps it was wrong of me to say that I quit after a few tries; however, I wanted to share that it was starting to impair my memory in my normal state, especially when I didn't smoke that much.

[Carl-Richard]

I'll also add that after having observed my friend group that I used to smoke weed with 6-7 years ago from a sober point of view many times (while they were high and sometimes when not), I'm struck by the level of impulsivity in conversation (seemingly not thinking much before you speak, talking over each other), short attention span (jumping from topic to topic, rarely building much on what somebody else has said), and maybe consequentially the lack of depth and coherence in the conversation, and also just the lack of precision and carefulness. I'm avoiding perjoratives, but juvenile and immature obviously comes to mind.

Edited July 25, 2025 by Carl-Richard

[TKP]

That "removing resistance" part is the real draw. It’s a tool for perspective. The only reason to quit is if you lose control or if it starts making you passive, the classic cliché. But you sound like you have a handle on moderation, which is half the battle. 

If you ever decide to make your use fully legit for, say, sleep issues, dealing with the paperwork is the worst. I found that Leafy DOC is actually quite easy for getting the official doctor consultation done. Keeps everything above board, you know?

[Ramasta9]

Don't quit anything, simply drop it. This way you can enjoy it without being addicted or hooked again. Quitting can lead to suppression and major relapse. I see people quit many things in life, but i feel them suffering deep down, cause they haven't truly made peace with it.

Think of it this way. I follow a plant-based lifestyle and stopped consuming and contributing to the harm and suffering of animals and my body a long time ago, and I simply grew out of it as my consciousness and intelligence expand and become far more sensitive to subtle energies and effects.

Now I didn't quit consuming animals, if I ever was in a situation where I felt like i need to fish to survive or was somewhere deep in the mountains and ran into a cabin of mountain dwellers and they offer me a warp soup and some goats cheese from their goats to try, I wouldn't reject it, I would accept the peaceful and welcoming gesture (not to be disrespectful) but I would control the portion I consume, because I know it doesn't serve me well.

I am the same about weed, and psychedelics and all things in life. I actually enjoy growing medicinal plants and cactus and so on, and I rarely consume them nowhere near as much as I used to, because this long term process teaches you something deeper than simply sourcing some street weed or buying drugs on the dark web and blasting off. Sometimes I may enter a phase, but never i can get hooked as before.

Life is fluid, never be rigid, always remain open, never settle, because you never know, the moment you think you got all your shit together and figured it all out, the moment life throws you the biggest wake up call of all. Resist not life, live it fully, grandly, beautifully.

 

[Aaron p]

If you smoke too much of it it can cause schizophrenia... Or symptoms that you might imagine a schizophrenic would experience

[Dodo]

On 06/05/2025 at 8:55 PM, element said:

Or in other words - why should somebody quit cannabis? 

Probably there is no defninite answer to this or is there? Generally I'm getting better at moderarting it - on some days I am able to avoid it. 

But this substance is so cool, it's kind of refreshing for the mind. It can  give awesome insights, it's like showing some hidden site of reality, removing resistance etc.

Also it is strange that I'm searching for some answers to this topic - if it's really harmless them I would probably just use it and not care.

@element  Helps fuel psychosis and other mental illness. Not good for oral health, not good for the health of your insides.

 

[LordFall]

I've tried quitting for long periods of time and smoking occasionally and smoking daily, I don't personally don't notice much of a difference. I smoke daily and don't really notice a difference in productivity from when I do so and when I don't. 

[meta_male]

@LordFall How's your social life? What's the reason you've tried quitting?

[Carl-Richard]

6 minutes ago, meta_male said:

@LordFall How's your social life? What's the reason you've tried quitting?

I bet every stoner has thought about quitting.

[meta_male]

@Carl-Richard Possibly. Many of them say it doesn't affect them much, myself included. But it does.

[Carl-Richard]

5 hours ago, meta_male said:

@Carl-Richard Possibly. Many of them say it doesn't affect them much, myself included. But it does.

If it doesn't change you much, you wouldn't do it.

[meta_male]

@Carl-Richard Being sober changes you much after years of consumption.

[Natasha Tori Maru]

I stopped randomly one day.

Never touched it again.

It was holding me back, I outgrew it.

All that was left was a strange habit/compulsion without any need for its mind altering effects. And a vaguely lingering attachment to the plant.

Without it - my spiritual practice sharpened. My presence and being deepened. My business became easier, work is no stress. Resistance lessoned. Clarity increased. Emotional regulation enhanced - a big one. Weed use generally leads to the inability to regulate and deal with emotions in the sober state. You are familiar with the happy blunting while stoned. So when sober, typically users (especially chronic ones) are emotionally volatile.

I think it can act as a false meditative state. If you cannot drop into a state of being/presence in the absence of thought, it can help with this.

At the end of the day, if you prioritise clear awareness - it has to go.

[Carl-Richard]

1 hour ago, Natasha Tori Maru said:

Without it - my spiritual practice sharpened.

One of my criteria for quitting weed was it impeded my spiritual practice.

 

1 hour ago, Natasha Tori Maru said:

I think it can act as a false meditative state. If you cannot drop into a state of being/presence in the absence of thought, it can help with this.

At the end of the day, if you prioritise clear awareness - it has to go.

Listening to teachers talk about presence when you're stoned: "yuuuuus preach bro"

Not stoned: "why the fuck am I out of food, why the fuck am I not hungry, why the fuck can I not sleep, fuck"

The crux of the meditative effect of weed is the way it dissociates you from your normal thought patterns, from your memories, their usual connections and their emotional weight. It's like your mind is a circle and you draw a smaller circle within it and that's your new mind for a while. The circle can move across the same larger circle, but only capture parts of it at any moment.

And it affects meaning-making and how you draw connections (when you strip the usual web of connections, even if the web you spin now is in a sense smaller, it can be different such that new connections can be made). So creativity can be enhanced, new connections can be seen. And the dissociation is not just connective/semantic but also temporal (because of course, it will easily forget where it was 20-30 seconds earlier; the classic short-term memory reduction).

And sometimes that can be freeing if your mind in the sober state is too threatening that you actually try to dissociate yourself from it even while sober, such that your mind shrinks then too, maybe even more than in the weeded out state. Weed for me felt like an expansion the first times I tried it, then now in later years, the times I've been exposed to it, it seems constricting. But it's also expansive in again other ways, in the realm of presence, beyond thinking patterns.

Edited 7 hours ago by Carl-Richard

[Ramasta9]

Interesting share guys, i did notice weed use, especially when it was more often, affected my relationships and social interactions, can feel like its the only true friend you can trust and won't betray you, but then betrays everything else, where the medicine then can turn into the poison with overuse.

On the other hand weed and psychedelics have helped me tremendously return to spiritual focus and practice, so i feel (intuitive timing) is very important, and sometimes our lives can be so dark on the outside that its just that nudge, reminder, friend, push you need to get back on track.

The challenge is not to allow the mind to keep knocking on that door every time shit hits the fan. I often would notice the next day is more of a withdrawal type day and things tend to trigger you more with prolonged use. Once in a while for ceremonial and special occasions never seems to create much issues, especially when there is a spiritual or healing intention behind it, and especially if you grow your own medicine organically.

The weed i grew was far more profound and medicinal and psychedelic for me than any weed I ever tried on the streets. This actually helped me stop consuming a lot and integrate the teacher/plant better. Less became more, and natural high gradually arose with daily sober care.

Its unfortunate most people feel they need weed and tobacco (as we do have those receptors in our brains) but don't really get the true medicine that it once was. This is why i suggested to grow ones own medicine, the time and effort, the meditative practice, all that in itself pays off and you may not even want to consume it in the end, but the process itself, is what shifts things in you, because its an act of love to something alive.

I will say tho, I've made the most profound music when high and did some things I can really tap into while sober, if anything it can be inspiring like that of your inner-capabilities when in the correct state. I've only touched upon these states when I was living in a high state of love and unity, although weed can feel like an enlightening of the mind, but the body kinda gets left behind, and that's where i feel people fall into the trap of a false-enlightenment with most substances and then claim their enlightenment online, the body eventually catches up, can you carry it? 

Eating or Drinking a brew seems to provide a more balanced mind / body effect than smoking it though, and far less chance of abuse. Some say this was the original way and doesn't fire up the mind too much and allows the medicine to penetrate deeper on all levels and do its job.

Nowadays strains are heavily bread unfortunately and have far too much THC and not enough CBD so the medicinal experience and healing is chemically and structurally out of alignment from its original form. I notice whenever i tried street-weed its severely lacks in spirit and body. Pure head/mind numbness, little to nothing healing about it. 

I grew up in a very harsh environment full of broken family's, drugs, gangs, alcohol, violence and weed was the only thing that saved a lot of lives so its been a bit part of my life but I also feel its very shamanic in nature when used respectfully and can help many. These days I rarely consume it but she will always be dear to me and I will never shut her off completely.

I probably wouldn't be here if it wasn't for weed and there are many people like myself out there who simply went through hell to just make it through the day. So i can understand where some people are coming from.

I notice the medicine call me too, especially when in these old environments where there is a lot of trauma and suffering, and i seem to do some type of shamanic work with it to help transmute energies, but when i am in nature and in an environment where people are in a healed state and environment is light and conscious, sweet, the need to use the medicine becomes obsolete. Rather its more as an offering of sharing to those still transitioning from a dark phase.

This deeper shamanic stuff is still quite new to me, I am still figuring it all out, but when i look back at my life, i was always being a shaman to the community / environment, even without knowing. I remember baking weed-cookies for xmas (that i grew myself) and sharing them with my whole street, the feedback I got was amazing, they all had full psychedelic and medicinal experiences. I was just giving freely because i felt abundant and rich in myself.

I felt to share this perspective because there is a lot of negative views on weed that i feel need enlightening up a bit.

 

Edited 7 hours ago by Ramasta9

[LordFall]

18 hours ago, meta_male said:

@LordFall How's your social life? What's the reason you've tried quitting?

I have an okay social life, I host events regularly so I know a lot of people but I want to put more effort to create an active business community where I live. 

@Natasha Tori Maru That makes sense, feels similar to my relationship with it at the moment. Not quite needed but still smoking daily, like an unnecessary crutch. Maybe its why I get angry when arguing with people lol. 

[Ramasta9]

1 hour ago, LordFall said:

I have an okay social life, I host events regularly so I know a lot of people but I want to put more effort to create an active business community where I live. 

@Natasha Tori Maru That makes sense, feels similar to my relationship with it at the moment. Not quite needed but still smoking daily, like an unnecessary crutch. Maybe its why I get angry when arguing with people lol. 

I notice when daily use (and i feel this is because the nervous system is being overstimulated and exhausted from the repetitive use) and no breaks, that when you are sober, you tend to feel far more triggered and angry the following days until your nervous system stabilizes again. This is common with even coffee, junk foods, alcohol, even social media and tech stimulation.

These things are something we are using daily not originally indented for daily use, hence the withdrawals when you take a break or detox, hence when i say a lot of us are not truly sober but living on an edge supported by such substances and things.

Just somethings I have observed and sometimes guilty of myself. Its a process.

Edited 5 hours ago by Ramasta9

[Natasha Tori Maru]

The problem with humans is we can detect/interocept acute, subjective issues and reasonably isolate them well. The contrast in state is immediate and obvious. Holy fuck my arm is broken.

The insidious nature of low level, chronic creep of lowered quality of life means we cannot as easily use this contrast in state to deduct its origin or when it became so bad. Something something frogs in boiling water.

The only way to answer if one is under stress due to chronic/habitual use, is to try it.

Experience is the greatest teacher.