Culture of consumption 4/20

Let's talk honestly and frankly in this chapter. Perhaps, very many are familiar with the popular expression of the Swiss physician and alchemist Paracelsus: “Everything is poison and everything is medicine. Only the dose makes a medicine a poison and a poison a medicine.” Unfortunately, when it comes to psychoactive substances (surfactants), this sacred truth is forgotten.

The same thing happens with the use of marijuana. Yes, it has proven medical properties. Yes, dependence and harm from it are not as great as from opiates, for example. And yet there is addiction and harm from it! And if you smoke too much, then the weed from the medicine turns into a uniform poison!

Excessive use of marijuana is fraught with:

• The development of apathy
• The occurrence of mental disorders (depression, anxiety, paranoia)
• Smoker's bronchitis
• Insomnia
• Loss of motivation
• The development of a strong psychological and physical dependence.

This is not a complete list of the problems you may encounter if you smoke every day, many times a day. At first, you will notice that you develop tolerance. Then you will try to smoke more doses and resort to marijuana more often. In the end, the meaning and purpose of your life will be only smoking weed. But when you decide to quit it, you will face a real withdrawal syndrome:

• You won't sleep for many nights in a row
• You will be overcome by nausea
• You will sweat a lot
• You will lose your appetite
• Life will lose color and you will become depressed without your favorite drug
• Can move jaws

Yes, you won't have withdrawal symptoms like from heroin. But these symptoms are enough to draw a simple conclusion. Marijuana is still a drug. Though not as strong as some others.

Unfortunately, quite a few rastafarians have some kind of craftiness. They believe that consumers of alcohol and powerful surfactants are somewhat lower than they, their loved ones. In fact, it turns out that they are the same drug addicts. It's just that the destructive potential and health effects of marijuana are generally lower than those of other substances.

This does not mean that you need to quit immediately and run to surrender to a psychiatrist-narcologist. But what you should definitely do is rethink your relationship with marijuana. How to call for her help?

1. Smoke rarely.

If you realize that the previous amount of stuff consumed no longer suits you in terms of effect, then this is the first wake-up call that signals you that it's time to take a break and reduce tolerance.

2. Avoid rituals

If you realize that you absolutely cannot spend an evening without grass, for example, without it there is no desire to watch a good movie or play your favorite computer game or go for a walk with your soulmate, then this is another reason to take a break. It is precisely by creating rituals for ourselves and erecting cannabis into a cult that we, without noticing it ourselves, become dependent slaves of our habit. No matter what anyone says, addiction is darkness, and there is no light in darkness.

3. Develop willpower

Do you want to smoke? Just don't smoke right now, that's all. Happened? If so, congratulations, you don't have an addiction. But a clear sign that there is an addiction is when you cannot simply deny yourself pleasure and not smoke, and come up with a hundred logical explanations for the fact that you need to smoke immediately and by all means.

4. Be honest with yourself

How do you tell an addicted person from someone who doesn't have a substance problem? Ask any addiction psychiatrist: the main symptom is an escape from the truth. Simply put, very few drug addicts consider themselves to be drug addicts. Therefore, if you notice that you cannot spend a day without grass, but still think that there is no problem here, then be honest with yourself and face the truth - you are a drug addict.

5. Find your usage pattern

All people are different. And their dependence is formed in different ways. Someone can microdose every evening, but at the same time give up smoking without problems and consequences. Someone can smoke once a week, but it will be painful and anxious to wait for this smoke. If you are from the second category of people, then it is better to stop using marijuana for a long time, so to speak, “cool the engine” until your brains fall into place and you stop suffering without marijuana.

What to do if an addiction develops?

Fortunately, addiction to marijuana is not so strong that a person needs the help of doctors, as is the case with hard drugs. Anyone can deal with this problem on their own. How to do it? Each person can have their own recipe. Someone starts watching TV shows or goes headlong into work, someone devotes himself to his favorite hobby. Here are a number of universal tips that will help you swim out of this, what can I say, not the easiest life situation.

• Reconsider your life values. Not you for marijuana, but marijuana for you!
• Analyze what your free time is spent on and how you can fill it instead of grass.
• Go in for sports. It has been proven to increase the production of happiness hormones. And you will really need them without your favorite happiness potion.
• Return to society. New connections and people will bring renewal to your life.
• If the addiction is too great, then refuse to communicate with those people who you associate with marijuana. For example, with friends with whom you smoke together.
• Do things that hotleys have been doing for a long time, but the grass got in the way of you. Make repairs in the apartment, start losing weight, start writing a book. Anything!
• If you can't quit, isolate yourself from the grass. For example, move to another region for a while. For relatives, for example. By the way, throwing grass is a great opportunity to build relationships within your family. This chance is rare, so take advantage of it!
• If depression has developed that you cannot overcome on your own, then go to an appointment with a psychotherapist. A course of antidepressants and other psychotropic drugs under the supervision of a doctor will help you. However, it is not necessary to disclose the true causes of your depression. Still, decent people do not advertise their pagan addictions. On the other hand, if the clinic you have chosen guarantees anonymity and is not a state structure, then you can also identify the root of the problem to the doctor.
• Never give up. The main thing is to hold out for at least a couple of weeks, the longest is a month, and you will feel how the grip of addiction is unclenched and life regains its taste and colors!

P.S. Never forget that marijuana is just a herb and should not be given so much time and attention. Keep a reasonable and sober look at things. And if cravings suddenly appear, then part with cannabis until the craving disappears. That's what a 4/20 consumer culture is - to consume in a way that does not become a problem and a burden in your life. After all, we believe and know that cannabis will help the world, but not as a drug (poison), but as a medicine for the soul and body.