Even though you may not be able to prevent marijuana abuse and addiction, there are things you can do to reduce the risk. Many studies have been done on the effects of marijuana abuse during pregnancy, and results are conflicting, possibly because of other substances used and/or abused during pregnancy, including tobacco. Although anyone who uses marijuana has the potential to abuse it, there are risk factors that can make marijuana abuse more likely. Having these risk factors doesn’t mean you definitely will develop a substance abuse problem, but you may be more at risk.

Marijuana Addiction Statistics: How Many People Are Addicted?

Among the signals is a growing tolerance for the drug’s effects, as well as using more marijuana than they initially intended to use. Marijuana can be used in a variety of ways and for many reasons. More research about the short-term and long-term effects of marijuana is needed.

• Most of these symptoms will wear off as the drug itself wears off, but for some, the psychological effects of marijuana can last many months or even years after the individual stops smoking pot.
• Cognitive behavioral therapy, which helps to identify and modify damaging thinking and behavior, can also help people overcome addictions.
• Whichever way you take it, repeated use increases the risk of feeling like you need to use marijuana daily, eventually causing you to be unable to stop using it on your own.
• When the external chemical is withdrawn after prolonged use, the body is left in the lurch, and forced to rely on natural stores of these chemicals, but it takes time for the natural receptors to grow back to their baseline levels.

Cannabis/Marijuana Use Disorder

What they do know is that the toxins and tar found in marijuana smoke could affect vulnerable people, such as children or people with asthma. Read more about the ABCD study on our Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD Study) webpage. People in mid-to-late adolescence are most likely to begin using cannabis. Some genetic studies suggest that developing cannabis addiction is hereditary. A Yale Medicine-led study identified several gene variants that increase risk of cannabis dependence. However, more research is needed in order to confirm the findings and understand how these genetic factors might contribute to marijuana dependence.

Signs of Addiction

“The problem isn’t that they are releasing less dopamine, but that the dopamine stimulation in the brain is having a very attenuated effect,” Volkow said. “It is very well-known that dopamine is one of the most important neurotransmitters that regulates reward, motivation, and self-control,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of NIDA and one of the authors of the study. THC also affects the brain’s reward system and the release of the “pleasure hormone” dopamine. “I’ve always found quitting marijuana to be easy when I needed to because of travel reasons or personal reasons, or professional, or what have you,” he told Healthline. The conversation around marijuana use has become more nuanced since the World War II era film “Reefer Madness” portrayed the drug as destructive and dangerous.

Drugs that lessen marijuana cravings have often been unsuccessful. “There is an urgent need to develop effective treatments, either behavioral or pharmacological, for cannabis use disorder,” says Yale Medicine psychiatrist Deepak Cyril D’Souza, MD, a Yale Medicine psychiatrist. “It is likely that the combination of behavioral and pharmacological approaches will be superior to either alone.” The American Psychiatric Association’s most recent criteria for substance use disorders include tools to identify cannabis addiction. For someone to be considered addicted, he or she must meet at least two of the 11 criteria, which include an inability to reduce consumption, constant cravings, and relationship and social problems. Adolescence, a period during which the brain is undergoing major changes, is an extremely poor time period for young people to try the effects of marijuana.

• Long-term users who try to quit report withdrawal symptoms such as irritability, sleeplessness, decreased appetite, anxiety and drug craving–all of which can make it difficult to abstain.
• If your doctor is aware of your use, they’ll be able to take the steps to make sure you stay sedated, or “asleep,” for the entire surgery.
• The four-decade analysis of national survey data says daily and near-daily marijuana use is now more common than similar levels of drinking.

If you think you may be addicted to marijuana, talk to your doctor about your symptoms. Treatment works best when conditions that may be linked to marijuana use are discovered early. Recent research suggests marijuana addiction that if you start to use marijuana at a young age, use it frequently, and for a long period of time, you could be at risk of having schizophrenia or other mental conditions that involve psychosis.

Unlike opiate misuse, which can set in fairly quickly with heavy use, marijuana misuse can take months or even years to develop. A user might not immediately realize that they’ve crossed the line into addiction. A 2014 study examined people who use drugs and who came to the emergency room with drug-related problems, which is a strong indicator that something is not manageable. Dependence on marijuana happens when users build up a tolerance for the substance and need more and more of it to experience the same effect.

Specifically, they had fewer connections in parts of the brain linked to alertness, learning, and memory, and tests show lower IQ scores in some people. Studies note that early marijuana use can interrupt normal development of gray matter, a type of brain tissue that helps control mental functions, increasing schizophrenia risks. Early exposure to marijuana is also linked to changes in areas of the brain that are often connected with psychosis. If you smoke pot regularly, it can lead to coughing, wheezing, phlegm, and a higher risk of respiratory infections.

Building up a tolerance

Motivational incentives are part of CM, since it uses operant conditioning on positive behaviors you want to increase. The incentives are most effective when there are plenty of opportunities to get reinforcement. The reinforcement immediately follows the behavior, and the value of the motivator is significant to the person. MET is based on motivational interviewing and helps to increase changes in behavior by giving nonjudgmental feedback and helping people set goals. CBT helps people identify why they use, develop relapse prevention and coping skills, and come up with more effective behaviors.