How to Help Someone Who is Addicted to Marijuana
Either a person who is abusing marijuana is able to quit smoking (or otherwise consuming it) or they can’t. If they can, then helping them becomes mostly a matter of finding alternative solutions to the problems that the marijuana use seemed to solve for them. This may include helping them set meaningful goals for themselves and encouraging them on their way to the accomplishment of those goals.
For a person to start using a drug like marijuana, there had to be some problems in life that marijuana seemed to help with. Social shyness? School problems? Abuse? Difficulty holding a job? Difficulty learning? Or simply boredom? If you can find out what problems seemed to go away when the drug was used, then you may be able to support the person as they learn the skills they need to overcome that problem. Isolating the problem through can go a long way to reducing the pain associated with it. Knowing one’s friends or family supports you as you learn to these difficulties can go make one feel less isolated.
Recovery from Marijuana Addiction
If a person cannot quit using the drug, even though there is damage and even failure resulting from use, then this person needs rehabilitation. It is certainly possible to build a strong, sober life but the person who can’t do this on their own can repair the damage caused by abuse and can gain the skills needed at a Narconon drug rehabilitation center.
At a Narconon rehab center, no one is ever given substitute drugs as part of their recovery. Only in the case where a medical wean-down from heavy alcohol or drugs such as benzodiazepines, Narconon would arrange for the individual to complete a medical detox prior to starting the Narconon program. Then when they arrive at Narconon they would begin the drug-free withdrawal, using generous amounts of nutrients and techniques that help alleviate the pain and discomfort experienced during withdrawal.
Then the person goes through a thorough detoxification process to help flush out toxic residues of drug use that remain locked deep in fatty tissues. Once these residues are gone and a person feels fresher and brighter, it is much more possible to recover those clear thinking skills. Clearer thinking means a person can learn how to deal with the problems in life they may have been avoiding.
Now the person is ready to regain the self-respect and integrity they may have lost while addicted to marijuana or other drugs. They also learn how to make drug-free decisions, even in moments of stress, and how to pick the right friends and associates who are actually supportive of them succeeding in life. Step by step, the Life Skills components of the Narconon program walk each participant through the rebuilding of a new drug-free life.
Contact Narconon today to find out how we can help someone you care about overcome their addiction to marijuana.
More on Marijuana addiction
There is so much confusion on the subject of marijuana addiction. Some people, especially lobbyists for the legalization of marijuana, state that marijuana is seldom if ever addictive. The truth is that many people do become addicted to marijuana. This means that they are unable to control their use of the drug. They use it whether or not there is harm resulting from its use. They may use it when doing so would be hazardous, for example, when they are driving or operating a boat.
And it is essentially universal that a person addicted to this drug will smoke weed instead of dealing with difficulties in his (or her) life. With marijuana abuse, problems just seem to fade into the background. But they don’t really go away, they just dim out of sight. With the right help, it may not be that difficult to recover from marijuana addiction.
More Young People Become Addicted
One thing supporters of marijuana legalization do not mention is the higher rate of addiction among young initiates. Among all people who use marijuana, one in nine will become dependent on the drug. But when young people start abusing the drug in their teens, the rate is one in six. Just to reinforce that statistic, this means that out of six youth who begin smoking dope in their teenage years, one will become addicted. Parents should understand this clearly.
High levels of harm also occur among those youth who abuse the drug daily. In recent years, the number of youth using the drug daily has increased. According to the National Institutes of Health, more than six percent of high school seniors smoke the drug every day. Nearly one in four are current users (smoked in last thirty days). Studies funded by the National Academy of Sciences show that heavy marijuana use results in a significant drop in IQ and that some impairment from using the drug does not go away when the use of the drug stops.
At the time of their life when the ability to learn and think clearly is the most vital—when they are getting their educations and starting careers—millions of youth are damaging their ability to succeed. While there are no statistics on this point, anecdotal information indicates that loss of abilities in this area has led many people to abandon their educational and career goals.
Parents May Just See the Effects of Drug Abuse
It is very typical for a young person who is abusing drugs to hide his habit from his parents. Very often, parents know nothing about the drug use. It is common for drug users to become skilled at diverting their parents’ attention from any indicators of drug abuse. Lying becomes routine. “Those drugs you found in my backpack do not belong to me, I was just carrying them for a friend.”
Parents often don’t want to believe that their son or daughter was using drugs because of the many years of trust. And in order to keep the drugs coming, youth will hide their use, knowing well that in many cases their parents would put an end to it if they were honest.