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SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – As long as most residents can remember, smoking marijuana is part of life here. The fact that California legalized the practice in January virtually went unnoticed in this quiet town half an hour north of San Francisco, where some say the normalization of the American marijuana culture has begun.
For Quintin Pohl and other teens before him, smoking pot was a rite of passage. It was a diversion from the loneliness that he felt at home when his parents were parting and a balm for college anguish. He said that all his social life in seventh and eighth years, when social life is everything.
Although almost all of his friends used marijuana and seemed to enjoy it, he says, at one point, his use of marijuana took a turn he never saw coming: he became addicted.
Many people are not aware of marijuana addiction. But in the medical and public health communities, there is a well-defined disorder that includes physical withdrawal symptoms, cravings, and psychological dependence. Many say that it is rising, perhaps because of the growing power of genetically modified plants and the use of concentrated products, or because more and more users are participating multiple times per day.
"There should be no controversy about the existence of marijuana addiction," said David Smith, a drug treatment doctor since he opened a free clinic in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. San Francisco drug addict in the 1960s. "We see it every day, controversy should be why it seems to affect more people."
Although estimates of the number of people who use marijuana vary, the federal government and the marijuana industry tend to agree that total use of marijuana has remained relatively constant over the past decade. Increased use over the past three years has been weak, despite increased commercial availability in the states that have legalized it.
The percentage of people who become addicted to marijuana – estimated at around 9% of all users, and around 17% of those who start in adolescence – has also been stable. Some studies report that even higher proportions of marijuana users develop addiction, which means that they experience withdrawal symptoms when they stop using the drug.
Yet here in Northern California, some addiction treatment practitioners say they see an increase in the demand for help, especially among teens.
The estimated rate of marijuana dependence is lower than that of cocaine and alcohol (15%) and heroin (24%). Unlike opioids and stimulants, marijuana addiction tends to develop slowly: months or years can pass before symptoms begin to affect the life of a dependent user.
There is no known case of anyone dying from a marijuana overdose or common withdrawal symptoms from the drug: chills, sweats, cravings, insomnia, loss of appetite, nausea, anxiety and irritability.
According to Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, about 2.7 million Americans meet the diagnostic criteria of marijuana addiction, just behind the addiction to drug abuse. ;alcohol.
Smith, a visiting physician at Muir Wood Adolescent and Family Services, a treatment center for boys where Pohl finally got help, speculates that the potency of today's pot causes a prevalence higher problematic use of marijuana.
"At the time when children were sitting around smoking a joint, the levels of THC found in marijuana averaged 2 to 4 percent," Smith said. "That's what most parents think today, and that's why the company thinks marijuana is harmless."
But the selective selection resulted in an average activity of 20% THC, the main psychoactive compound of marijuana. Some strains exceed 30 percent.
Concentrates and marijuana extracts, much more commonly used in the past five years, have THC levels ranging from 40% to over 80%, according to promotional information from the marijuana industry and reports Drug Enforcement Administration.
Susan Weiss, who directs research on the effects of marijuana on health at the National Institute on Addiction, told a group of addiction medicine physicians at the annual meeting of the American Society of Addictive Medicine in April that the federal government is trying to get the message across. that marijuana can be addictive.
"But believe it or not," she told the group, "we have trouble convincing people that there is an addiction."
The National Cannabis Industry Association's chief spokesperson, Morgan Fox, said that he was not surprised that the federal government is having a hard time convincing the public that marijuana can be addictive.
"It's their fault," he said about the government. "When people discover that the federal government has lied to them about the relative harms of marijuana for decades, they are much less likely to believe everything they have to say in the future, even if this information is accurate.
Fox said his organization did not disagree with the finding that about 9% of people who use marijuana become addicted, and his organization urges its members to clarify this marketing information. But there is no agreement that more powerful forms of marijuana can cause an increase in addiction. "It just means that people have to consume less to get the desired effect," he said.
Until now, no scientific study has shown that a stronger pot increases the likelihood of dependence, and large swathes of the general public continue to question the existence of dependency. to marijuana. But for Quintin Pohl, the addiction was real.
Pohl said his marijuana addiction took years to develop. Her mother, Kimberly Thomas, once said that she realized that her son was using marijuana frequently, "it was like a roller coaster climbing up in the air." amount, blowing, blowing, blowing. You know something is going on, "she said," and just after a few days, you reach the top and zoom down. It was horrible, horrible. "
Scott Sowle, executive director of the Muir Wood Rehabilitation Center, said he receives the same call from parents almost every day.
"They call and say," My 16 year old son was doing very well at school. He was interested in sports and participated in extracurricular activities. But suddenly, he is no longer the same child. "
Pohl remembered that he drank a little, from time to time, but that marijuana was his constant obsession. After high school, he got involved in rowing for a few years and took a break from his group of marijuana friends. But after deciding that the competitive rowing was not for him, Pohl said that he started smoking pot again, this time with new friends who were smoking all the time.
And then the roller coaster plunged.
His notes have dropped. He stopped going home most of the time and was lying on the surf for a while. Finally, he says, his mother called the police for stealing her car. "At that time, I was heartless, emotionless," he said. "I was just a kind of blob that was taking up space … I was cooked 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."
Pohl 's mother said that she saw that he was having problems and demanded that he stay home whenever he was not at home. school. (Pohl's father lived in San Francisco.)
"She told me to come home, so I did it," Pohl said. "At the time, I did not really know why she had done that.I was still in all this miserable phase, smoking at least an ounce of grass a week – two ounces on a good week. "(An ounce is enough to smoke four to eight joints each day for a week, depending on their size.)
Then one morning before school, Pohl recalls, two private investigators hired by his mother appeared and took him to Muir Wood's home.
Pohl said that he went through a week of pure misery at the rehab center: angry, in denial and suffering. "I could not sleep for a week, I was cold, and then I was sweating, I hated everything," he said, "And then the sun hit my face one morning, and it was awesome. Things were good, smelled better, everything was just improved. "
During his six weeks there, Pohl attended intensive classes with about 10 other boys and spoke frequently to his therapist. His mother spent eight hours a week there, attending parenting classes, sharing meals with his son and working with him and his therapist to solve the underlying problems that led him to self-medicate with him. marijuana.
Pohl says that he has not smoked marijuana since he left Muir Wood last July. For the rest of the summer and after school in the fall, he attended classes at an outpatient clinic at Muir Wood in San Rafael.
Dressed in black pants, a black sweatshirt and a pink cap on a cool but sunny day in late May, Pohl smiles widely when he talks about his future. After graduating in June, he plans to start working full time at the grocery store where he has held a part-time job in the past year.
He thinks he can start smoking marijuana again one day – socially, when he is an adult.
Vestal is a reporter for Stateline, an initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts.
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