How to quit weed
We know quitting weed is no cake-walk, but when you’ve been using it for a while and it’s baked into your daily routine, giving up anything demands some serious focus and determination. We spoke with people who’ve been there, who have overcome the various hurdles you face when quitting weed, and asked them for advice on how others can go about it. Here’s what they had to say.
1. Plan your process
If you’ve been smoking cannabis for a long time, it’s often not as simple as just going cold turkey and never looking at another joint ever again. An impulsive decision to quit, without any forethought, rarely sticks. So think about the details, like setting a date to quit. Work towards it. Will you reduce the amount you use each day until then? By how much? Setting yourself goals with manageable tasks will make quitting far more achievable than just winging it.
A good quitting weed program can really help fill this gap.
There are people who have been weed smokers for 28 years, and the only thing that helped them quit smoking weed FOR GOOD was this simple low cost online course.
Smoking marijuana can be just as unhealthy and addictive as smoking cigarettes, according to National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Once the decision is made to quit smoking weed, you might have no idea where to start and how to do it. Understanding your addiction and the required steps for quitting can help you make a plan and ultimately stop smoking weed.
2. Understand Your Addiction
THC, the active chemical in marijuana, affects the brain by forcing cannabinoid receptors in the brain to react, according to National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). This leads to the “high” that you get after smoking marijuana.
Many people are unable to distinguish between a psychological and a physical addiction to marijuana. According to Quit Weed Today, if you have been smoking weed for a while and smoke every day, you are most likely accustomed to being stoned and being in that mindset.
You could have a psychological belief that you must be high in order to function correctly. A physical addiction can be much more serious and a doctor might need to be consulted for guidance and monitoring. Knowing why you are addicted can help you figure out the most effective way to stop.
3. Old habits die hard
Never underestimate the power of temptation. People who successfully quit, make a conscious effort to avoid situations, people or things that might trigger the urge to smoke. For one successful quitter, it was steering clear of video games at a close mate’s house. He knew if he went back to that environment before he was ready, he would easily slip back into old habits.
4. Set a Date to Stop
Most smokers who want to quit might tell themselves, “I’ll quit when my stash runs out,” or “I’ll just quit tomorrow.” This is dangerous and ineffective. Set a date a few weeks or months in advance for when you will stop smoking. Simply claiming you’ll stop as soon as you are out weed will most likely have the effect of pushing you to smoke all of your supply quickly. This increases the likelihood that you’ll eventually go out and buy more, according to Quit Weed Today. By setting a specific date for stopping, you are committing yourself to a goal that you will be more likely to honor.
5. Treat yourself
When you reach a milestone, make sure you remember to have a reward to look forward to (that isn’t a joint!). Celebrating your successes marks the occasion and allows you to take stock, and also helps you build momentum for the next step in the quitting journey. Make a list of what you will do at each milestone (one day, one week, two weeks, one month and so on). Involving family or friends can help support you along the way; they will also enjoy sharing your successes and worrying less about your weed use.
6. Clean home, clean mind
The process of clearing cannabis from your life is every bit as environmental as it is mental. Mark the next chapter of your life with a complete clean out at home. Throw out any old smoking accessories or memorabilia, like bongs, vaporisers, pipes, grinders, ash trays and so on. Wash all your clothes, soft furnishings and bedding to remove the smell of smoking.
7. Discard All Paraphernalia
Most weed smokers have pot-smoking paraphernalia—some of it highly decorative— such as bongs, smoking bowls, a blunt-rolling tool or even a fancy vaporizer. If you get rid of weed-smoking gear or paraphernalia, you will have a much harder time finding ways to smoke and will have to work harder in order to smoke. If you make it harder for yourself to smoke weed, you increase your chances of quitting the habit.
8. Be Prepared For Withdrawal
Withdrawal from smoking anything, but specifically weed, can carry a high rate for failure, according to Quit Weed Today. If you have set a date for quitting, your body and your mind will be more prepared for withdrawal, making it a bit easier. Anxiety is extremely common in withdrawal, so knowing how to deal with anxiety in natural and safe ways can help your withdrawal. According to Marijuana Growing Forum, symptoms of marijuana withdrawal include irritability, anxiety, physical tension, anorexia, insomnia, stomach pain, strange dreams and more. Sometimes medical assistance is needed to get through the difficulties of withdrawal, which National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) says can last one to two weeks. Contact a local drug rehabilitation facility or ask your doctor if you need help to quit smoking weed.
9. Get moving
Making exercise a part of your routine is a common theme among successful quitters. Not only does it release endorphins (natural ‘feel-good’ chemicals in your brain), it also gives you time to clear your mind and release any physical or mental tension you might be feeling while you go without cannabis. Regular exercise will also help restore your lung function.
10. Track your progress
Some successful quitters also really enjoy the physical act of crossing weed-free days off a calendar, and looking back over a successful week, month or year. One described how journaling her thoughts every day helped sort out some chaotic thoughts while she quit. There are plenty of free calendar apps for your phone which allow you to journal during your daily commute and also track your progress over time.
Successful quitters tend to look at the bigger picture and use these habits not just to help them quit weed, but also as helpful tools to move forward in other areas of their lives.
Editor’s note:- We recommend Quit weed program as the best comprehensive plan for quitting weed for good.
User comments and reviews
Review 1
I know how you feel I was a chronic daily smoker for about 9 years. I haven’t smoked in almost 11 months which may not seem like a big deal but for me it is since I never thought I would be able to stop smoking.
The thing about weed is that (at least for me) it is psychologically addictive. I was addicted to the ritual of it, the smell, and the immediate sense of peace and euphoria that came when I hit the bowl. I tried many times to “cut down” or “reduce” my smoking. I would go for 2 weeks without getting high and then reward myself by getting high because I did so well! I would attempt to set limits on my smoking (I’m only going to smoke on the weekends….I’m only going to smoke at night…okay now I’m only going to smoke after work and then at night…and once when I wake up in the morning…etc). The truth is if you are truly psychologically and emotionally addicted to marijuana like I was you CANNOT control your use. Sorry, you just can’t. If you have ever been to an AA or NA meeting it is the same concept that they talk about there.
When I finally decided to stop 11 months ago I made the commitment to not smoke. I wrote down a list of all the negative consequences of my habit including
-lack of motivation
-poor memory
-isolating tendencies
-blunted emotions
-constantly feeling like I was in a haze
-a gross living environment
-sense of guilt/shame at not being able to cut down
Some practical steps I have taken to avoid smoking include:
telling my friends that I am no longer smoking (I know…this one is HARD especially since 90% of my friends are still pot heads…however if they are truly your friends they will respect your boundaries…ask them not to smoke around you at least in the beginning…if it really is an issue you might have to not see them for a while)
remembering what I felt like when I was getting high everyday. This is important. Because there will be times when you say to yourself “ah…it’s been 4 months..I really want to get high! It will be different this time…it’s only weed.” No. it will not be different. When I have cravings to smoke, which still happen, I remember what my life was like. I remember how unhappy I was, I think of all the failed attempts at controlling my use. I remember the time I went 6 whole months without smoking! And then I got high. And then I continued to get high every day for the next 3 months.
get rid of your weed and your paraphernalia
download a sobriety counter app on your phone. There is a marijuana anonymous app you can download that has a sobriety date counter as well as a lot of useful information and tools…
speaking of MA, consider going to meetings. There is a marijuana anonymous fellowship. There are not a lot around so there are also phone meetings that happen daily (you can find them on the app.) You can also go to AA or NA..a drug is a drug is a drug.
Know that just because you are addicted to weed doesn’t make you weak or any “less than” people with “real addictions” and fuck anyone who tries to tell you that.
Create new habits that will make you feel good. Start exercising, meditating, cooking, eating healthy, or anything else that is going to give you a sense of happiness and wellbeing
stay in today. “just for today.” Don’t think about how you are going to manage not smoking for the next 10 years. Think about not smoking today.
I hope this helps. Just know that you are not alone and you can do it!
Review 2
When you are addicted, you are possessed by an outside force (energy) literally. The addiction feeds that force. Your addictive thoughts are not you. It is that force. There is nothing personally that you CAN do to heal your addiction. You are not the one in control. That is why it feels impossible to stop. All addictions have a life (a beginning, a middle and an end). There is nothing you can do to speed it along. Be patient. Your soul has chosen this path to walk. There is much about yourself to be learnt. Observe yourself as if you are out of body. Listen to your addictive thoughts as they bombard you a thousand times a day. This outside force is not too original when you begin to understand its manipulative and repeatitive ways. It injects addictive thoughts into your ‘head’ so you will succumb and addict. The shame and guilt you feel afterwards is high voltage energetic food for it to recharge its batteries. Basically it is an energetic parasite living off the energies produced by your addictive turmoil or mind trash.
This force is known by many names. Echkart Tolle calls it the pain body, the Bible calls it the devil, spirituality calls it the dark or negative force.
Addictions are teaching humanity to understand that we are not our thoughts and that there does exist many energetic unseen entities that have the ability to sabotage our thoughts.
Good luck. Please don’t judge what you are doing. There is always a divine reason for everything that happens. Be cool with it.
God is in control, not you. Trust his wisdom.
Review 3
Others have given you great advice on the reasons behind why you might want to stop, I’ll give you some practical advice:
Step 1
Buy a Ksafe:
Step 2
Pick one day of the week, and organise events and activities where you are out of the house from the morning all the way through to the evening as close to bed time as possible. In the morning, put your weed in that safe and time lock it for 24 hours so the safe does not open. Congrats – you’ve done one day not smoking weed!
Step 3
Do Step 2 for another couple of weeks and you’ll have 1 weed-free day per week and you’ll remember what it’s like to not be stoned and think to yourself “it’s not that bad”.
Now try to have 2 weed free days per week. I recommend not doing two days in a row, so for example you may want to choose a Monday and a Friday. Stick with this for another few weeks and then try to increase to 3 days per week etc.
Step 4
Repeat until you’re happy with your levels of smoking. Should take 3 months or so.
The main thing about this method is that you are making progress each week and will therefore find it easier as you go along.
Editor’s note:- We recommend Quit weed program as the best comprehensive plan for quitting weed for good.
Review 4
I’m prefacing this by stating this is my opinion and my set of suggestions. This is suggestive only. You can take what you want from what I say and leave the rest:
I quit smoking pot 29 years ago and never picked up another joint again. Marijuana was my drug of choice and I used every single day from 18 to 31 yrs old. I could bong hit anyone I knew under the table – and I’m a woman. I also quit doing any drugs, pills, and drinking alcohol at the same time. I didn’t realize I had a problem with substances – I had started thinking I was just mentally ill or something. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. I had preconceived notions of what it meant to be an addict and I knew that didn’t fit me, so I kept going forward on “automatic pothead woman pilot.”
Finally I got into rehab. I realized that I was mainly using marijuana, but I had to quit all substances and alcohol. Frankly, it was such a relief to find out I wasn’t flat out crazy that I gladly stepped up to go into Alcoholics Anonymous. Narcotics Anonymous has a lot of hard drug addicts and I didn’t feel as comfortable in those meetings. I started going to AA meetings and really felt at home. I immediately changed my attitude, realizing I was the one who needed to change. I needed to change my attitude, my actions, and my way of thinking. I threw myself into the program 100%.
When in rehab I heard a statistic. They said that of everyone who tries to get sober today, only 6% will still be sober 10 years from now. Other people might have gotten discouraged by that, but I looked around the room and I thought, “By God, I HAVE to be in that 6%. My entire future and the future of my child is relying on my being in that 6%.”
I stayed away from my old “friends,” ie, the people I used with. Do not go around anyone who smokes pot.
I went to AA meetings for 90 meetings in 90 days straight. Sounds impossible, but it was the perfect way to get immersed in the program.
I made up my mind that NOTHING was going to push me over that line. I was quitting everything mind altering and it was a permanent decision. I was going to do it one day, one hour, sometimes one minute at a time – but I was going to do this for the rest of my life.
I read the Big Book of AA from front to cover and got a sponsor in the program. A sponsor is a mentor specifically for the program.
I worked The Twelve Steps with my sponsor and continued to go to a number of meetings every week.
I stayed out of any relationships for the first year, which actually turned into 2 years. Unlike people who get sober and then move in with someone when they are 30 days sober, I waited and wound up madly in love with the man of my dreams, frankly. I met him at an AA dance 27 yrs ago.
I made up my mind that no matter what happened, I wasn’t going to use. I didn’t care if I was happy, sad, up, down, mean, sweet or in a bad mood. I wasn’t going to go back out no matter who died, who was born, if I had a man, if I was lonely and had no man, if I was horny, angry, had money or was flat broke – I was going to do it all sober. I don’t care if I run down the middle of the road screaming in the middle of the night – I’m going to do it sober. Meh – I have done all of the above and rutted out the driveway hauling out of there mad at my husband, in the early days of our marriage, but I did that sober. I also had to go back and apologize for my bad attitude quite a few times before I grew up and stopped acting like a child – all done sober.
Choose a sponsor who has what you want. Lets say you want to be a highly successful business person – get a sponsor who is a highly successful business person. If you want to be married and have children, find a sponsor who has a long, happy marriage and good relationship with his/her spouse and is a good parent.
Be willing to listen. Go sit in the meeting and just listen to what they have to say and be open minded and willing to stay sober.
Pray. Even if you don’t believe in God – that’s okay – pray anyway. It will make you feel better and stronger in your attempt to stay sober.
Stick with the winners. Hang around with the people who have mega years of sobriety.
Don’t be a chicken. I double-dog dare you to stay sober for one year.
The UN conducted a study about 1 1/2 years ago and found that the US has 5% of the world’s population – and 80% of the world’s substance abusers. We have about 70 million people in the US with a problem involving substance abuse. That includes 22 million heroin addicts, 50 million with a pot problem, 60 million alcoholics, 250 million prescriptions written yearly for anti-depressants alone, 259 million prescriptions written yearly for painkillers. Think about it – a large percentage of Americans are walking around all messed up on something. There really isn’t anything so bad about reality.
Living your life in reality is wonderful – it really is – and you’re so much better able to handle the ups and downs of a regular life. I know for myself that I don’t want to die someday having lived my life in a haze. I’m taking this thing on with all of my faculties. It’s a decision you make on your own – nobody can force you. By the way, AA is the only truly democratic society in the world. There is only one requirement for membership: A desire to stop drinking. So you can fit right in at AA by simply wanting to stay sober, including alcohol.
I’m assuming you are in the United States, but perhaps you are not. There is AA in every country around the world, I believe. If you are outside of the US, look online and type in “Alcoholics Anonymous meetings” and the name of your town. Nobody has to know you are going to the meetings. You can secretly begin to get well. Good luck. You can do this.
Review 5
One thing you must understand is that you are feeling a few emotions about stopping. The first is anxiety. To solve this: understand that your stopping for a day will not be the end all. You can do it. There dare others but we don’t know each other and I am not wanting to sound judgmental.
Step 1) Go on and finish what you have, or gift it to those around you. Weed is not highly addictive. If anything it is more habitual.
Step 2) Buy some CBD. If it has been done with THC there is a CBD version as well. This will help you recover from the extremely minor withdrawals.
Step 3) Use the CBD during the times in which you might have smoked. It will not get you high but there is CBD receptors and they bind to one that THC does.
Step 4) Do this for as long as possible, or for a month.
A note on THC withdrawals: the biggest concern is irritability and insomnia. Keep in mind that perhaps a coffee would help with the attitude, and some generic sleep-aid at night.
You say you have been smoking for 3 years. My suggestion is to try and keep these steps up for 3 months. Think of the money you will save once you don’t even need CBD anymore, that will happen at about day 3. Set this money aside for some investing or personal debt.