Cannabis addiction has two aspects: physical and psychological, both of which occur concurrently. In this post, I will solely focus on the physical aspect of addiction, but it’s crucial to remember that it’s not the sole component at play.

We’re all familiar with that moment when we swear to quit smoking, only to change our mind when we discover a half-smoked joint in the ashtray, a tiny stub in the drawer, or when a friend unexpectedly turns up with some. We want to say “no,” but our minds latch onto it as if it’s the singular thought occupying our brains, unable to let go unless we smoke – this happens due to the dopamine our brain releases.

Physical dependence manifests when cannabis “hijacks” our brain’s reward system by using dopamine.

So, what is the reward system?

The reward system is a catch-all term for the parts of the brain that reward us for actions we take – through pleasure, a sense of accomplishment, and the like. Consuming cannabis triggers our brains to release large amounts of dopamine.

Dopamine, a neurotransmitter, has two primary roles:

• To motivate us into action, effectively driving our sense of motivation.
• To create a feeling of reward for the actions we’ve taken.
  

Consider, for a moment, playing a slot machine and winning, triggering a payout of coins – the transient joy from winning is due to dopamine release. But dopamine doesn’t stop there. If you contemplate going home, the urge to attempt winning again arises. This urge is also instigated by dopamine – in other words, dopamine intensifies our drive and motivates us to repeat rewarding actions.

Our brain releases dopamine in response to various activities we engage in: eating, having sex, managing social relationships, and more… but not to the degree induced by smoking cannabis. This is also why cannabis often takes precedence in our priorities. After a day at work or on a day off, given a choice to meet friends, we often opt to stay home and smoke instead – the greater the dopamine surge induced by an activity (like weed smoking), the stronger the brain pushes us towards it.

Regular cannabis consumption causes our brain to become indifferent to normal dopamine levels, only feeling rewarded when dopamine release is high. This is also when activities not involving cannabis lose their appeal. Suddenly, we’re at a family dinner, uninterested in the conversation or the food, just waiting for it to end so we can return home to smoke weed.

This state often leads us to conclude that life is uninteresting, providing no real reason to quit smoking, but this is misleading. It could be that life seems dull because we need to let our brains reacclimate to normal dopamine levels, allowing us to regain interest in our everyday activities.

Here’s an intriguing fact:

When does dopamine release come to its highest peak?

Logically, we’d assume it peaks during our greatest pleasure, such as midway through the joint or at the best part of our high.

But no… dopamine releases peaks just before we light the joint, at the top of our anticipation, when we’re so close yet haven’t begun smoking.

This suggests that addiction isn’t solely about the act of smoking. The addiction lies in the potent connection between the craving to smoke and the act of smoking itself. After all, when do we feel that addiction has lost its grip?

Not when we quit smoking but when we cease to crave it.

The goal of detoxification is to reach a point where the battle ends, and we no longer have to resist the urge to light up a joint. But like any process, there are stages that need to be traversed… and at the beginning, the battle is fierce. It’s important to remember that after a period of time we avoid smoking, the brain reverts to responding to normal dopamine levels, which means if we don’t have any emotional burden that weighs us down, life can become interesting again.