Cannabis Addiction Is Real. Here Is One Mothers Story

The province monitors cannabis-related cases at community addiction services, emergency departments and inpatient mental-health admissions. Hudson said from 2018 to 2019 they have seen a 50 per cent increase in the number of people seeking addictions services for reasons related to cannabis use.

Cannabis Addiction Is Real. Here Is One Mother’s Story

So far, no scientific studies have shown that stronger pot increases the likelihood of addiction, and large swaths of the general public continue to question the existence of marijuana addiction. But for Quintin Pohl, addiction was real.

During his six weeks at Muir Wood, Pohl took intensive classes with about 10 other boys and talked to his therapist frequently. His mother spent eight hours a week there, attending parent classes, sharing meals with her son, and working with him and his therapist to address the underlying issues that led him to self-medicate with marijuana.

A joint study from the University of Michigan and Brown University11 found higher potency marijuana to be more addictive than low potencies. It is associated with a higher risk of cannabis use disorder (CUD) or marijuana addiction in young users. Researchers found that regular pot users who first tried marijuana when the national average THC levels held at 4.9% had almost twice the increased risk of developing symptoms of cannabis use disorder within a year. But those who started regularly using pot when national average THC levels were 12.3% had a 4.8 times higher risk of cannabis use disorder. And yet the state of Colorado continues to allow these high-potency THC products to be sold with no regulation or limitation on potency.

Substance use during pregnancy and motherhood is both a public health and criminal justice concern. Negative health consequences associated with substance use impact both the mother and the developing fetus, and there are ongoing attempts to criminalize substance use during pregnancy that put pregnant substance-using women at risk of detection, arrest, and punishment. This study explored the experiences of substance-using mothers as they navigated health and criminal justice consequences and accessed needed resources in the community.

Six women (27.3%) adhered to the idiom that honesty is the best policy and were up-front with medical practitioners. They felt that being honest showed that they were good mothers despite their substance use and they hoped that doctors and nurses would appreciate their honesty and affirm their motherhood identities:

Hazel had been to a residential treatment program to help her overcome her addiction to crack cocaine. She found the classes offered there very helpful, both in their instruction but also for the social opportunities:

The facility women mentioned is located 104 miles from the study site. At this location, there is an option for children to stay at the facility with their mothers. Childcare during treatment has previously been identified as a barrier to care for substance-using mothers (Blume, 1990; Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, 1994; Finklestein, 1994; Marsh et al. 2000), but women in this study reflected that having their children there was not necessarily helpful:

I am glad you have read my book. I know as Moms we blame ourselves thinking there must have been something we did wrong or could have done differently. The truth is, you did everything you could with what you knew at that time. Like you mentioned, there was no google 30 years ago. The information was just not out there. There were not the documentaries, magazine articles, internet information. We had none of that. And no one talked about addiction. No one was saying our children were in the grips of a disease. In fact, society as a whole, judged those struggling as having no will-power or being selfish or weak or immoral.

Thank you very much Julie for your note. You are absolutely correct. Each and every person struggling with addiction is someones son or daughter, brother or sister, mother or father. They are loved. Each and everyone had dreams.

Just know, that miracles do happen every day. While there are sadly, no guarantees with addiction, never give up hope that your Mom may one day grab that life-line and be willing to receive the help she so desperately needs and deserves. And that you and your sister deserve.

More importantly: Can your use become problematic? Can it begin interfering with your life in ways that have some pretty uncanny parallels to alcohol addiction? Can cannabis use be disordered without being an addiction?

As a boy, DJ lived in a subdivision in Swanton called Westpointe Estates, near the end of a cul de sac where neighborhood kids gathered to skateboard, ride bikes, or play games like Ghost in the Graveyard. Justin, who lived with his father and grandmother in a remote part of town, was a frequent visitor.

He spent his first few days out on bail sleeping on the floor of a house with other addicts he barely knew. He told his mother he was worried he would have to prostitute himself to stay there. He begged her to allow him to come home. She refused.

With DJ out of his life for nearly a year, Justin had also stopped using drugs. The tight restrictions placed on him by his grandmother kept him away from old temptations. His father was able to get him a job at the auto parts plant where several family members were employed. Justin worked the second shift as a laser technician, making parts for the Acura RDX. It was more money than he had ever made. He found a new girlfriend and was thinking about getting married.

But Dr. Mishka Terplan, who has researched substance use in pregnancy and has helped develop American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologist guidance on addiction, said decades' worth of data on prenatal exposure to cannabis suggests any long-term health effects on babies are minimal. The impact of cannabis exposure in the womb can also be hard to separate from that of tobacco use and other health and environmental factors, he said.

The total number of children residing with at least one parent with an SUD was estimated by determining (1) the number of children who live in a single-parent household with a father who has an SUD; (2) the number of children who live in a single-parent household with a mother who has an SUD; (3) the number of children who live in a two-parent household with a mother who has an SUD; and (4) the number of children who live in a two-parent household with a mother who does not have an SUD but where the other parent has an SUD.

The first three groups are estimated by using the parent's analytic weight multiplied by the number of children aged 17 or younger in the household. The fourth group is estimated by applying a conditional probability7 (that in a two-parent household in which the mother does not have an SUD but the other parent does) to the mother respondent's analytic weight multiplied by the number of children aged 17 or younger in the household. The total number of children from these four groups constitutes the number of children residing with at least one parent where at least one parent has an SUD. Statistical comparisons between groups were not made for this report.8 The analysis is based on a sample size of 22,200 adults aged 18 or older with at least 1 related child aged 17 or younger residing in the household.

Recovering from a drug or alcohol addiction doesn't end with a 6-week treatment program. It's a lifelong process. Many people find that joining a support group can help them stay clean. There are support groups specifically for teens and younger people. You'll meet people who have gone through the same experiences you have, and you'll be able to participate in real-life discussions about drugs that you won't hear in your school's health class.

The FDA recognizes the significant public interest in cannabis and cannabis-derived compounds, particularly CBD. However, there are many unanswered questions about the science, safety, and quality of products containing CBD. The agency is working on answering these questions through ongoing efforts including feedback from a recent FDA hearing and information and data gathering through a public docket.

Gina is an outgoing person, hence, her soul that shines through her eyes. Without hearing her story, you would never understand the trials and tribulations she endured to make it to where she is today.

Thank God for my family. One of the things that breaks my heart is that I was not always there for my family as much as I feel I should have been. I was really being driven by addiction. They supported me through my entire journey.