Miguel Laboy, 75, has long smoked marijuana with his coffee every morning. He promises himself he won’t do it again, but then he does it again.
“You know what bothers me? I’m thinking about cannabis from the moment I wake up,” Laboy said as he lit a joint in his apartment in Brookline, Massachusetts. “I would like to wake up one day and not smoke. But that’s the way things are.”
Since its legalization and commercialization in many states, daily cannabis use has become a defining, and often invisible, part of the lives of many people in the United States.
High-potency vaporizers and concentrates now dominate the market, and doctors fear the line between pain relief and addiction is becoming blurred, with consumers unaware of the change.
The reality is that many who once turned to cannabis for help are finding it increasingly difficult to quit.
In general, alcohol continues to be consumed more than cannabis. But as of 2022, the number of daily cannabis users in the United States will surpass the number of drinkers, a major shift in Americans’ habits.
Researchers point out that this increase has occurred alongside the emergence of products that contain much more THC than marijuana compared to previous decades, such as oils and concentrates for vaporizers, which can reach between 80% and 95% THC.
Massachusetts, like most states, does not set any limits on the potency of these products.
Doctors warn that daily consumption and high doses can cloud memory, disturb sleep, intensify anxiety or depression and cause addiction in ways that previous generations did not know about.
Many people who develop a cannabis use disorder say it is difficult to recognize the signs due to the widespread belief that marijuana is not addictive.
Since consequences tend to appear gradually (mental confusion, irritability, dependence), users often do not realize when therapeutic use becomes compulsion.
From a habit to an addiction
Laboy, who is a retired chef, began seeing a substance abuse therapist after telling his doctor that he felt depressed, unmotivated and increasingly isolated as his alcohol and cannabis use increased.
Naltrexone helped him quit alcohol, but he hasn’t found a way to quit marijuana. Unlike alcohol and opioids, there is no FDA-approved medication to treat cannabis addiction, although research is underway.
Laboy, who first smoked at age 18, said marijuana has long alleviated symptoms related to undiagnosed ADHD, childhood trauma and painful experiences, such as cancer treatment and the death of her son. After decades working in restaurant kitchens, he considered himself a “functional smoker.”
However, lately its consumption has become compulsive. After retiring, he began vaping cartridges with 85% THC.
“Lately, I only carry two things in my hands: my vaporizer and my cell phone, that’s all,” he said. “I’m not proud of it, but it’s reality.”
Cannabis relieves his anxiety and “calms his spirit,” but he has noticed that it affects his concentration. He wants to learn to read music, but he finds it increasingly difficult to stay focused at the piano.
He has been seeing a psychiatrist specialized in addictions for six months, but has not been able to reduce his consumption. According to him, the health system is not prepared to help him.
“They are not ready yet,” Laboy said. “I go to them for help, but all they tell me is, ‘Try smoking less.’ I already know that, that’s why I’m there.”
Younger consumers describe a similar spiral, starting with relief and ending in a place that is harder to define.
Mental confusion: “a new normal”
Kyle, a 20-year-old student at Boston University, said cannabis helps him control the panic attacks he has suffered since high school. He spoke on the condition that only his first name be used because he purchases cannabis illegally.
In Allston’s apartment he shares with his fraternity buddies, they have a community hookah.
When high, Kyle feels calm, able to process anxious thoughts and feel gratitude. But that clarity has become harder to achieve when sober.
“I think a year ago I could have done better,” he added. “Now I can only do it when I’m high, which is scary.”
He added that mental confusion and feelings of detachment develop so gradually that they become “your new normal.” Some mornings, you wake up feeling like an observer of your own life, struggling to remember the day before. “It can be hard to wake up and say, ‘Oh my God, who am I?’” she said.
Still, he has no intention of quitting anytime soon.
Kyle noted that cannabis helps him function more than professional treatment would. Doctors explained that this ambivalence is common: many people consider cannabis to be both the problem and the solution.
Dreams turned into nightmares
Anne Hassel spent a month in jail and a year on probation for growing cannabis in the 1980s. She cried when the first Massachusetts dispensaries opened and left her career as a physical therapist to work at one.
However, in less than a year, “my dream job turned into a nightmare,” he added.
Hassel, 58, said some consultants pressured staff to promote high-potency concentrates as “more medicinal,” downplaying their risks. After trying your first dab —an almost instantaneous and “narcotic” effect— he began consuming concentrate with 90% THC several times a day.
His use quickly became debilitating, he said. He lost interest in things he used to enjoy, like mountain biking. One fall day, he drove into the woods and turned around without getting out of the car. “I just wanted to go to my friend’s house and consume dabs” she added. “I hated myself.”
She did not seek formal treatment, but recovered with the help of a friend. Riding his green motorcycle, which he once named Sativa in honor of her favorite strain, it has helped her reconnect with her body and spirit.
“People don’t want to recognize what is happening because legalization was linked to social justice,” he said. “You get carried away with it and don’t recognize the damage until it’s too late.”
Looking for help
On the Internet, this awareness manifests itself daily in r/leaves, a Reddit community with more than 380,000 people trying to reduce or quit their consumption.
Users have described a similar struggle: they crave the calm that cannabis provides, but then feel trapped by the haze. Some wrote about isolation and regret, saying that years of using have dulled their ambition and their presence in relationships. Others post requests for help from work or medical appointments.
Together, they have put together a portrait of dependence that is silent and routine, and from which it is difficult to escape.
“When people talk about legalizing a drug, they’re really talking about marketing it,” said Dave Bushnell, founder of the Reddit group. “We have created an industry optimized to sell as much as possible.”
Doctors have a warning
Dr. Jordan Tishler, a former emergency room doctor who now treats medical cannabis patients in Massachusetts, said low doses of THC combined with high doses of CBD can help some patients with anxiety. Many products have high levels of THC, which can make symptoms worse, he said.
“It’s a medicine,” he said. “It can be useful, but it can also be dangerous, because accessing it without guidance is dangerous.”
Dr. Kevin Hill, director of addictions at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, who specializes in cannabis use disorders, said the biggest gap is education, both among users and doctors.
“I think adults should be able to do whatever they want as long as they don’t hurt anyone,” but many users don’t understand the risks, Hill said.
According to him, the debate should not focus on the ban, but on balance and informed decision-making. “For most people, the risks outweigh the benefits.”
