For me, I quit years ago because of the “paranoids”. In some cases, I was experiencing anxiety for days or weeks after having smoked. I became quite concerned that I’d done permanent damage, so I quit for good.
I’m happy for those who can still smoke and enjoy it, but those days are gone forever for me. And I’m better off for it.
Professional reasons, ie I became a professional. Getting busted for weed is automatic loss of credentialing. I’d rather earn a living.
Besides, bourbon is nice too.
About 10 years ago.
It just became more and more difficult to come by and less and less worth the risks. In HS it was everywhere and I could call almost anyone and get some. As I got older I would have to start actively seeking it out and it was just not worth it.
I finally admitted to myself that I really didn’t enjoy it. I was pretty much done with it 20 years ago, but I dabbled a little about 12 years ago due to the people I was hanging out with.
It doesn’t really do anything for me. It just makes me confused and feel unpleasant. I can drink a fair amount of beer and still be lucid, but the tiniest amount of pot completely incapacitates me.
I still think it should be legal.
Well put. I stopped in my early 20s: started again in my mid-20s due to the crowd I was with, and then stopped again when I got married and had kids on the way.
My reasons for initially stopping were that I’d get paranoid and anti-social. Yeah, great party when you’re sitting in the living room reading the paper instead of mingling and chatting. I had this feeling that all non-users could immediately detect that I was burnt. And they probably could have. No fun.
Having kids cemented it for me. I’ve talked to them about it and have admitted trying it, but warned them against it. To be honest I wouldn’t get too upset if they tried it. Now if it became a daily habit I’d worry.
Most of my friends are still into it. Doesn’t bother me that they are, but we’re all hovering on both edges of 50 years old, and booze is just way more fun for me.
I stopped trying to enjoy it many years ago. I’m happy for other people to smoke it if they enjoy it, but it gives me panic attacks and makes me feel nauseous. I’ve found, over the years, that when I say that I can’t stand the stuff I get more people agreeing than disagreeing.
Clearly a large percentage of people don’t enjoy the stuff at all. I’ve also found that a lot of people enjoyed it for a while until the negative effects started outweighing the positive ones.
I find the people who preach it as a kind of universal panacea to be insufferably tedious. However, it should definitley be legal. All drugs should be legal. Drug abuse, like alcohol abuse, should be treated as a personality disorder, not a criminal offence.
Let me add that I definitely think it should be legal. I’m very much like Shakester. I simply stopped pretending to enjoy it. It made me panic, and the unpredictability of it (whether it was going to be pleasant this time, or terrifying) eventually tipped the scales. I wanted to believe, like all my stoner friends, that it was perfectly harmless, and all the bad stuff I experienced was illusory.
I felt myself feeling kind of stupid, like I wasn’t performing at 100%…I was a freshman in college, taking a lot of Honors courses when I quit. Previously when I was smoking more heavily I was just working in a kitchen.
When I dabbled in it later, it just made me sleepy and a bit paranoid. Whee!
ETA: I totally think it should be legal. Part of the reason my usage ramped up when I was a freshman was that I developed TMJD and was in miserable pain a LOT. After getting an ulcer from too much ibuprofen, the only thing that would help the pain was getting stoned and passing out on the tile floor of my dorm room.
Pretty much this, except my kids are still too young for me to have that talk.
I stopped in 1984, when I was 27. My use of mood-altering substances was causing too many problems for me.
I never smoked much but when I was 21 I started getting migraines and one of my major migraine triggers was pot smoke. Not only can I not smoke, I can’t be around people who have smoked for several hours after. Just the residue on their clothes is enough to trigger a migraine.
Some switch flipped when I was 22 or so, and since then. . . superduper neurotically psycho crazypants paranoia, no matter what environment. Distant vacant countryside? Crazypants paranoia. Oregon Country Fair? Crazypants paranoia. Amsterdam coffehouse? Crazypants paranoia. Just can not do it any more.
When I discovered it triggered binges. Not “munchies”. Binges. It wasn’t too long ago.
When it makes me all tingly and content and laugh at EVERYTHING, it’s worth its weight in gold.
When it makes my heart pound out of my chest, makes me (an atheist) think God is trying to kill me, makes me think my brain is permanently fried and I’ll never come down, makes my hands so icy cold that they go numb, even when it’s pleasantly warm outside, or just flat-out makes me nauseous, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
Unfortunately, the latter cases outweigh the former by about 3:1.
I quit gradually over a couple years due to my girlfriend’s strong disapproval. I like pot, but apparently not enough to fight with her over it.
I quit because my mom is bi-polar and had a major event…she went totally batshit.
After about eight months, I started again, and am glad I did. I’m not bi-polar, but it scared me to watch her go through her shit. But I realized I’m not like her in this regard.
Anyone else’s mileage may vary.
I quit just before bedtime last night.
But then I started with my coffee this morning.
Wait…what?
(I used to do drugs. I still do, but I used to, too.)
When I realized that the nasty cough I couldn’t shake was probably related to my intake. It was messing with my health and sapping my motivation to do anything. So bye bye.
I used to miss Mitch Hedberg. I still do, but I used to, too.