I was fortunate enough that cannabis came into my life once my brain was developed enough to handle it, and even then it was not a positive thing. Generally, I bristle at the idea that cannabis will lead to mental wellness.

I think that there are some really good use cases for physical ailments like crohn's disease and a means of comforting patients during cancer treatment, but cannabis is not helpful in the long term for anxiety, depression, or any other mental health disorders. In fact, I believe that any such conditions tend to worsen over time with chronic cannabis use.

Anecdotally, while not my personal experience, cannabis also seems to have a tendency to bring out psychosis and psychiatric conditions in people predisposed to those issues. It's a terrible substance for anybody with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or other such mental health conditions. I have seen too many people who use cannabis every day go through psychosis.

Weed, for other conditions like PTSD, is a bandaid that eventually stops working and leaves chronic users constantly needing a hit to suppress their headspace while keeping true, deep-level mental health healing just out of arm's length. Healing from PTSD, for me, was practically impossible while living in a constant fog.

Chronic cannabis use puts you in a state of nearly constant dopamine withdrawal, eventually requiring a hit of weed just to get through moments of your day. It is not a mode of existence that I could suggest for anybody, and I can only imagine how damaging chronic use could be to a still-developing young brain.

Weed is for adults, and adults should be engaging with it in abundant caution.

Weed is not harmless, and while it might not be chemically addictive like some other substances, that does not mean that it doesn't lead to dependence.

I am personally recovering from cannabis use disorder. I needed weed at a time in my life because I didn't know how to heal from past experiences, and it seemed to help a little with some of my ADHD symptoms. But it worked so well to suppress my brainspace that I started using it constantly, and I couldn't stop myself until I realized that I was never going to heal the way I wanted to if I didn't stop.

It's hard, but I choose healthier coping mechanisms now. I choose coping that leads into my healing, even if those coping skills aren't as comforting as a weed haze.

Weed, for me, is incredibly dissociative, and while dissociation can feel comfortable, it kept me in a wash cycle, never quite healing, always hovering around the answers, unable to feel those truths and operate on them to my betterment.

Thank you for speaking out on your experience, I think it's important that we have these discussions as weed is so roundly touted as safe and non-addictive.