Cannabis

[Vics128]

Please help. My boyfriend is addicted to cannabis. he has smoked it for 12 years now, and smokes it everyday. He works in a physical job, and lives like any normal person, but every cigerate he smokes is a joint. He desperately wants to give up, but cant seem to find any help, which he needs as every time he has given up previously the withdraweral symptoms are too intense, he cant sleep for weeks, when he does he wakes from bad dreams soaking in sweat, he gets very angry, and depressed. Any drug abuse centres he has called only seem to cover heroin or other class A drugs, and his doctor has just given him nicoteen patches. My boyf seems to think that as he is male, and not pregnant (!) that no-one is out there to help him. Has anybody else been through this, or could anyone offer any help on what he should do.
Thankyou in advance.
Ps, I cant believe they legalised the bloody stuff!

[Pea Pod]

http://www.channel4.com/health/microsites/A/ad diction/cannabis.html Click on the giving up there is a lot of information here. Hope he gets clean. I have enough trouble giving up fags so it must be hell. Good luck to you both.

[sunflower71]

hello Vics, I myself thought that I had an addiction to the evil stuff too, I havent smoked it now for 3 weeks. However I have replaced it with more booze and more ciggies, not much help really.
There is a really good website that kind of kick started me...I try and find it and report back.
There is some stigma with the doctors about it and also I worried that it would go on my medical record which mght hinder me in later life.
The first step is admitting it which is good and at least he has you there.

Look here :
http://www.knowcannabis.org.uk/imag...20withdr awal%22

[sunflower71]

try this link as just tried the other post i had and it didnt seem to work
http://www.knowcannabis.org.uk/

[Eve]

Try here...

http://www.talktofrank.com/home_html.aspx

[WendyS]

I do hope your letter will serve as a warning to anybody who thinks that taking cannabis is a harmless occupation. It must be very difficult for you to see your boyfriend struggling to overcome his addiction. Perhaps going "cold turkey" is too much for his system to cope with if the withdrawal symptoms are too intense and he has been smoking it for so long. I wonder if you could sit down with him and work out a slow reduction programme over a period of weeks so that his system adjusts more gently. For example, if he smokes 10 a day, reduce it to 8 a day for the first week, 7 a day the next week, and so on. I think this would also have to be accompanied by an agreement to reduce the amount of money he has available to buy the stuff. Could you get him to hand over all his surplus money to you to look after so that he only has enough for his daily essentials but no surplus for cannabis? This might help reduce the temptation.
Starting some gentle daily exercise might help him too. Perhaps if every evening after work he walks for 30 minutes or does some other form of exercise he might start to feel physically better and thus suffer less from withdrawal symptoms. Good luck. Trying to overcome any addiction is a painful process and he will need your support.