Is smoking pot a trigger for you?
 

Is smoking pot a trigger for any of you? Any of you smoke pot, but abstain from alcohol? I will be with some friends who smoke pot and undoubtedly, I will be offered some. I do enjoy it. I haven't smoke it in over a year, but I do enjoy it on occasion.

pakman

I can't speak for anyone else, but, nope. I don't believe I can be high and sober.

-allan

Nope. One or both of two things would happen:

1) I would end up smoking every chance I could
2) I would end up drunk

My definition of sobriety includes abstinence from all drugs not specifically prescribed to me by a doctor. I don't hang around with people who smoke either for the same reason.

No

You can get pot prescribed to you now by a doctor.

to be honest. 2 years ago I thought I could "do something else" (another controlled substance) and not drink and I would not consider it relapsing. Guess what? after doing the "controlled substance", my mind then told me i in fact did relapse, so why not go ahead and drink a little. a week later I was full on in the alcoholic cycle, yet again.. that is just what happened to me. good luck..

"No," it's not a trigger for you.

or

"No," I do not smoke pot.

pakman

Do cigarettes get a pass or do you not smoke? I realize there are different as tobacco does not get me high.

pakman

I was never "into" dope, alcohol was my drug of no choice.
But, after a period of miserable sobriety, my friends convinced me to try a puff or two because they thought I would be btter behaved with dope than booze.

It changed the way I felt and a drink was down my neck in seconds resulting in a nine month bender, geographicals, lost jobs lost friends, lost family, ended up sleeping in the park. So the substitution experimnt did not work out too well for me.

There was more to smoking than I thought too. I finally gave up after about 25 years sober and had an awful time of it. Smoking was my stress reliever, and when I gave up, my anger came out in spades. I used to think that smoking, other than a harmful chemical addiction, did not really have much of a psychological effect. Consequently I would advise newly sober alcoholics no to worry too much about the smokes. I don't do that anymore.

Pot was not so much a trigger as a part of the ritual for me...if I had pot I wanted booze & cigarettes; if I had booze I wanted pot and cigarettes.

Initially tho, I started on pot as a teen, and came to alcohol about 10 years later. Pot lowered my inhibitions and made really dumb ideas seem good.

It also destroyed my life as much as my alcoholism did later on...so I vote no on all counts.

D

No I don't smoke pot

No I get drug tested at work so probably a good thing

Smoking pot is a huge trigger for me to smoke more pot. I'd say if you haven't smoked it for a year, why bother? What is the benefit to smoking it that one time? Will you be better off afterwards? How does the benefit compare to the risk? Why are you wondering if it's a trigger? If you don't 100% know it's not a trigger, is it worth it?

Not sure if it's a trigger, but it's a drug and would defeat the purpose of getting sober. Substituting substances is a very bad idea, I've seen people try that with disastrous results.

If I was smoking pot
I would not consider myself sober

More than a trigger

MM

Personally, I struggle a bit with pot smoking. I'm pretty intensely determined not to drink and it's not really a trigger when I do smoke. Interestingly, it's not really a trigger to smoke more either- it seems like I can enjoy it for a time and then I'm really quite thankful for the effect to end.

What is the real concern for me is how it fits in with a sort of dependency cycle (sorry, I'm making this up as I go along, so my language is maybe a bit wonky). By that I mean to what degree (if any) is my pot smoking a dependent behaviour. I've got some fairly strict rules about it. I won't let myself plan on smoking pot as if it was some kind of treat. I wont let it become a regular expense, in fact I'm pretty averse to paying for it lol. I'm really careful about spending time with regular pot smokers I know- I see that sort of dependency as being kinda contagious.

Yeah, I don't know if any of that made sense. In some ways, it'd be easier just to not smoke pot, I suppose. But I feel comfortable with where I'm at with it- sure it does take managing, but then what doesn't?

Exactly, time on weed is not sober time. There was a woman in my outpatient program who had been addicted to crack but quit and she kept track of her "clean" days. However, she would still drink from time to time, sometimes overindulge as well. I always considered her "clean" time to be a complete farce although I kept it to myself. Doing another substance is not sobriety, period.

Say if I was on Cemo and had cancer and a prescription for pot so as to dull the effects. But didn't drink. OK yes I would still consider myself sober. Thank God that is not the case today.
MM

You can get some of the most powerful narcotics ever invented prescribed as well but that doesn't mean I take them