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

I smoked for around the first 3 months after I quit drinking, but it soon became an everyday thing. It wasn't really a trigger to drink but it did make me lazy and still psychologically addicted to a substance. I quit pot around a year ago and I'm glad I did. Much more mental clarity.

It's growing right next door to me here in CA. but I'm not interested. There was a time when I got sober that my brain's feel good chemicals were restored and I was on a natural high. I 'm looking forward to getting that back.

For me any mind altering substance is off limits.

I don't smoke, but I used to use smokeless tobacco (chew) and I was addicted to that as well. I consider nicotine in the Category of things that don't belong in my sober life.

Pot lowered my inhibition, it didn't work as substitute for daily drinking for me. Tried that about two and half years ago. Lead to drinking again with daily pot use added to the mix.

Obviously though the question is ,what do you think? Would a state of lowered inhibition mean you may more easily make a choice to have a drink? If you smoke even just a little and not have a problem , is the risk worth the try? Is the high worth the risk, if it is what does that say about your desire to get high? That's really the rub

No, pot smoking was not a trigger for me to drink. I do think that drinking was sometimes a trigger for me to smoke pot. Also, I do not have a problem with the idea of separating pot smoking from drinking as a habit. For me, the two were separate and I was damn proud of myself for quitting drinking and I didn't/couldn't buy into the "you're not sober" thing. I really wanted to quit drinking and, imperfect as it was, smoking lots of pot (or should I say not quitting pot) did help me with that, I will not lie. Now I have five months of being pot free and I don't miss it. We're all different.

I have smoked cannabis for about 5 years. I've smoked it almost every day during most of that... And I smoked it while on pretty much every substance I've tried, which is a lot. I quit drugs this summer, and at the end of it, I quit drinking. It made the transition from speedballing, benzos, and alchohol while puffing cigs all day, to only smoking pot happen... the withdrawals were calmed a lot by it... I do abuse it though, and I need to examine my dependence on it, but no it's not a trigger at all for anything else, in fact it's been quite the opposite. I don't even desire anything else for the most part, although, I still crave cigarettes from time to time, and alcohol always captures my attention at stores and gas stations, but if anything, pot has helped me not relapse on anything... Realize, though, that this is only my experience, I have no idea how it would effect someone else.

No, it's not a trigger for me. My problem is alcohol not THC. Caffeine is a drug, should I stop drinking my morning coffee to be considered "sober"? I could care less if people disagree with my decision to smoke pot. It's a big reason I don't bother with AA. I don't think many would accept my decision.

Smoking pot, in my case, causes paranoia and a general all around uncomfortable feeling. I'd still smoke it everyday to change the way I feel though because i'd somehow find it weirdly gratifying to be in an altered state of reality even though it's not a reality I enjoy.
I'm speaking from past experience because this time around i'm less than 24 hours sober.

I relapsed this time around because (at least in part) I became addicted to a pain medication prescribed to me by a doctor. Of course I abused and over used the meds, they always ran out days before my next prescription was due and I used alcohol to bridge the gap between prescriptions.

In my case one mind altering substance led me directly back to alcohol, I should have known better and would advise caution.

A friend of mine smoked pot specifically to keep from drinking. After he quit drinking he started smoking a lot more pot. Obviously, he was smoking for the same reasons he had been drinking. Anyway, he's dead now. Found on the floor in his apartment surrounded by empty vodka bottles. I guess he found his peace.