Weed gets a free pass

My mate (M34) is in a wedding band. Last week, their new singer, his friend, committed suicide. He had been struggling for a while. While empathising with my mate over his loss I asked "Did he have any challenges with substance abuse?"

"No, no. He didn't drink much and he didn't like drugs"

"But did he smoke weed?"

"Oh yeah, sure. He smoked every night. A few joints like. But nothing mad".

Since I have found this community, and have been reflecting on my own sobriety of three years, this caused me to think:

If a person takes 'other drugs' every day. They are a drug addict

We can all agree, surely.

If a person needs to get drunk every night, they are an alcoholic.

This makes sense, no?

If someone gets high every single night, they just like to chill.

I see now that for me, smoking every night wasn't just chilling - it was dependency. I wish society's relaxed attitude toward weed hadn’t made it harder for me to recognise that sooner. I was a drug addict for 10 years and a drug user for 6 before then. I wish, when I was high all the time, people hadn't given weed such a free pass.