Being addicted to any drug is extremely hard and can ruin lives, but there is one kind of drug addiction that often does not get talked about as much. However, marijuana addicts make up a good portion of the overall drug addicted population. According to a 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health report, 28.5 million U.S. citizens over the age of 12 had used marijuana at least once in the past year.
Of course, not all of the people who had used pot could be considered a cannabis addict, but the fact is that many had cannabis addiction and could have benefited from enrolling in a marijuana addiction program. For those who do abuse marijuana, the problem is severe. On average, marijuana addicts who seek treatment for marijuana dependence smoked the drug almost every single day for greater than 10 years and have already attempted to break the habit more than 6 times.
Many marijuana addicts find quitting so hard because the do not believe that there is such a thing as marijuana addiction. Then they try to quit and find themselves suffering from marijuana withdrawal symptoms. Of course, that is not as bad as the symptoms many pot smokers say they suffer while actually smoking the drug. An estimated 46.9 percent of former pot smokers reported sleep disruption problems, including insomnia and also disturbingly vivid dreams and nightmares that disrupted their sleep.
The number of marijuana addicts looks to only be growing, at least according to some new information collected in 2011. That data reports that 22.6 percent seniors in U.S. high schools had used the drug at least one time in the last month, compared to about 18.7 percent who said they smoked cigarettes in the same time frame. Perhaps one of the reasons pot is getting so popular is that the plants are quite easy to grow. In fact, they have the ability to thrive in just about any ecosystem and grow an average of one or two inches of growth a day. Marijuana plants can even grow to a height of up to 18 feet.
Even though the number of marijuana addicts seems to be growing, there is reason to be hopeful as well. There are a number of reputable treatment programs available now, and it seems that more and more people are taking marijuana addiction seriously. Because it is not a harder drug, it has often been overlooked; however the truth about marijuana seems to finally be coming out.