A video which has been doing the rounds shows the realities of what happens in your body when you smoke weed every day for 30 days.
Many people in the UK smoke cannabis, with it estimated to be around 13.8 percent of people aged 16 to 24, per the Priory Group.
But while many might brush its off as a harmless recreational drug that is derived from the marijuana plant, smoking the dried buds can cause some reactions that you might not expect with prolonged use.
According to YouTube channel Untold_Healing, there is a process within the body once it is introduced to the class B drug that is probably a little different from what you had imagined.
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Of course, like any drug, caution needs to be taken, no matter how harmless you think it is.
So, without further ado, here’s what weed does to you in 30 days:
Day one: Feeling euphoric
Like a shot of dopamine, weed apparently gives you a burst of the pleasure hormone, per the simulation, as it triggers that part of your brain when you first smoke it, eat it, or drink it in a tea.
That’s why you might feel mellow, relaxed, and just an overall happy person for a while. However, the effects are short-lived.
According to the American Addiction Centers, many people experience feelings of ‘relaxation and euphoria with marijuana’, but others can feel things like ‘anxiety, panic, mistrust, and general fear’.
So, it’s all down to the person.
Days three to five: Tolerance begins
That happy feeling won’t last forever, as within five days, your tolerance begins to take hold, meaning that it’ll take more weed in your system to mimic the effects of your first hit on day one.
This is where things start to get tricky, as you’ll need to smoke more and more to recreate the same high.
Two weeks: Short-term memory affected
The simulation explained that when it comes to smoking weed daily, two weeks in is the turning point for your memory.
It explained that this is when your ability to create new memories is impacted and your ‘short-term memory consolidation drops by 18 per cent’, with those under 25 being impacted the most.
The American Addiction Centers reveals that some links to regular marijuana use during adolescence can lead to things like ‘impaired learning, memory, and impulse control’ and also ‘significant differences in brain development when heavy cannabis use starts before age 18’.
Day 20: Dependency starts
According to the YouTube simulation, day 20 is when the dependency usually starts, and is also a time when around 20 percent of weed users will become addicted.
Cannabis addiction is known as cannabis use disorder.
Per UK Addiction Treatment Centres, this addiction ebbs and flows and shows a pattern of someone being unable to quit as they begin to rely on the feeling cannabis gives them.
Not smoking might cause the person distress as they become acclimated to the high.
Day 30: Quitting causes withdrawal
The simulation went on to show the shocking realities of attempting to quit smoking weed after doing so for 30 days, and it’s not pretty.
It explained that by this point, the body relies on the feeling, and so when it is cut off suddenly from the drug, things get scary.
Sleep problems, irritability, and anxiety that can last from 'two to six weeks' could be in store for you at this point.
Per the American addictions site, ‘chronic and frequent use of marijuana can lead some individuals to develop physical dependence, leading to withdrawal symptoms that ‘peak within the first week after quitting and can last for up to two weeks’.
Here’s what it says it can cause:
- Irritability
- Changes in mood
- Difficulty sleeping
- Decrease in appetite
- Cravings for marijuana
- Restlessness
Britt Jones