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BROOKLINE, Massachusetts – For the past several years, 75-year-old Miguel Laboy has smoked a cigarette with his coffee every morning. He tells himself that he won’t start the same way tomorrow, but he usually does.
“You know what bothers me? The first thing on my mind in the morning is cannabis,” he said angrily in his Brookline, Massachusetts, apartment. “I would like to wake up one day and not smoke. But you see how that’s happening.”
Since legalization and commercialization, daily cannabis use has become a defining – and often invisible – part of many people’s lives. High-potency vapes and concentrates now dominate the market, and doctors say they can blur the line between relief and dependence over time so that users don’t notice the change. Across the country, people who turn to cannabis for help are finding it harder to quit.
Overall, alcohol is more widely used than cannabis. But starting in 2022, the number of daily cannabis users in the US will exceed that of daily alcohol drinkers – a major shift in American habits.
Researchers say the increase has come with products that contain far more THC than marijuana in previous decades, including vape oils and concentrates that can reach 80% to 95% THC. Massachusetts, like most states, does not set any limits on how strong these products can be.
Doctors warn that daily, high-potency use can blur memory, disrupt sleep, increase anxiety or depression, and lead to addiction that previous generations haven’t had to face. People who have developed cannabis use disorder say its symptoms are hard to recognize because of the widespread belief that marijuana is not addictive. Because the results come on slowly – brain fog, irritability, dependence – users often miss when therapeutic use turns into compulsion.
Laboy, a retired chef, began seeing a substance-use counselor after telling his doctor that he was feeling depressed, unmotivated, and isolated as his drinking and cannabis use increased.
Naltrexone helped him quit alcohol, but he found no way to quit marijuana. Unlike alcohol and opioids, there is no FDA-approved medication to treat cannabis addiction, although research is ongoing.
Laboy, who first smoked pot at age 18, said marijuana helped with symptoms linked to long-undiagnosed ADHD, childhood trauma and traumatic experiences — including cancer treatment and the death of her son. While working in restaurant kitchens for decades, he considered himself a “functional idiot”.
However, recently, its use has become compulsive. After retiring, he started vaping 85% THC cartridges.
“These days, I keep two things in my hands: my vape and my cellular — that’s it,” he said. “I’m not proud of it, but it’s the reality.”
Cannabis reduces her anxiety and “calms her spirit”, but she has noticed that it affects her concentration. She hopes to learn to read music, but finds it difficult to maintain focus on the piano.
He continued seeing an addiction psychiatrist for six months, but he was unable to reduce his addiction. The medical system does not appear equipped to help, he said.
“They’re not ready yet,” Laboy said. “I go to them for help, but all they say is, ‘Try to smoke less.’ I already know this – that’s why I’m there.
Young users describe a similar slide – one that starts with relief and ends in a place hard to define.
Kyle, a 20-year-old Boston University student, says cannabis helps him deal with panic attacks he’s had since high school. He spoke on the condition that only his first name be used because he buys marijuana illegally.
In the Allston apartment he lives with the fraternity brothers, there is a communal excitement among them.
When he’s drunk, Kyle feels calmer – and is able to process anxious thoughts and feel a sense of gratitude. But when he’s sober it’s harder to reach that clarity.
“I think I was able to do it better a year ago,” he said. “Now I can only do it when I’m drunk, which is scary.”
He said that brain fog and feelings of detachment develop so slowly that they become “your new normal.” Some mornings, he wakes up feeling like an observer in his own life, struggling to remember the previous day. He said, “Waking up and going, ‘Oh my God, who am I?’ “It may be hard to say.”
Still, he doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
Kyle says cannabis helps him function – even more than he sought professional treatment. Doctors say the dilemma is common: Many people think cannabis is both the problem and the solution.
Anne Hassell spent a month in jail and a year on probation for cannabis cultivation in the 1980s. She cried when Massachusetts’ first dispensary opened — and gave up her physical therapy career to get the job.
However, within a year, “my dream job turned into a nightmare,” she said.
Hassell, 58, said some advisers pushed staff to promote higher-potency concentrates as “more medicinal” by downplaying their risks. After trying her first dab – an almost instantaneous, “numbing” high – she started using 90% THC concentrate several times a day.
His use quickly became debilitating, he said. He lost interest in things he once loved, like mountain biking. One autumn day, she went towards the forest and returned without coming out. “I just wanted to go to my friend’s house and cuddle,” she said. “I hated myself.”
She did not seek formal treatment but recovered with the help of a friend. Riding her green motorcycle – once named “Sativa” after her favorite brand – has helped her reconnect with her body and spirit.
“People don’t want to admit what’s happening because legalization is tied to social justice,” he said. “You get caught up in it and don’t realize the damage until it’s too late.”
Online, this realization plays out daily on r/Leaves, a Reddit community of more than 380,000 people trying to cut down or quit.
Users describe a similar push-pull – longing to get the high of cool cannabis, then feeling stuck in a fog. Some people write of isolation and regret, saying that years of smoking have reduced their ambition and presence in relationships. Others turn to work or doctors’ offices for help.
Together, they paint a picture of dependence that is calm and routine – and difficult to escape.
“When people talk about legalizing a drug, what they’re really talking about is commercializing it,” said Dave Bushnell, who founded the Reddit group. “We’ve created an industry that’s optimized for selling as much as possible.”
Dr. Jordan Tishler, a former emergency physician who now treats medical cannabis patients in Massachusetts, said low doses of THC combined with high doses of CBD may help some patients with anxiety. Many products contain high levels of THC, which can worsen symptoms, he said.
“It’s a drug,” he said. “It can be useful, but it can also be dangerous – and access without guidance is dangerous.”
Dr. Kevin Hill, addiction director at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, who specializes in cannabis use disorders, said the biggest gap between both consumers and physicians is education.
Hill said, “I think adults should be allowed to do what they want as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else,” but many users don’t understand the risks.
He said the conversation should not be about prohibition but about balance and informed decision-making. “For most people, the risks outweigh the benefits.”
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without any modifications to the text.
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