Matt: What’s up everybody? This is Matt and Greg with Project Unbroken. Do us a favor, hit that subscribe button and please share this video with anybody that you think might benefit from hearing about what Greg and I went through with our drug experience.
Marijuana.
Yeah.
Greg: We smoked a lot of weed.
Matt: Yeah. We did. And, you know, nowadays the landscape’s changing constantly. It’s recreationally legal in a lot of states. A lot of states are passing it for medical purposes. Marijuana addiction, what do you think? Is it a problem? I don’t know.
Greg: It’s an interesting topic. You know, like I said we used to smoke a lot of weed.
Matt: Yeah.
Greg: We started in high school. We would smoke occasionally. I remember the first time I smoked it with you and one of our good friends. I was so fucking high, I was seeing stuff in like that. You guys were messing with me. You were saying stuff and I was like, “Did they really say that?” So I don’t know, that’s just the first time I smoked. But as we started smoking, it was maybe once a month.
Matt: Yeah, maybe.
Greg: We didn’t smoke that often. Then we got out of school and we got more involved with a group of friends that smoked every single day. Our schedule was basically meet up, get weed, a quarter ounce or half ounce, and we would go through it in one day. We’d roll blunts all day long and just drive around smoking. That was it. That was our life for a good year or two.
Matt: Yeah.
Greg: So, is marijuana addiction real? I mean, I guess in technical terms you could say yes. At the same time, when we were smoking I didn’t even really like it.
Matt: Yeah.
Greg: You know what I mean? A lot of times I got anxiety when we smoked. I was like, “I don’t even want to be high right now. Why am I smoking?” At the same time, I was just in the habit of smoking every day. I guess it would depend who you ask but I think in technical terms I would say yes, marijuana addiction is real but I don’t think it’s nearly as harmful as other addictions. I compared something like heroin addiction, which was horrible.
Matt: Yeah.
Greg: That’s a really bad addiction. I think marijuana addiction is a real thing, but it’s obviously just not as detrimental as something like heroin addiction could be.
Matt: Yeah. I mean, I think you’re right. I think technically anything that you’re using on a daily basis like that maybe that you don’t even like to do-
Greg: Yeah, it’s true.
Matt: … but you’re just doing it. That’s not a good thing. While I don’t think that marijuana is necessarily a very harmful drug in itself, I think it is a substance that somebody can abuse for the wrong reasons to maybe escape from their life or escape from the way they feel or if they don’t like the person they are. It is a way to kind of … it’s an altered state.
Greg: It could almost be a stepping stone.
Matt: It could be. I mean and that’s … I don’t necessarily think that people go from smoking a joint to doing heroin necessarily.
Greg: Right.
Matt: I think the issue is more, “What are the underlying causes of you wanting to abuse any substance anyways?” Especially every single day. That’s not a healthy habit to get into. You’re using a substance to avoid something.
Greg: To get out of your normal head.
Matt: Yeah. You don’t like something that’s going on.
Greg: I like that point because that’s almost like, if you’re smoking every day … I think there’s people who smoke every day that it’s totally fine in my opinion. If it’s someone who-
Matt: It’s like drinking coffee or something.
Greg: Right. If they’re happy, if it’s not having negative effects on their life, I think it’s fine.
Matt: Yeah.
Greg: I guess is that still called a marijuana addiction though? If you’re smoking weed every single day but there’s no negative consequence of it. You have your job, you’re happy, you’re really happy, like legitimately; you have a family that loves you; you’re not out there doing dumb shit.
Matt: Healthy relationship.
Greg: Yeah. Is that still a marijuana addiction?
Matt: So, I’m going say yeah, it’s an addiction but not necessarily a super harmful one.
Greg: Yeah
Matt: I’m-
Greg: I think people when you say “addiction” people think negative, I guess.
Matt: Yeah.
Greg: Because I mean really, I guess I have an addiction to working out.
Matt: I … yeah.
Greg: But is that negative?
Matt: We’re addicted to working out.
Greg: Right.
Matt: I’m addicted technically to coffee, I would imagine.
Greg: 100%. I tried quitting coffee for a month. It was fucking horrible.
Matt: Yeah, and these things, it depends on your relationship with them too. So if you were like, “Look, no more coffee, it’s just the end of it,” I would really struggle with that for a while. Yeah, it’s probably not super healthy.
Greg: You know what though? You probably wouldn’t struggle as much if coffee was negatively effecting your life because I know you, I know who you are, you’d be like, “Look, this is not helping me long-term. I’m getting this short-term benefit but fuck that, I’m done with coffee.” That’s how you are.
Matt: Yeah.
Greg: You know? But since coffee doesn’t negatively effect you really, you might get a little moody here and there, but overall it doesn’t negatively affect your life, you’re like, “It’s fine.” You know? It’s-
Matt: Yeah, I mean, so I would say that a lot of people are addicted to sugar. They may not know it.
Greg: Most people are addicted to sugar.
Matt: Most everybody’s addicted to sugar. It may sound crazy. I don’t really eat sugar, ever.
Greg: I don’t any more.
Matt: When I started to see the negative effects that it had on my life and the negative effects it could have on my brain and my body long-term, I cut it out of my diet 100%. It sucked for a couple days but when I saw it was having a negative impact on my life, it was like, “This has got to go.”
Greg: Yeah.
Matt: I think as long as you’re comfortable making those decisions and not getting pulled back into it, with anything I think you’re okay.
Greg: Yeah.
Matt: It’s the same with marijuana. Like Greg said, if your relationships are healthy, if you’re happy, if it’s not causing you financial problems and causing you to make bad decisions, I don’t think it’s the end of the world.
Greg: No.
Matt: If it is having a negative impact on your life, on your daily habits, you’re not showing up to work, you’re not showing up to school, you’re not showing up to your relationships the way you should be, you’re not being present in the way you should be, it’s something you need to address.
Greg: I guess either way you could still be considered a marijuana addiction. If you’re smoking it every day, you’re still addicted to it.
Matt: Yeah.
Greg: But maybe it’s just the connotation around it. You know, people look at marijuana addiction like, “Oh, he’s a marijuana addict?” Or like, “He’s a … whatever addict.” They think of a bad thing. Not necessarily a bad thing if you have your chips in a row, right?
Matt: Yeah. I mean same with shopping. Same with eating. There’s plenty of people that have a very, very unhealthy relationship with shopping. They shop because it makes them feel better to get something new and they have 20 credit cards maxed out. That’s an addition you need to take a look at. Yeah, it’s not heroin, but neither is marijuana. It depends on your relationship with whatever that is.
Greg: And also, I guess, how you interact with the certain substance, right? People react differently to coffee, to cocaine, to marijuana, to milk. People react differently to different substances so I think it depends on what that substance does to you. Again, the main point is, is it negatively affecting your life?
Matt: You need to be very self aware with yourself. You need to be honest. A lot of times when we’re addicted to something, we want to rationalize and say, “I’m cool. I got this.”
Greg: Yeah.
Matt: You need to be very honest with yourself. Is this causing harm to my life? Is this making my life less manageable? If it is, you need to be strong and make that decision to cut it out. If it’s not having a super negative impact, maybe in some ways benefiting you … I know marijuana has medicinal qualities to it.
Greg: 100%. We do jujitsu. We roll. There’s people who come into jujitsu high as fuck-
Matt: Ripped.
Greg: … and are cool.
Matt: Yeah.
Greg: You know, like it’s fine for them. They’re body reacts differently. If I smoke weed before I went to jujitsu, I’d be freaking out. I’d be going, “Ah, get up off me.”
Matt: Yeah.
Greg: So people just react differently. If you can do it and stay positive and not have it negatively affect you, I don’t see a problem but I do think marijuana addiction’s real. I just think you got to maybe not look at addiction in all cases as a bad thing if it’s a drug and an addiction. It’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Matt: Again, as long as the underlying causes are not very negative as long as you’re not trying to get out of your own head every single minute of the day. If it’s manageable, if your life is manageable, if you’re happy and you’re covering all your responsibilities that you need cover, I don’t think it’s much worse than coffee or whatever else.
Greg: It also comes down to society. Society accepts alcohol. They accept caffeine addiction, right?
Matt: Oh, yeah.
Greg: So it’s like, “That’s not a problem.” That’s legal and we accept it. Since marijuana is illegal … now it’s starting to be legal and more accepted but five to 10 years back people were like, “Oh my god. He’s addicted to marijuana? He’s a pothead?”
Matt: Right, but you can be shit faced at the bar and it’s fine.
Greg: Exactly.
Matt: Yeah. Society has a lot to do with it.
Greg: Definitely. I would say … I think we both agree marijuana addiction’s a real thing but it doesn’t necessarily have to be a horrible thing.
Matt: Got to keep your eye on it, but-
Greg: Oh.
Matt: All right, guys. Thank you for watching. Don’t forget to hit that subscribe button. Share this video with anybody that you think might get some benefit from it.
We look forward to talking to you guys soon. Take care.
