
Problems with cannabis use
It has been suggested that using cannabis heavily may create a number of problems. Young people we talked to who had used it listed the following as problems they connected with cannabis:
- Becoming dependent and feeling a need to have cannabis all the time
- Cost, in terms of money spent regularly on cannabis
- Lack of energy and motivation
- Poor performance at school and in exams
- Problems with parents, friendships and relationships
- Emotional effects such as depression and paranoia (see ‘Drugs and Mental Health’ for more details)
Some young people felt a constant urge to use cannabis and realised that they had become dependent on it. It is common to mix cannabis with tobacco when making a spliff (or ‘joint’) and some people thought that they’d become more dependent on the tobacco than the cannabis.
Raphael smokes cannabis regularly and says it makes him feel more lethargic but he doesn’t have any plans to stop. Craig says that he would like to stop but doesn’t think he will be able to. After using cannabis for a while people usually find that they need to smoke more to get the same effect. Kasim said that he ‘needs’ to smoke a spliff in the morning ‘in order to function’ but that he cannot afford to buy cannabis regularly now that he is unemployed.
- Age at interview:
- 20
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- Kasim lives alone on a council estate. He has enrolled in a 13 week hairdressing course, and has a college placement. Ethnic background: Mixed race. Karis lives alone on a council estate. After leaving school she got an apprenticeship at a nursery and goes to college once a week. She hopes to pursue a career in childcare. Ethnic background: Black British.
One common problem associated with heavy cannabis use was the amount of money it costs. The young people we spoke to didn’t have a lot of money so couldn’t easily afford to smoke weed every day. Chloe stole money from her mum and others in her school in order to pay for her cannabis use.
- Age at interview:
- 22
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- Craig lives with mum and dad and works part-time in a newsagent. Ethnic background: White British.
- Age at interview:
- 20
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- Kasim lives alone on a council estate. He has enrolled in a 13 week hairdressing course, and has a college placement. Ethnic background: Mixed race. Karis lives alone on a council estate. After leaving school she got an apprenticeship at a nursery and goes to college once a week. She hopes to pursue a career in childcare. Ethnic background: Black British.
Kasim' It’s around but I have friends like near enough every one of my friends smoke weed so like do you know what I mean if I haven’t got it they have sort of thing. You know, you just like share a spliff or whatever. But yeah it’s like around.
- Age at interview:
- 23
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- Jim lives with his partner and their baby. He works as a retail assistant. He plans to study and wants to work as a drug education practitioner. Ethnic background: White British.
Tiredness, lack of energy and low motivation were often associated with heavy use of cannabis.
- Age at interview:
- 28
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- Sam lives with his partner and their child. He is a part- time youth worker and has just started university. Ethnic background: White British.
So if I’d actually had the motivation because motivation is one of my biggest problems and the only way that I’ve got motivated now is having something I like, and doing something I like. So we’re like that and that really scares me because the current situation in the country is that opportunities are going. They’re taking away opportunities for jobs. They are taking away opportunities for activities and these young people are smoking weed and they are doing things, you know. And their motivation is going to be down to a minimum. So they are going to start thinking about doing things, you know get a bit of money out, be like that. And it scares the life out of me because the potential for young people getting themselves into states. But it’s not that I’m. I know some people have it a lot worse and that. I didn’t have it. I’m alright I haven’t got a lot of money that but I’ve got somewhere to live and I’ve got stuff and I’ve got by, you know. I’m still alive. I had two friend die on the way to get here, bless them. One was heavily drug related, he killed himself actually. He was getting. Actually I don’t really want to talk about that one.
- Age at interview:
- 20
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- Kasim lives alone on a council estate. He has enrolled in a 13 week hairdressing course, and has a college placement. Ethnic background: Mixed race. Karis lives alone on a council estate. After leaving school she got an apprenticeship at a nursery and goes to college once a week. She hopes to pursue a career in childcare. Ethnic background: Black British.
- Age at interview:
- 20
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- Hugh is a first year university student who found that drinking at university was very different from drinking as a teenager. Ethnic background; British.
Peter‘s long-term girlfriend blamed his use of cannabis for their relationship problems but Peter said that the problems were still there when he stopped smoking. Stephanie had started to use a lot of cannabis with friends and noticed some short-term memory loss. She stopped using after her mother became worried and drew attention to the fact that she seemed withdrawn. See also Relationships, drugs and alcohol.
Last reviewed July 2018.
Last updated: January 2015.