Anything that makes you high can be addictive, and THC fits the bill. But don’t take my word for it. The medical and psychiatric consensus is that THC isquite addictive, as classified by the bible of the psychiatric profession, The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5). The DSM-5 specifies nine types of substance use disorders (SUDs), and cannabis use disorder (CUD) is one of them.
Processed benzene hash oil products like wax, shatter, crumble, etc., have proven especially addictive, as they contain up to 90% or higher concentrations ofTHC. But don’t fool yourself into believing herb marijuana is “natural” and can’t hurt you, just because it comes from plants grown in the Earth. Would you smoke poison ivy, also a 100% natural plant? Plus, modern herb is nowhere near as dilute as the weed of yesteryear, which had maybe 1-2% THC content. Since then, growers have selectively bred marijuana to have more and more THC, to the point where a strain called Jenny Kush is supposedly up to 42% THC by weight. That’s at least 20 times stronger than Woodstock weed.
According to DSM-5 (based on hundreds of studies) about 30% of THC/marijuana users have CUD. Most have a dependency: they have withdrawal symptoms when they don’t use. About 9% of users are completely addicted; i.e., they can’t stop using cannabis products even when it interferes with other parts of their life. Using cannabis, by way of THC, becomes the focus of their lives. Addiction rises to about 17% for those who started using in their teens.
THC is addictive, and cannabis now contains more THC than ever. Full addiction impairs physical, mental, and social functioning by becoming the center of your life.