I do think smoking, like drinking should be after your work day is over but I know lots of young people who don’t agree

Enough sources have said there are real benefits that I believe there are.
As long as it doesn't interfere with any aspect of your life, give it a try.

But that is over the whole population some use it to support a drinking habit. It "won't make you feel any way you're not" so if anxiety arises try and work through the emotions. And I agree with the above use it for later in the day, like the boating motto "not until the sun is under your arm".

of Pot that you can pick and chose which you wish to get. If you don't or haven't smoked much, don't get something that'll knock your socks off, too strong. Probably get something that will leave you mellow and calm. And, like they say, don't smoke and drive. Just being smart.

Good luck. It's legal all around us here, so we're lucky w/ an abundance.

He said is was a nice, mellow buzz. I have 12 big Mason jars of it from this year's harvest. So I don't need to go out an buy any. And it's totally legal here in Michigan.

You can vape crushed weed in it and it’s way easier on your lungs and less prone to inducing couch-lock.

Also = moderation.

Keep your lungs clean.

I enjoyed learning about how to grow it, getingt rid of the male plants, and all the stuff involved in harvesting and curing it.

It’s been years since I had any treats, as I used to call it so no one would know what we were talking about. Lost contact with a few people and time goes by. Enjoy your just for fun hobby and at least do like the great cooks do and taste it!

Once I took up reading as a serious hobby/activity a couple years back, I found that I had almost zero desire to use any longer. Getting high was certainly fun and calming (in a way that drinking alcohol never quite worked for me), but it was also a conscious decision to escape into a separate space as well.

It is pretty much impossible for me to read (or do many things that require active engagement to a high degree) and use THC, so I have drastically curtailed one for the other. In just under 2 years, I have successfully read 188 books - everything from "War and Peace" and "The Count of Monte Cristo" (unabridged version @ ~1,300 pages) to "V for Vendetta" and "1984".

I do not condemn anyone's choices for relaxation or ways to deal with the world we live in today...but if you're looking for ways to stay off of any substances or external stimulations, reading can be a highly effective and enjoyable way to go...

Either way, congrats on 7 years and hope that whatever you decide, you find peace and happiness along the path!

That's a lot of reading!

During those 10 years, we did about as much introspection as one could. One eve. my brother and a friend said, come on, let's smoke this joint before we go to the movie. The movie was American Beauty, all about a guy trying pot and other things) We laughed so hard that we realized it had been a very long time since we were that relaxed and happy. We went back to smoking it and drinking to be honest. But during those 10 years we learned why we were struggling our whole life. I got on anti depressants because I really needed them. Depression and anxiety have a long history in my family. I could never have gotten to that point if I hadn't quit for that time. But, now I am not sad or depressed, I only partake after the work day is done, We are retired and quite happy. So, what will happen for you? Who knows? Have you figured out what you were running from when you had problems from drinking too much? How hard was it for you to get sober and could you do it again if your experiment fails? AA would kill me for this advice, but, even when I went to AA I couldn't stand saying, Hi, I'm so and so and I'm an alcoholic. So I would I said Hi, I'm so and so and I'm recovering. It is a complicated question that only you can answer. Good luck!

I've noticed that there are people who drink because they can't deal with some past trauma. And there are folks like me. I never considered myself an alcoholic, just a drinker. I'd get drunk most nights and would fall asleep in front of the tv. I did it because I enjoyed the buzz. In my youth, I enjoyed downers. I like the relaxed felling. My family did an intervention and that's really why I quit. I do miss it once in a while, and who knows. I might drink again someday. But I've been sober for seven years and will probably continue to lay off the booze.

Maybe stick with edibles.. That's what I do, but still enjoy a few hits off the pipe in the evening.

I infuse my own butter and bake cookies but we buy gummies at the dispensary. We used to grow our own but got lazy.

It's legal and relatively inexpensive here in Colorado.

Good luck.. I know you'll make the right decision.

I had no idea what that meant, so during the break I asked. And I was told that it meant just substituting marijuana for alcohol and they didn't recommend it. BTW, I now have 16 years sober (though it took me awhile to get it) because I found a great sponsor who told me what to do and I took the advice I gathered at meetings.

I certainly had no idea that you ever had an alcohol problem. You're a very smart woman as I know from your posts.

I don't like to talk about it, but I had a terrible time overcoming pot addiction, and let's be clear, it was an just that, an addiction.

I really have no use for the claim that pot isn't addictive. I know better.

My addiction made me fat, lazy, and stupid.

I quit sometime in the late 1970's. I don't actually recall the date or even the exact year. It just happened. One day I was a pothead, and the next day I wasn't.

(It was then, post pothead that I discovered that the Grateful Dead were rarely playing in tune.)

I did not seek or get outside help; I went cold turkey on my own, which is not to say that I have any objection at all to seeking help; I recommend seeking help in fact.

My nephew, who is prone to depression, has been a pot addict since high school, apparently the 9th grade. He recently quit; I hope he makes it. I saw him at Thanksgiving, and I would say I enjoyed him more than at any other time of his life. He's in his early 20s, about the same age I was when I quit.

I've lost a lot of sleep worrying about that young man. He has often been suicidal. The pot didn't help with that. It just made things worse. I've tried very hard to engage and help him, to be as close to being as good an uncle to him as my uncles were to me.

As for myself, I can, and do, drink occasionally, generally in social settings and business dinners. Sometimes my wife and I will have a glass of wine or a beer.

I have an unused bottle of champagne in my house which will be opened when the orange pedophile dies, assuming I outlive the disastrous excuse for a human being.

My wife and I just each had a glass of champagne when celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary.

All this said, I know very well that my genetics predisposes me to substance abuse but I haven't been drunk in a very long time; I can't recall the last time in fact. Still, I have to keep a wary eye on myself:

My Grandfather was a terrible, violent, alcoholic, suffering as well, as I suspect, from post traumatic stress disorder after trench warfare in the First World War, partially as a result of a severe head wound which required the use of a silver plate to address part of a missing skull.

He was murdered, probably in a bar fight or a robbery. No one actually cared, although the British Army paid for an elaborate funeral after finding out about his death. My father identified the body. My grandfather must have been carrying some form of ID when he was killed.

The last time my father saw his father alive, he threw him down the stairs leading to my Grandmother's apartment where he was beating her and threatening her life. My father told his father never to set foot in the house again.

He didn't.

When I was growing up, I never saw my father drunk. My parents didn't drink at home. We had a few bottles of liquor in our house, but they stayed unused for decades. I did see my father drunk after my mother's death and for a while, his drinking was worrisome. In those years, my substance abuse was also worrisome. We were deformed by my mother's painful, slow death, but that really isn't an excuse. Substance abuse made it worse.

We both got past it.

When my father remarried, his drinking problem went away. Psychological state is clearly connected with the genetic predisposition.

His stepsons, my step brothers, all five of them, his second wife's children from her first marriage, all had alcohol problems. One was killed in a drunk driving accident, fortunately not killing anyone else, having run into a parked tow truck. I think my father nevertheless, helped the other guys, their father having been killed by a drunk driver while supervising a road crew. Those guys grew to love my father as I did. Interestingly, I never saw either of my two step sisters drunk.

Like I say, I have the genetics for it. I would not be surprised to learn that I have dysfunctional dehydrogenases, although my genes haven't been mapped and won't be.

I have warned my sons about it. So far, so good. Neither of them have displayed evidence of a sustained a substance abuse problem. (I have seen my oldest son drunk, but it's very rare to do so.) They may have functional genes from their mother's side of the family, which is a good thing. She's genetically my superior. Happily, I know it since it was obvious from the very beginning.

My first AA meeting was in November 2008 and my sobriety date is April 30, 2009. For me it was a learning curve, I gradually slowed down and I credit my sponsor for sticking with me. She was one of my favorite people ever, she wasn't well herself, was on oxygen all the time, her nickname in the rooms was O2 Sue. She took me to meetings and introduced me to people and basically told me what to do.

I lost my mother when I had 2 1/2 years sober and she sat with me at the hospital all night. My mother wasn't ill, she had an accident. When Hurricane Irene came through these parts there was a lot of damage and prolonged power outages. So my mother fell down the stairs in the dark and broke her neck. She spent 3 weeks in surgical intensive care in Albany, where I went every day, then they brought her back up north and disconnected her ventilator which was the last thing I wanted and Sue stayed with me the whole time.

And I wasn't a lifelong alcoholic. I didn't drink in high school or college (where everyone did), but I agree with you that the tendency is genetic. When people speak at meetings so often they say that they come from alcoholic families. And I realize now that's true for me, no one in my family ever got in trouble like some do, but it definitely came from my Dad's side. He had two younger brothers and an older sister who were all heavy drinkers. I didn't realize it when I was a kid, but when they all got together, they all drank after the kids were in bed.

As for my Dad, if he knew he needed help, he'd check himself into a rehab (in another state) for two weeks which counted as his "vacation," and he'd come home just fine. The thing was, he had a very responsible job and no one could know except family. And he was responsible for sending employees to rehab and I've often thought that he could have helped them, but he never went to meetings except in rehab and he never knew about me.

I don't know where it came from in my family, my grandmother who I was very close to loved to have a drink, but she stopped at only one. And my grandfather, who also fought in WWI, died suddenly of a heart attack at 48 when my Dad was only 12. He came from a large Irish family and that seemed to happen to the boys and he was the eldest boy. His closest sister who I knew died at 97. And everyone in the family always speaks fondly of my grandfather.

I should have known earlier, when I'd started my long-time job, I got very sick at work and my friend took me to the ER. They gave me some kind of meds and I missed three days of work as sick as I've ever been. I didn't drink for years after that, but eventually I forgot. And so it started again, I'd come from work all tense and would mean to have one glass of wine, but the alcoholic in me couldn't stop. I tried going to the doctor, but he's just tell me that I was "smart" and shouldn't do that or put me on meds. No one ever suggested AA but that's what worked for me.

My friend who is not an alcoholic, but comes from an alcoholic family (she has half brothers and sisters) took me to my first meeting (she's also a member of DU) and suggested a women's meeting a cousin had belonged to and that's where I met Sue. As I said, Sue wasn't well and passed away five years ago. I still miss her but I keep up with AA and still want her to be proud of me.

As for marijuana and other drugs, the longer I'm in AA the more people I meet who are cross addicted. I tried marijuana when I was in high school (boarding school) where everyone did drugs. The last time I tried it I got sick so it's not for me.

Thanks so much for sharing your story, I know that mine isn't that eventful compared to many I've heard. And I still go to meetings since I can't forget again. And we get brand new people and a lot of long-timers, much longer than me. The advice is to keep coming back. The gentleman who is celebrating this month in my "home group" will have 52 years! And he keeps coming back and is great at reaching out to others. I know that I'll never reach 52 years, but he's another great example. Sorry I went on for so long and thanks for sharing and listening if you got this far.

As it happens, I had two housemates (both of Irish extraction) who were serious alcoholics, very serious alcoholics, and both of whom ultimately recovered in AA and went on to lead useful lives.

The second one, actually played a role in me getting together with my future wife, albeit in a negative way.

I described it here, last year, referring to "my" (not her) 40th anniversary: So, I asked my wife if we could do something special for "my" 40th anniversary with her. We just had "her" 40th anniversary this week.

I think she's kind of my private "AA." She keeps me on the straight path. (How and why she put up with me, I don't know, but she did.)

I'm very glad to hear you keep up and know who you are. Congratulations again.

Pot is decided not a benign drug.