Letters to the Editor

• I hope I'm not being presumptuous here...

  [Read the article: I'm 21 and addicted to pot -- but I'm doing just great!]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  I wasn't going to comment on this article. The spectrum of perspectives is already sufficiently wide that an intelligent person should find plenty to ponder, from a host of viewpoints.

  But I feel the imperative to express strong disapproval of the multiple recommendations that you jettison your cannabis habit in favor of an ongoing regime of SSRI medications like Prozac or Paxil. That advice makes me shudder- even if those dispensing the remote diagnosis and treatment recommendations have medical degrees. (I hope not.)

  Too many physicians are currently prescribing the recently developed SSRI drugs as if they're the equivalent to the "Soma" of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. That was not their original therapeutic purpose. They were developed to correct the chemical imbalances associated with patients suffering from severe chronic depression.

  I've heard the stories- including firsthand accounts of friends and acquaintances- of people diagnosed with chronic severe depression who have battled it most of their lives, who consider it a godsend. I agree that they can be invaluable medications.

  But I also lost a friend to suicide a few years back, and I have good reason to think that chemical imbalances induced by Paxil that he had been prescribed for "situational depression" played a crucial role in driving him over the edge of irrational despair. The medical reports I've been reading in the years since that tragedy continue to bear out my suspicions in that regard. Chemical regimens designed to produce long-term alterations of serotonin metabolism are not to be administered so cavalierly.

  I've also read, or heard personally, more than a few disturbing anecdotes about severe side effects from SSRI use- a range of disturbing personality changes, including the development of impulsively aggressive and antisocial tendencies, erratic mood swings, the total loss of the sex drive and the inability to orgasm- and, frankly, I've never heard anyone report effects nearly as drastic from their use of cannabis (although drug use being as relative to the individual as it is, I wouldn't say it never happens with pot, either...I'll just say I've never heard anyone mention their experience of such side effects to me.)

  Even more ominously, it can be very difficult to quit SSRI drugs. If people with SSRI habits- and daily use of any drug is nothing if not a habit- discontinue their meds all at once, they run the risk of a "crash" that can make methamphetamine withdrawal seem tame. The resulting serotonin depletion seems to be tougher to ride out in some ways than the neurotransmitter depletions experienced by those with cocaine or speed dependencies.

  I'm not out to have Prozac, Paxil, Effexor, etc. withdrawn from the market, prohibited, or re-scheduled as drugs of abuse- but anyone who decides to accept a prescription for them needs to take responsibility for their decision, including assuming the risks. And no MD has any business prescribing them casually.

  It's the nadir of good sense to discourage cannabis use in one statement- emphasizing its illegality or unpopularity with the "authorities" as if that constituted a valid health risk- and proffer a handful of SSRI pills in the next.

  My personal advice to the letter writer: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. You're a senior undergrad, with only a few months to go until the finish line. At least in the short term, it seems you've found an adaptive routine that works for you. But keep your eyes on the prize, not to be confused with your stash.

  I suggest that you gear down once you graduate. And when you get the increased free time to rearrange your schedule, take up an intensive exercise program- 20-45 minutes, at least 3 times a week- and stick to it. You'll probably ache and be exhausted for the first 3-5 weeks. However, you will be walking on a cloud by the 4th to 6th week. Most everyone agrees that the high is at least equivalent to a light dose of pot- or better. And you will feel yourself getting quicker and stronger- not merely as a dream, but as a material fact. No substance that someone can simply ingest has the power to accomplish a feat that magnificent.

  The test: commit to 1 full year of a 3-4 times weekly workout regimen. Discontinue anything that gets in the way- including pot, tobacco, overeating, or over-commitments to school or work. If you find you can't make time for carving out 2 hours for exercise 3-4 times per week (from preparation to cool-down & shower) because you can't quit [whatever]- consider that you may have a problem worth worrying about. If so- solve it. The sooner, the better.

  For the suggested program to succeed, a dramatic reduction of the amount of your pot use will almost certainly be required, if not total abstention. But it will also necessarily entail grappling with your tobacco addiction, which is the problem that you sound to me as if you're most in denial about.

  Note that you go on reflectively for paragraphs with observations about your pot use- but when it comes to tobacco, you simply make a passing comment about having resigned yourself to having "an abusive relationship with my body." While I've known some happy & healthy long-term pot smokers, none of them have tobacco habits. Almost all of them have substantially reduced the amount and frequency of their pot use as the years pass, with little or no difficulty. I can't say the same of people with tobacco habits. I know many people who have quit tobacco permanently- but almost all of them say it was a difficult achievement, requiring self-discipline and endurance of physical discomfort. That said, the ones who found it easiest tended to be those who quit early on, while they were young.

  A program built around saying "no" to things doesn't work as well as one that stresses a positive goal, with its own set of alternative gratifications. Hence, my suggestion- or challenge, as it were.

  Permalink Wednesday, April 2, 2008 09:42 PM