"I was living on a totally other psychedelic plane, numbing myself completely, and looking back I do see now that some of it had to do with my hip pain. I didn't know where the pain was coming from so I was just in a lot of pain and very depressed all the time and not really sure why," Gaga narrated on the Elvis Duran and the Z100 Morning Show, further said she was smoking about 15 to 20 joints a day.
CBSNews.com reported that according to experts, the idea of a marijuana addiction is possible. Ben Levenson, co-founder of Origins Recovery Center in South Padre Island, Texas, explained that dependence and abuse to cannabis is included in "psychiatry bible" the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and has long been recognized as a mental health problem.
According to Levenson, addiction to marijuana is characterized by the user’s inability to abstain from using the substance, behavioral impairment, cravings and diminished recognition of chronic, increasing problems because of abusing the substance. In most serious cases, weed addicts have destroyed family and social relationships, are in serious financial trouble, show signs of memory impairment and have emotional issues due to marijuana abuse. "We see all the core things that we see with other drug addicts," Levenson explained. "They literally spend all their time obtaining marijuana, smoking marijuana or recovering from marijuana."
On the other hand, Marijuana Research Lab Director Margaret Haney of Columbia University Medical Center, also told CBSNews.com that about 10 percent of marijuana smokers will develop a dependence to the drug. "It’s not leading people to steal their grandmother's television set to buy drugs, but it becomes difficult for them to stop," Dr. Haney said.
With this dependence to marijuana, lot of Americans could potentially be affected. Marijuana is the most commonly abused drug in the US with about 17.4 million Americans admitted to be using the drug. 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health revealed that out of 70,000 Americans over the age of 12, 7.3 percent reported using the weed.
While marijuana might not seem as dangerous as other drugs out there, Haney argues that the addiction is just as real. "Would you argue that cigarettes aren't addictive? That those don't lead to the same behavioral consequences that alcohol or cocaine would or could? It doesn't mean for the individual it isn't a problem, and that's why they do seek treatment," Haney stressed out.
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