Nearly 6 percent of American teens and adults have cannabis use disorder.

Smoking weed had always been a social activity for Julian. He first tried cannabis in high school, and as an adult he would smoke a couple of times a month with friends. But things changed after he moved to a new city where he didn’t know anyone. Julian (who asked not to use his last name when talking about a sensitive medical condition) didn’t have much of a social life, so he started smoking by himself to pass the time. “Weed became my friend,” he said. “I would get off work and I would smoke because I was bored.”

Soon, Julian’s life began to revolve around cannabis. Smoking never interfered with his work, but it stopped him from doing just about everything else. “Typically, when you move to a new city, you establish new relationships, and I was doing none of that,” he said. “I was living almost like a recluse.”

It was only through talking to a friend that Julian realized he might have a problem. He had “thought that it was impossible to become addicted” to weed. But when he looked up the definition of cannabis use disorder online, he realized that he met almost all of the criteria.

Despite the common misconception, people can become addicted to cannabis just as they can with other drugs, like alcohol or cocaine. As more states either decriminalize or legalize cannabis, more people are using it than ever before. [Read More @ The NY Times]