Fact Check: Why Do People Think Cannabis Is Not Addictive?

(The Brown Daily Herald) As winter turns to spring on College Hill and trees begin to bud, Brown [University]’s campus is getting greener in more ways than one. This coming Monday, passersby may see a bit of a haze as they cross the Main Green as they witness the annual April 20 student tradition.

Especially among college students, it is widely believed that while cannabis users can become dependent on the drug, marijuana is not addictive in the same way that other intoxicating substances are.

To find out the truth about the impacts of regular cannabis use, The Herald spoke with Jane Metrik, a professor of behavioral and social sciences and of psychiatry and human behavior, who studies cannabis use. Her response: “The short answer is that it is quite addictive.”

According to Metrik, cannabis use disorder is a diagnosis in the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, also known as the DSM-5. People who develop a dependence on cannabis can show the same 11 symptoms that are used to identify addiction across all addictive substances, she added.

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