Vape Pens Are The Needle of Weed: A Lawyer’s Weed Quitting Journey

I came across this website today after about five years of daily use. Growing up I never tried pot. My two best friends are stoners and constantly asked if I wanted to smoke throughout high school, college, and even law school. I had always resisted, other than one time in high school where I lost a bet to those friends and tried an edible. I didn’t care for it and went right back to resisting.

During those years, I always wanted to stay focused, motivated, and continue toward my goals. My dad is also a lawyer but growing up we never had alcohol or any substance in the house. I still to this day have never seen my dad smoke or drink in any situation. I have always wondered whether he once faced what I now face but we have never been close enough.

Anyway, I have always had pressure on me to perform well in school, be dependable, and ultimately go on to be very successful. It was almost expected/required that I also become an attorney. I made it through all of my schooling and went to objectively elite schools all without any issue. While I was never passionate about the work, it was work I could handle and was well suited for.

It wasn’t until I started clerking for a Judge that I started to relax. After all, at that point I was already a lawyer and there was little left to accomplish. Still I would only have an edible each night before bed and I had a strict rule of never before 9-10pm.

After the clerkship, I got my first job at a law firm. It quickly felt like more than I could handle. I constantly had paralegals, judges, attorneys and clients all looking to me for advice and answers. At the ripe age of 25, solving these problems or directing people more than twice my age was always a daunting task. I became very afraid of screwing up and losing everything I had worked for. In essence, shit got real. It was no longer school where these were fake problems and I could think clearly, there were now real consequences and people constantly ready to yell at me. The constant grind and pressure then led to ingesting more and more edibles.

Later on at some point my mom got a medicinal card and gave me a vape pen. This is where things got worse for me. I read another comment here that said “a vape pen is the needle of weed” and I could not agree more.

It’s my subjective belief that the vape pen’s high THC levels have left me a shell of who I used to be. I now experience anxiety daily and work has become increasingly difficult. I lack the motivation and drive I once had and feel the vape pen now controls my life. I constantly procrastinate issues, which then turn into crises which then turns into additional pot use and more brain fog in between.

tldr; vape pens are the needle of weed. I did not start using pot until I was 25 and slowly became a daily user. It now interferes with my energy and concentration. I experience a lot of insomnia and my motivation to work has fallen to near zero. I have also experienced a lot of issues with appetite.

I’ve been doing it the wrong way for five years. It’s time to quit and I know this more than anything.