withdrawal symptom. Tobacco took me forever to kick that habit.

and will drive visits to the Guardian website.

That's what I think.

I'm a regular user.

I have read the article.

Unlike the poster above me, I believe the information in this article is valid.

Cannabis, for some people most of the time, can be addictive.

People can develop compulsive habits with any number of things, because so much of it changes brain chemistry from either what you put in your body, or the actions that trigger specific chemical changes from the body's own sources.

Chocolate changes your chemistry. So does exercise. And anxiety.

Nicotine withdrawal is worse and lasts longer.

Alcohol withdrawal for people with true clinical alcoholism can literally kill you without help to control DTs.

Weed withdrawal is basically a week, give or take a few days, of having trouble sleeping and some irritability, maybe less of an appetite. It passes quickly. Mentally you may still crave the way it makes you feel but that is the appeal to begin with.

1968, in college, had gone home to visit my parents and on the way back to campus (about 150 miles) I saw a Navy guy, in uniform, hitchhiking (pretty common in those days) and I picked him up. As we continued he asked me if I smoked weed...I said yes, although I hadn't, because it was becoming common place but I had never tried. So I smoked - I got so high...I let him out a ways down the road and my thoughts were "I am never going to do this again" so loaded it freaked me out.
In those days, when people had a party those that smoked would go into another room (usually a bedroom) for those that smoked....I always went to that room, caution and previous thoughts were bogus.
I continued to smoke throughout college but quit once I got a steady job - mainly because most of the people I knew had gotten older, gone to work and I just didn't trust anyone to buy if I didn't know them. In the South it was a big deal to get busted - we even had "narcs" at work and several people I knew got busted after befriending them.
I started again after retiring but mostly what we called "dirt weed" and have never tried the new stuff that is supposed to be so much more THC. But because Texas has not legalized it for recreation - I haven't to date. I have a niece that now lives in NM and have thought about trying if/when I go visit. ☮

Any evaluation from just about any program will tell you that in short order. Tolerance can often be a factor, but it isn't a mandatory pre-requisite or a universal symptom. Binge drinkers and shooters often have low tolerances, and abstain frequently.

Anything can become a dependency or addiction if it makes you feel or not feel a way you are after. It's what it does to your life, and your inability to stay stopped in spite of that which is addition.

You can talk about relativistic "severity" of addition by how many bottoms someone will endure to revisit it - loss of stature, job, family, jails, institutions, death - but steal little, steal big, it's stealing all the same.

The high you feel is just your body's reaction to a stimulus. Same with the withdrawal. It isn't the addition. It's agnostic chemistry. The drugs are just tools, some are just more dangerous than others.

"Wine is fine but whiskey's quicker, suicide is slow with liquor"

Judging something as addictive or not, based relativistically on the difficulty level of withdrawal symptoms, or likelihood of death from overdose, is a bit of a shallow view, IMHO.

My personal experience started at age 17, in 1968 in Paris. I smoked regularly from then until 1983, when I moved cities and my sources dried up. In between I grew some real killah on the back of my dad's farm - then turned him on with the product for his 50th b'day. He was quite proud of himself. I smoked irregularly from 1983 until 2000 with never a hint of anxiety about starting or stopping.

OTOH I smoked cigarettes for about 4 years - I got up to 60 a day - and quitting those was a whole different kettle of carp. It took me four tries, and then I had cravings for a number of years afterward. So I know what a "real" addiction feels like - and pot ain't that.

Now it's legal up here in North Canuckistan. In fact I just got back from a run to the local emporium to replenish my supply of edibles after 6 months dry.

In 60 years I've never had a speck of trouble stopping (or saying no thank you), and the practice never interfered with my work or social life unless I was actively high. So I'm inclined to discount the addiction hysteria by about 99%.

YMMV

I know it's seen as less harmful than alcohol, but it can still be very problematic for people, particularly when used as a substitute for a lack of coping mechanisms.

I have friends who are forever, "Can't wait to get home and get high," and think nothing of the fact they do this several times a week. It reminds me of the Carrie Fisher character in 30 Rock. Wandering around with a thermos of wine, "It's heart healthy!"

And people overestimate their own functioning. I have friends show up to functions and things high and assume they're just as good as when they're not high. Nah. Y'all are annoying af, and we discuss it when you're not in the room.

I don't care what people do in their homes at all. I live in California, so it's a whole thing. Some people can have a few drinks. Some can't. Some can have a puff or two, some have to get high. Some develop crazy dependency. Some can drop it without a thought. It varies to the individual just as other drugs and alcohol do.

But the question in DSM-5 is: does it interfere in your life in some consequential way? Absolutely does for a lot of people I know who use it. But whether or not it's my place to say so is a separate question. I generally don't unless they, say, show up to my house high. Then I might say something. Otherwise, meh. Go do your thing as long as you're not bothering anyone.