Legal or Illegal, Cannabis Is Still Addictive

Dr. Pier Vincenzo Piazza: Addiction is a vague concept that is generally used to define a pathological drug taking. There are different levels of severity of this pathological behavior. The mild condition is mostly characterized by an escalation in drug intake that goes from a sporadic recreational drug use to a more sustained and regular drug intake. This behavior starts becoming a problem for the subject who can engage in risk-taking behaviors, shows drug-related health problems, and has difficulties discontinuing drug use. However, at this stage, the behavior of the subject still remains mostly organized. The subject can almost keep a normal life. The later phase, what normally people refer to as addiction, is characterized by loss of control on drug use. Loss of control on drug taking can be defined by three key features. The subjects cannot control the amount of drug that is taken. The subjects spend more and more time looking for the drug or engaged in activity that allows acquiring and using drugs. The subject cannot stop using drugs despite the consciousness of adverse consequences. In other words, drug seeking becomes the only behavior that really controls the life of the individual and a ‘‘normal’’ life becomes impossible.