8 Tips for How to Quit Smoking Weed, from the Experts

For millions of Americans, smoking weed is a common recreational activity. SAMHSA’s 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that 22.3% of people aged 12 and older used marijuana in the past year. Used primarily to relax, treat pain, socialize, or relieve temporary stress, marijuana is largely seen as a less dangerous drug because of its milder effects and medicinal uses. However, just because marijuana lacks the dangers that drugs like heroin and meth may pose doesn’t mean a chronic weed habit is harmless. It can lead to negative physical and emotional consequences that impair your quality of life.

If marijuana is having this impact on you, it’s worth taking the time to learn how to stop smoking weed, especially if you feel you can’t function without its influence.

How to Stop Smoking Weed

So, you’re ready to stop smoking weed. Now what?

While detoxing from marijuana is relatively easy compared to detoxing from some other drugs, quitting any addiction isn’t easy. Some people are afraid of the effects on their day-to-day lives, while others worry about the physical side effects of withdrawal. Such concerns shouldn’t stop you from taking the leap.

Altogether, marijuana withdrawal symptoms are usually pretty mild and may include headaches, mood swings, irritability, changes in dreams, and trouble focusing. The risks of quitting cold turkey are also lower with weed than with alcohol or benzodiazepines.

In many ways, successfully detoxing from marijuana is more of a mental hurdle than a physical one. It’s tied up with your daily habits far more than with the physical challenges of detox, and the right mindset can make all the difference. The following quit-marijuana tips can help you do what’s right for your health and your life.

1. Trash Your Stash

Once you’ve decided to quit smoking weed, get rid of whatever you have left. If you keep the rest of your stash around, you’re much more likely to give in during a moment of weakness. Commit to your decision and dispose of the rest of your weed. This makes it harder to give in to triggers or temptation, and you won’t need it.

2. Know Your Triggers and Avoid Them

People in early recovery from drugs or alcohol are often counseled to avoid the people, places, and things that trigger cravings. The same principle helps for a weed habit. Until you’ve broken the habit of smoking, avoid spending time with the people you previously smoked with, and try not to frequent the same places you visited as an active marijuana user.

3. Exercising Daily

Research has shown that exercise helps reduce addiction cravings. Exercise is also a strong buffer against stress, so it can serve as a healthy alternative coping strategy for anyone who smoked weed because of stress. You don’t need equipment or a gym membership to start. Walking, bodyweight movement at home, or anything that raises your heart rate for a stretch of time will do.

4. Plan Weed-Free Outings

If you spend your nights at parties with other pot-smoking friends, breaking your routine will be particularly difficult. Planning how you’re going to enjoy yourself without weed can help you avoid cravings, especially if you run into an unexpected trigger. Think about all the ways you can enjoy life without getting high first, and build a routine that puts you in situations where triggers aren’t present. Soon you’ll wonder why you thought you’d miss smoking weed.

5. Use Your Support System

Friends and family recognize the courage it takes to admit you have a problem, and you can expect them to be supportive of your decision. Let them know your plans to quit smoking weed. You’ll be more compelled to stick to a commitment you’ve voiced out loud, and you won’t want to let them down. Give them a call if you find yourself starting to crave getting high. Talking through your feelings with people you trust lets them offer perspective and reinforce your decision. You may find that some members of your support system have faced the same thing and can offer advice on ways to stop smoking weed.

6. Set Goals

Think about what you could achieve if weed wasn’t holding you back. Maybe the free time and additional focus will help you learn a new skill and land a new job, or maybe you’ll be able to save money for something important. Decide which of those goals matters most to you and commit to it.

If the goal is a large one, such as learning a language or changing careers, break it into smaller pieces: studying for 30 minutes a day, refreshing your resume, earning a certification. Hitting the smaller goals is what keeps the larger one from feeling abstract.

7. Seek Professional Help

For some marijuana users, enlisting the help of a professional is what makes the difference. Many rehabilitation centers provide marijuana detox services, and you can also find mental health counselors experienced in helping people overcome addictions, including marijuana. Alongside therapeutic methods, counselors can share techniques they’ve seen work for others learning how to stop smoking weed.

8. Know What Withdrawal Symptoms to Expect

Quitting weed is generally a physically easier detox experience than quitting more powerful drugs like opioids, but that doesn’t make it easy. Someone who has used marijuana heavily for a long time may find the withdrawal symptoms and the initial recovery period challenging. A person may feel strange for days, weeks, or even months as their body and mind adjust.

How long symptoms last depends on how long you were using and how much. For some people the process takes days. For others it stretches into weeks or months.

After quitting, you might start feeling strange or unpleasant. Don’t let those feelings derail your recovery. Some people relapse rather than allowing the process to take its natural course. These symptoms will subside and eventually disappear.

Some common marijuana withdrawal symptoms include:

Cannabis Withdrawal Syndrome

Experiencing three or more of these symptoms is described as “cannabis withdrawal syndrome.” The symptoms may be mild or severe, but they dissipate over time. Some people go to rehab to reduce their symptoms. If you’re detoxing from weed and recovering at home, over-the-counter headache medicine and rest may be enough to manage them.

Medical experts advise people to be gentle with themselves during this initial recovery period. Stay hydrated and try to minimize exposure to stress. Your brain and body are getting used to a new reality. Although this is just part of the recovery process, it can be an uncomfortable few weeks. If your symptoms escalate, tell your doctor or a nurse practitioner. FHE Health offers medically supervised detox, where clinicians monitor you throughout the process and can provide treatments that reduce withdrawal symptoms so you heal in more comfort.

Managing Cravings and Triggers

One useful strategy for dealing with cravings is the delay-and-distract method. When a craving hits, put off smoking, even if only for five minutes. Set a timer on your phone and start doing something else.

If you can keep your mind and hands busy, whether that’s making a cup of coffee, taking a shower, or playing a game on your phone for a few minutes, you may find that’s enough for the craving to subside. Gradually increase the length of the timer, and keep repeating the strategy until it becomes automatic and you don’t need the timer at all.

Avoiding triggers isn’t always possible, given how common marijuana has become. Other strategies worth considering:

Signs of a Problem

Weed is often believed to be fairly unproblematic, in large part because of its lower addictive potential, its acceptance by many in the medical community, and its growing legality. That said, frequent weed use can turn into a harmful addiction and may require professional help to resolve. If any of these apply to your marijuana use, now may be the time to consider cutting back, or better, to learn how to stop smoking weed altogether:

• Anxiety and stress increase without weed. Marijuana can help reduce stress, particularly for people with anxiety disorders, but excessive use can worsen anxiety symptoms. If you can’t function or feel normal without weed, you may have a problem.
• You hide the extent of your use. If you feel the need to hide your activity even from people who generally approve of pot, you may be smoking too much.
• Securing weed requires lying or stealing. If you’re desperate enough for marijuana that you’ve resorted to lying or stealing to feed the habit, your smoking has gone too far.
• Life without weed is uninteresting. If marijuana is standing in the way of a full and enriching life when you’re not high, that’s indicative of a problem.
• You’re using weed at inappropriate times. If you find yourself smoking during a work shift, at your children’s activities, or in a worship service, reconsider your drug use.

It may be possible to correct your habits after the initial signs of problematic behavior, but for regular recreational marijuana users, any of these factors may be a sign it’s time to quit.

The Best Way to Stop Smoking

For those with a long-term smoking habit, the idea of stopping can be troubling. When marijuana is at the center of your life, your hobbies, your friends, and your evenings, imagining life without it isn’t easy.

Whether you realize it or not, using a drug that remains illegal at the federal level is going to hold you back in one way or another. Maybe that means failing a background check for the job you want, or losing time that could go toward creative work. Perhaps your appetite for weed is standing between you and a personal goal, or your grades are sliding because you’ve been smoking instead of studying.

You may not have taken stock of the full picture yet, but when you stop to think about it, you’ll likely identify at least one area of life that sobriety would improve. From achieving the GPA you need for graduate school to testing clean at your next job interview, quitting weed can open doors. The sooner you see that, the more motivated you’ll be to quit.

How to Get Rid of Marijuana

Getting rid of your marijuana is an integral part of quitting, and actually doing it can be harder than it sounds. Disposal rules vary by state, so follow the rules that apply where you live.

Drug take-back programs are the most reliable option. Many pharmacies and law enforcement agencies host permanent collection sites or periodic take-back events, and some jurisdictions run amnesty programs that let you surrender drugs without personal consequences. States with legal medical and recreational marijuana often have their own published disposal procedures. Our guide to safe drug disposal covers the options in more detail.

Don’t flush marijuana down the toilet. Wastewater treatment isn’t designed to filter it, and most disposal guidance now advises against flushing any substance that has a take-back option available. And don’t sell what you have to friends. Depending on the quantity, that can quickly become a felony.

Your Next Steps Toward Quitting

Any kind of drug addiction can be a problem, and that includes marijuana. Marijuana dependence is a real condition that often coincides with mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression. Many people struggle with this dependency and need assistance to end their use. Residential treatment is an option for this type of use, and our admissions team can confirm whether it would be covered by your insurance provider.

If you’re ready to leave marijuana behind, contact FHE Health today. Our experienced counselors are ready to help you begin your journey to sobriety.

Related Marijuana Articles

• Has Weed Taken Over My Life?
• A Testimonial: Seeking Help for Weed Use
• The Varying Concentration of THC per Strain: A Study
• Testing Positive on a Drug Test: Now What?
• How Common Are Nightmares While Quitting Weed?

Frequently Asked Questions About Quitting Weed