Chapter 28 - The Final Smoke

Having decided on timing, you're now ready to smoke marijuana one last time. Before you do, check on the two essentials.

Do you feel certain of success?

Do you have a feeling of doom and gloom, or a sense of excitement that you're about to achieve something marvelous?

If you have any doubts, re-read the book first.

Remember that you never decided to fall into the marijuana trap, but the trap is designed to enslave you for life. In order to escape, you need to make the positive decision that you're about to stop and to have your final joint/bowl/dab/edible/etc.

Remember, the only reason you've read this book so far is because you'd dearly love to escape. So make that positive decision now, making a solemn vow that when you put out your final joint, whether finding it easy or difficult, you'll never use marijuana again. Perhaps you're worried that you've made this vow several times in the past and are still failing, or that you'll have to go through awful trauma. Have no fear, the worst thing that can possibly happen is that you fail, so therefore you have absolutely nothing to lose and so much to gain.

But stop even thinking about failure — the beautiful truth is that it's not only ridiculously easy to quit, you can actually enjoy the process. This time you're going to use the easy way to quit! All you need to do is follow the simple instructions about to be given.

Make the solemn vow now and mean it.

Light up consciously, looking at your desperation to amplify the high. Ask yourself where the pleasure is.

When you finally put out the joint, don't do so with a feeling of "I must never smoke marijuana again" or "I'm not allowed to smoke it" but instead with a feeling of freedom, like "Isn't it great? I'm free! I'm no longer a slave to weed! I don't ever have to smoke this stuff again in my life!"

Be aware that for a few days, there'll be a little green monster inside your mind. You might only be aware of the feeling of wanting to get high. The little green monster has been referred to as the slight craving for dopamine. Strictly speaking this is incorrect, and it's important to understand why. Because it takes up to three weeks for that little monster to die, ex-users believe it will continue to crave after the final joint, and therefore they must use willpower to resist the temptation during this period. This isn't so, the body doesn't crave marijuana; only the brain craves it.

If you do get that feeling of wanting to get high over the next few days, your brain has a simple choice. It can either interpret that feeling for what it actually is — an empty, insecure feeling started by the first joint and further perpetuated by each subsequent one, and say to yourself "YIPPEE! I'M A NON-USER!"

Or, you can start craving marijuana and suffer for the remainder of your life. Just think for a moment, wouldn't that be an incredibly stupid thing to do? To say, "I never want to smoke marijuana again" and then spending the rest of your life saying "I'd love a joint"? That's what those using the willpower method do, and it's no wonder they feel so miserable. Spending the rest of their lives desperately moping for something they desperately hope they'll never have. No wonder that so few succeed and the few that do never feel completely free.

Get this mental picture clearly in your mind, for it can be quite helpful in overcoming the power of external stimuli to disturb you. See yourself sitting quietly, letting a joint be passed around, ignoring its signal, unmoved by its command. Although you are aware of it, you no longer mind or obey it. Also, get clearly in your mind the fact that the outside stimulus in itself has no power over you, no power to move you. In the past you have obeyed it, responded to it, purely out of habit. You can, if you wish, form a new habit of not responding.

Also notice that your failure to respond does not consist in doing something, or making an effort, or resisting or fighting, but in doing nothing — in relaxation from doing. You merely relax, ignore the signal, and let its summons go unheeded. The joint being passed around is a symbolic analogy to any and every other outside stimulus you might habitually give control over to and now choose to very intentionally alter that habit.

It's only doubting and waiting that makes it difficult to quit, so never doubt your decision because you know it's the correct one. If you begin to doubt it, you'll put yourself in a no-win situation - miserable while craving a joint, but unable to have one. No matter what system you are using, what are you trying to achieve when quitting marijuana? Never to smoke again? No! Many ex-users do that but go through life feeling deprived.

What's the difference between users and non-users? Non-users haven't any need or desire to smoke weed - they're without craving and don't need willpower in order to not smoke it. That's what you're trying to achieve and it's completely within your power to do so. You don't have to wait to stop craving marijuana or become a non-user, it's completed the moment you put out that final joint, cutting off the supply of dopamine. YOU ARE ALREADY A HAPPY NON-USER!

You'll remain a happy non-user provided:

You never doubt your decision.

You don't wait to become a non-user. If you do, you'll merely be waiting for nothing to happen and creating a phobia.

You don't try not to think about marijuana or wait for the 'moment of revelation' to come, creating a phobia.

You don't use substitutes like alcohol or other drugs.

You see all the other users as they really are and pity them rather than envying them.

Whether they're good or bad days, don't change your life just because you've quit. If you do, you'll be making a genuine sacrifice when there's no need to. Remember, you haven't given up living. You haven't given up anything. On the contrary, you've cured yourself from an awful disease and escaped from an insidious prison. As days pass and your health - both physically and mentally - improves, the highs will appear higher and the lows less low than when you were a user. Whenever you think about marijuana during the next few days or rest of your life, think:

"YIPPEE! I'M A NON-USER!"

28.1 A Final Warning

No user, if given the chance of going back to the time before they became hooked, with the knowledge they have now, would opt to start. Tens of thousands who successfully kick the habit for many years lead perfectly happy lives, only to get trapped once again. I trust this book will help you find it relatively easy to stop. But be warned, users who find it easy to stop find it just as easy to start again. Do not fall for this trap.

No matter how long you've stopped for or how confident you are of never becoming hooked again, make it a rule for life not to use marijuana for any reason. Resist any situations where it's present, and remember that first joint will do nothing for you. You'll have no withdrawal pangs to relieve and it will make you feel awful. What it will do is put the pleasure of the dopamine rush into your mind and brain, and a little voice will tell you that you want another one. Then you've got the choice of being miserable for a while, or starting the whole filthy chain again.