Why Daily Marijuana Use Is So Common Today — and What Helped Me Break the Cycle After Years of Overuse

Ben Lou
Nov 29
7 min read

Updated: Nov 30

I first started smoking heavily in college. At the beginning it was with friends — late-night seshes, laughs, music, the usual. But things changed once I started buying my own supply. That’s when the moderation disappeared.

I’d smoke before class, after class, sometimes instead of class. My grades slipped, my routine fell apart, and I started isolating myself. Weed made everything feel easier and more enjoyable, but the tradeoff was that I slowly stopped doing the things that actually mattered.

When I started working in finance during COVID, it escalated even more. Remote work meant long hours at home, no commute, no coworkers — basically no friction. Smoking at night turned into smoking in the afternoon, then sometimes during work. Eventually I dreaded any plan, trip, or activity where I knew I couldn’t be high. It was like I couldn’t imagine existing sober for more than a few hours.

I’m writing this now because I know I wasn’t the only one who ended up in that place. Daily use is more common than ever, and there are reasons for it — real, objective reasons that have nothing to do with moral failure or poor character. After a long time stuck in that cycle, I eventually found a way to pull myself out, and I want to share both the why and the how.

1. Daily Marijuana Use Has Become Extremely Common

Nationwide data over the past few years shows how quickly cannabis use has grown. AP reporting on national surveys found that daily marijuana use has now surpassed daily alcohol consumption in the U.S. That shift alone shows how normalized cannabis has become across all demographics.

Usage has grown not just among young adults, but among working professionals, older adults, and people who never used regularly before legalization. As cannabis became easier to access — dispensaries everywhere, delivery apps, medical cards, recreational laws — the habits around it changed too.

Many people smoke or vape:

before bed
after work
to relieve stress
to manage anxiety
to make chores or downtime more enjoyable

Repeated daily use can quietly turn into something more entrenched. NIDA estimates that roughly 3 in 10 cannabis users develop patterns consistent with cannabis use disorder. And many don’t realize it’s happening until years later.

2. Today’s Weed Is Far Stronger Than It Used to Be

One major reason daily use has become so widespread is potency. The cannabis used in the 1990s averaged around 4–5% THC. Today:

dispensary flower averages 20–30%
vape carts often hit 70–90%
concentrates can reach 95%

That means the same “one bowl at night” today is nothing like it was 20 years ago. The dopamine spike is heavier, the crash is deeper, and the habit loop becomes easier to reinforce — especially when you wake up foggy the next morning and feel the urge to smoke again just to “level out.” That cycle becomes easier and easier to repeat which eventually turns into a regular routine.

Here’s a simple comparison:

1990s Cannabis	Modern Cannabis
~4–5% THC	20–30% THC (flower)
Mild euphoria	Fast, intense high
Rare concentrates	70–95% THC options
Occasional use	Much more frequent

3. How Daily Use Affects Motivation and Mood (Dopamine Flattening)

Long-term, frequent THC use affects the dopamine system. When you stimulate dopamine regularly, your brain adapts by reducing its sensitivity.

For many people, this shows up as:

brain fog
low motivation
irritability when sober
feeling “off” without a high
needing weed to feel normal
boredom or dissatisfaction without a hit

This isn’t dramatic withdrawal. It’s more like the emotional volume gets turned down — and weed becomes the fastest way to turn it back up, especially the morning after a heavy session.

4. A Quick Self-Check

These were the signs I ignored for years:

Smoking earlier in the day than planned
Not wanting to participate in anything that required being sober
Losing interest in activities that required focus
Needing weed to eat or sleep
Telling myself I’d cut back and then not doing it
Feeling uncomfortable and anxious without it
Smoking out of habit, not intention

If you recognize some of these, you’re not alone.

5. The Craving Window: A Small Detail That Changes Everything

One thing that helped me understand my own pattern was learning about the craving window. Cravings usually peak within 2–20 minutes and then fall off sharply.

A lot of behavioral research shows that delaying access, even slightly, can weaken the habit loop dramatically. The problem is that in real life, delaying is hardest during the exact moment the craving hits.

This insight became important later when I tried to change my habits.

6. How I Finally Turned Things Around

I didn’t have a dramatic wake-up moment. It was more like a long accumulation of small realizations:

I didn’t like how I was spending more money to get less high.
I didn’t like throwing out my plans and just smoking all day.
I didn’t like the anxiety of being sober in social situations and in public.
I didn’t like how much of my life I was skipping.
I didn’t like how dependent I felt — physically, mentally, and emotionally.

What finally helped was breaking the instant-access habit.

I put distance between myself and my weed. I locked it away. I had someone else hold the key. I set specific times I allowed myself to use.

Creating some separation between my constant cravings and finally getting the hit did wonders. I started filling that space with positive habits and distractions, and I stopped feeling guilty for smoking whenever the urge appeared. It felt uncomfortable at first, but that discomfort was also the first time in a long time I felt like I was making the decisions instead of my impulses — and the moments when I did smoke, on my own terms, were actually more enjoyable.

7. Why This Approach Inspired Kurb (And What It Actually Does)

Through this process, I learned something simple but powerful:

Structure works.

Space works.

Intentionality works.

But none of that matters without something deeper: the decision to change. I had to get honest with myself before anything improved. No device, no trick, no hack can substitute for that. You yourself have to want a different relationship with weed.

Once you’ve made a decision to change your habits with weed, the next challenge is consistency. That’s where most people (including me) get stuck.

Not everyone has someone who can hold a key for them. Most people don’t want to involve others in something so personal. And not everyone wants to quit entirely — many want to cut back, control frequency, or take breaks without feeling dragged around by cravings.

That’s what inspired Kurb.

Kurb isn’t about telling anyone what their relationship to weed should be. It simply provides the structure that helped me regain control:

You know yourself best — set the reduction schedule you want
Create separation between cravings and access
Make your usage intentional instead of automatic
Build a healthier rhythm at your own pace
Support moderation, reduction, or quitting — whatever your goal is
Let your decisions, not impulses, drive your behavior

But Kurb is not a magic wand that'll fix your dependency for you — it’s a tool to support discipline, not replace it. You still have to choose the path you want and honor it.

Example: Say you currently smoke multiple times every day and want to cut back to smoking only at night. You set Kurb to unlock once daily at 8pm through the Kurb app. After two weeks, it reduces to five days a week at the same time. Then every other day. Eventually, you reach a schedule that fits your lifestyle — where weed adds value instead of detracting from it. The pace is entirely yours.

8. Closing Thoughts

If you’re in a place where weed feels more like a requirement than a choice, I’ve been there — deeply. And you’re not alone.

Daily marijuana use is incredibly common today, and the combination of higher THC, easy access, and dopamine adaptation makes it easy to slip into patterns that don’t match the life you want.

But here’s something I had to learn the hard way:

No one can make the decision for you. You have to reach a point where you admit you want something better — more motivation, more energy, more control, more of the things that matter to you. Kurb can’t create that desire. Only you can.

What Kurb can do is support that decision. It’s a tool to reintroduce discipline where it’s been missing, and a tool to help you follow through on the goals you set for yourself. It won’t be the right solution for everyone struggling with cannabis overuse — it’s specifically for people who battle frequent cravings and urges and need outside structure to help create separation in those moments. But if cravings are what derail you, Kurb can make the right choice easier in the moments when those urges usually win.

But the choice — the real choice — is yours.

I eventually found a way out by changing how I accessed weed and giving myself space to make real decisions. Kurb grew out of that experience, and if any part of my story helps you feel a little less stuck, then it’s worth sharing.

You deserve to feel in control again. And once you decide you want that, there are real, practical ways to get there.

This blog reflects personal experience and publicly available research. Kurb is not a medical device, and nothing in this post is medical or clinical advice. If you believe you have a substance use disorder or health condition, consult a qualified healthcare professional.

References:

Caulkins JP. Changes in self-reported cannabis use in the United States from 1979 to 2022. Addiction. 2024; 119(9): 1648–1652. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.16519
Hasin DS, Saha TD, Kerridge BT, et al. Prevalence of marijuana use disorders in the United States between 2001-2002 and 2012-2013. JAMA Psychiatry. 2015;72(12):1235-1242. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2015.1858.
ElSohly MA, Mehmedic Z, Foster S, Gon C, Chandra S, Church JC. Changes in Cannabis Potency Over the Last 2 Decades (1995-2014): Analysis of Current Data in the United States. Biol Psychiatry. 2016 Apr 1;79(7):613-9. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2016.01.004. Epub 2016 Jan 19. PMID: 26903403; PMCID: PMC4987131.
Dopaminergic Function in Cannabis Users and Its Relationship to Cannabis-Induced Psychotic Symptoms Bloomfield, Michael A.P. et al. Biological Psychiatry, Volume 75, Issue 6, 470 - 478
Larimer ME, Palmer RS, Marlatt GA. Relapse prevention. An overview of Marlatt's cognitive-behavioral model. Alcohol Res Health. 1999;23(2):151-60. PMID: 10890810; PMCID: PMC6760427.