Dagga is legal now. So is it actually addictive?
Let’s start with what you’re probably already thinking.
“It’s legal now. It’s natural. It’s a plant. It’s way better than drinking. Nobody’s ever died from a joint.”
I’m not here to argue with all of that. Some of it is true. And I’m not here to lecture you or tell you you’re a bad person. But if you’ve found your way to this article, there’s a reason. Maybe someone you love keeps bringing it up. Maybe you tried to take a break and it was harder than you expected. Maybe you just have a quiet sense that it’s taking up more space in your life than it should.
So let’s have an honest conversation about it.
Yes, it’s legal
Since the Constitutional Court ruling in 2018, and the Cannabis for Private Purposes Act that followed, using dagga privately as an adult in South Africa is legal. Dagga shops have popped up in every second shopping centre. For a lot of people, that settled the question: if the government says it’s fine, it must be fine.
But alcohol is legal too. So are cigarettes. So is sports betting. Legal and harmless have never been the same thing.
The question isn’t whether you’re allowed to use it. The question is whether it’s still a choice.
What the research actually says
For years, the line everyone quoted was “only one in ten cannabis users becomes dependent.” You may have used that line yourself, in an argument with your mom or your partner.
Here’s the problem with it. That figure is about 30 years old. It comes from a time when the dagga people smoked was a lot weaker than what’s sold today. The world has changed, and the research has caught up:
- A 2020 review that pulled together studies from several countries found that about 1 in 5 people who use cannabis develop cannabis use disorder.
- For people who use weekly or daily, the risk rises to about 1 in 3.
- A 2023 study of nearly 1 500 patients in Washington State in the US, where recreational use is legal, found that 21% of people who used cannabis had some degree of cannabis use disorder.
So it’s not one in ten. If you smoke most days, it’s closer to one in three.
That doesn’t mean you’re definitely dependent. But it does mean “it’s just a plant” isn’t the whole story.
It’s a quiet kind of dependence
Here’s why dagga is so easy to miss. It doesn’t usually blow your life up the way alcohol, tik or gambling can. Nobody loses their house over a joint. You probably still go to work. You might even be quite functional.
Dagga dependence is quieter. It doesn’t take your life in one go. It just slowly dims it.
It looks more like this:
- You’re irritable, restless or struggle to sleep on the days you don’t smoke.
- You’ve tried to cut down, or take a break, and it didn’t stick.
- You need more, or stronger, to feel the same effect you used to.
- Your motivation has gone flat. Gym, studies, the business idea, that DIY project. Everything is “tomorrow.”
- Your memory and focus aren’t what they were. You lose your train of thought mid-sentence.
- Anxiety or paranoia has crept in, even though dagga used to calm you down.
- You plan your day around when you can smoke.
- Your partner or family keep raising it, and you keep getting defensive.
Sit with that list for a moment. Not to beat yourself up, but just to notice.
What is it actually doing for you?
This is the question I find most useful, and it’s the one we spend the most time on.
For most people, dagga isn’t really about getting high. It’s about switching off. It’s the off button for a mind that won’t stop. It quiets the anxiety, dulls the stress of the day, fills the boredom, helps you sleep, takes the edge off feelings you’d rather not feel.
That’s not a character flaw. That’s a human being looking for relief.
But here’s the trap. If you take dagga away without building another way to switch off, you’ll be back to it within weeks. Not because you’re weak, but because the need it was meeting is still there. The anxiety is still there. The sleepless nights are still there. The boredom, the loneliness, the stress.
That’s why willpower alone so rarely works.
What we do about it
Our approach looks past the dagga to the person using it.
In the REBUILD Programme, we work on the thinking patterns, the triggers and the emotions underneath. We help you build real ways to manage stress, sleep and anxiety. And we help you build a life that doesn’t need to be numbed every evening, one with purpose, connection and things to actually look forward to.
If there’s anxiety or depression in the picture, and there often is, we work alongside your doctor, psychiatrist or psychologist rather than replacing them.
A simple test
Try going two weeks without it. Not to prove anything to anyone, just to see.
If it’s easy, wonderful. You’ve learned something.
If you find yourself irritable, sleepless, counting the days, or finding reasons why “this week isn’t a good week to stop,” that’s worth paying attention to.
You can also try our free, private Drug Abuse Screening Audit on the website. A few minutes, completely confidential, and nobody sees the results but you.
You deserve to feel calm, motivated and present without needing anything to get you there. That’s possible. We see it happen all the time.
Take the Drug Abuse Screening Audit or WhatsApp Steven on +27 76 402 7083.
Sources: Psychology Today – The prevalence of cannabis use disorder among cannabis users (summarising Leung et al., Addictive Behaviors, 2020); HealthDay – 1 in 5 marijuana users struggle with dependency (JAMA Network Open, 2023).
