Me vs. The Weed: Returning from a tolerance break
Artist Thelonious Martin shares the highs and lows of coming back from a “T-Break” with Leafly.
Taking a cannabis break is a common and healthy practice among even the most seasoned of users. The benefits of a tolerance (T-) break include new perspectives, new room for growth, and rejuvenating effects when you come back from your break.
Whether you’re returning to the plant from a New Year’s resolution or just want to know more about how your body can adjust to tolerance breaks before taking one, fear not.
Temporary loss of appetite, mild insomnia, irritability, and vivid dreams are the worst “withdrawal symptoms” to be expected. But more research needs to be done before we can fully understand how our bodies respond to sudden increases and decreases in consumption.
For years, musician Thelonious Martin has entertained fans and followers with his Me vs. The Weed meme series. Since 2018, Martin has been documenting his love of the plant with fun photos that show his varying degrees of royalty throughout the day.
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But in early 2022, the Chicago resident decided to retire from weed for about a month for a number of reasons.
In his own words, Thelonious Leafly shares what happened when he took a T break after years of maintaining a daily high. Read on to see what mental and physical effects Thelonious noticed, as well as the feelings he experienced in his first week back on bud.
Why I decided to take a tolerance break
I think it could be considered a New Year’s resolution. I had smoked about two pounds of weed over the course of a few months. And after smoking pretty much every day, I was like, ‘I should probably take some kind of a break.’
And when I saw where I was creative, on a healthy weed habit versus being totally sober, I wanted to give it a try. It’s not like I smoked an unhealthy amount. I haven’t smoked, you know, not a pound in my face all day. But I was still very consistently high throughout the day.
I wanted to see what it’s like to be completely sober.
I don’t think I’ve been completely sober since I graduated from college. And creatively it was kind of a reset. I even just shaved my beard deeply.
My pre-break baseline was probably two or three (joints) a day. Like one when you wake up, one before you eat, and one when you fall asleep. So I just wanted to do a reset.
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How stopping cannabis use affected my dreams
I’ve had the most vivid dreams for the past month and a half, all about not smoking strong weed. I probably went five or six weeks without smoking.
I quit smoking cold turkey and I didn’t have crazy withdrawal from it. But oh my god. There was a time when I just couldn’t remember my dreams.
When I stopped smoking cannabis I had two or three dreams a night. And I would remember one or two of them vividly.
I saw euphoria last night before I fell asleep and my dream looked like it was shot on old Kodak film, it was wild. That was the one big thing that caught my eye, that I dabbled in. Because I tried to be inspired by said dreams.
It was pretty tight. It was cool to have very vivid dreams. And when I meditate, song ideas sometimes come to me quite clearly. Just the clarity of the T-break. But I do miss being able to instantly heal any kind of anxiety or panic attack with a few inhalations.
Things I’ve used to replace the positive impact weed has had on my life
In that past, maybe I could have just curled up and risen above any fear. But now I have to work my way through it.
I do the Calm app with my shorty. I’m doing a little more yoga now. Breathing and guided meditation situations. I’m not raw in life right now.
With no grass, no meditation, no nothing, you’re just rolling dice out here. No spiritual protection. If something goes wrong, you have nothing to help yourself.
How breaking my tolerance affected my creative process
Smoking can make making music easier because you can reach a deeper consciousness. I guess you are more relaxed and can venture into a dream state a bit more.
I had trouble falling asleep on my T-pause. I had to scroll through Instagram or TikTok for 20, 30 minutes before my eyes got heavy. It’s easier to fall asleep on weed. But it was also very difficult to remember my dreams.
So on those late nights, the T-break was difficult, but I feel like it’s more rewarding. Because I had very vivid dreams, images and ideas that I can just attack when I wake up the next day.
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My first session was calming
It wasn’t as psychedelic as the Black Panther smoking the heart-shaped herb, but it was calming. It was a connecting thing. Because I don’t think people realize the bond that cannabis can create. You have your consumption rituals, you have the music you play.
It’s great to share that kind of energy with my mom and dad. I work in music. They always thought it was a matter of time before he quit this straight edge act and do some drugs!
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I make it easier for myself to return to regular consumption
I’m like a good hitter coming back from injured reserve. They just put me in DH to take small at bats. I’m working my way up so I can be back on the field.
I smoked a little with my pop yesterday. I smoke with both my parents. In high school I was a sober Sally. I was a kid thinking, ‘No, I don’t want to smoke weed. I want to make beats!’
Obviously things have changed. But my parents are younger than most. My father just turned 50 this year. They’ve both smoked weed my entire life, I just didn’t know it.
I didn’t smoke as a teenager. So I didn’t know what to look for, how it would smell, anything. I would just see her with a funny face, hungry. It didn’t really click with me until I saw stoner comedy and stuff like that.
But now I can smoke with them and engage in all sorts of fun adventures. And it’s raw as hell.
So those times with my parents were the times I smoked after my T break. There’s no better way to come out of a t-break than to smoke the double joints with mom and dad.
About creating healthy consumption patterns
I’ve always had a healthy relationship with flowers. When I was feeling a little anxious or needed a good start in the morning, it helped calm me down. If I’ve had a lot of business calls, I’ll take one together.
If I wanted to be sure that I was really hungry before eating and really enjoying the food I had just cooked, then I smoked. They were really very action based or medical situations. It wasn’t a habit.
It was the end of the holiday season when I went on break. There was a lot of stuff going on and just being a responsible adult kept me busy and away from boring moments that might have led to smoking again. I also think that my new project STATIC VOL. 5 allowed me to keep the focus and not dwell on it again.
I wanted to break it after four weeks. I hit my plug one day, and she didn’t hit me back. And that kind of helped me stay a week or two longer. I thought, ‘Fuck it, this shouldn’t be.’ And right away I got very sober and cool and rocking.
I feel like it’s a little harder to t-break when it’s more based on habit. Your arms might shake in the morning. It’s like food, any substance that can become. a habit. Like I love milkshakes. I don’t know if I can go a month without milkshakes. I could punch someone in the face on day 25.
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Final Pros and Cons of a ‘T-Break’
Now that I’m done with my T-break, I like my new tolerance as low as it is. I took about four hits in my Pops car yesterday. And I said, ‘I’m fine, I’m chilling.’
I had achieved a nice high that I would have when I got home and played Call of Duty. I didn’t want to get hit and run into a wall or anything.
I think the obvious advantages of a T-Break are that you save a bit of money. You don’t know how much you’re spending on weed until you stop buying weed. Oh, there’s $85 in my account for not buying those seven bags!
Cons obviously don’t enjoy the sweet flower that is cannabis. You definitely need to face reality and deal with many anxiety and panic attacks.
But on the other hand, if you consume, you can better control the situation and learn more about yourself and the plant in the future. It helps you create a healthier relationship with the flower that is moving forward.
Follow Thelonious Martins Me against the weeds Series on Twitter and check out his new project STATIC VOL. 5 here.
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