This video from the UW's Learn About Marijuana site has a good explanation of what cannabis use disorder is and how you can help yourself or someone else cut back or quit if they are experiencing problems with their use. http://learnaboutmarijuanawa.org/elearning/helping

Yes.

Anything else is just splitting hairs through semantics so that the "Dude, weed cures everything" crowd don't feel too bad about how they spend their time.

Ah, I just saw where this post was sponsored by dispensaries. Funny, they used to tell you that before the article, and it was made very apparent.

The entire article can and should be discarded and ignored as the advertisement it is.

If you can be addicted to porn, or gambling, or any non-chemical behavior, then absolutely you can be addicted to marijuana.

Rant:
A friend of mine who's an occasional pot smoker (and former cigarette smoker... one of the ones who is now militantly anti-cigarette in a really annoying way) got into a discussion about pot vs. cigarettes. She said pot was way healthier than cigarettes because there's no additives and pot won't kill you and you can't get addicted to pot and nobody smokes as much pot as they smoke cigarettes.
I told her that calling pot "healthier" than cigarettes is stupid. Both are unhealthy. Inhaling smoke is unhealthy whether it's from cigarettes, or pot, or a burning building. And I knew plenty of people who, if they could, would smoke pot 24-7. They'd chain smoke it. And once pot is legalized nationally, all these cute boutique pot shops will disappear and be replaced by big-box retailer corporate owned pot stores and they sure as shit will put the same additives in pot as they put in cigarettes. And told her about the addiction thing I wrote above too. She brushed me off. Then pot was legalized here in Colorado and just as I predicted, pot smokers felt a lot more safe smoking it and smoke it constantly... one hit right after another, just like cigarette chain smokers.
I have no doubt my other predictions will come true also. And, once pot is legalized nationally, and researchers have huge, longitudinal samples to study, they'll find plenty of terrible effects arising from chronic pot smoking.

I'm in favor of legalizing drugs (or at least decriminalizing them) and if you want to smoke pot, awesome! Enjoy! I love drinking so I'll toast your pot smoking and you can toke to my drinking. But don't fucking fool yourselves into thinking it's safe. Alcohol is deadly and addictive, I'm fully aware of it and don't deny it. Pot smoking is NOT healthy and it IS addictive, and once the research comes out, could be found to be really deadly too maybe. Be fucking honest with yourselves.

/Rant over

You can be addicted to weed the same way you can be addicted to carbonation or chocolate. It's a mental salve; it's something enjoyable you can learn to rely on. But when the times comes you can quit with no physical calamities. I quit every now and then when I need a clean system or traveling. I'd prefer not to, but easily doable.

"no clear link has been found between marijuana smoke and cancer. In fact, there's a whole line of exploratory animal research showing that application of THC can actually reduce the size of tumors."

No clear link has been found because there's hardly any research on marijuana smoke because of the major legal hurdles required to study it.
Application of THC reducing tumors... as a salve or paste or liquid? Or smoke?

"smoking weed is definitely healthier than smoking cigarettes."

It's strange to word it that way though. It's like saying "Getting hit by a car feels better than getting hit by a truck"
Neither pot smoke nor cigarette smoke is healthy. Pot smoke may be LESS unhealthy than cigarette smoke, but it's still unhealthy. Or are you suggesting that smoking pot IS healthy? Sorry but I can't believe that.

@6 -- Nailed it. I used to smoke ridiculous amounts of weed back in the day. I grew it, so it was cheap to me. I spent most of my waking hours really high. I still remember walking down the street and thinking "Wow, interesting -- full sobriety, this is different (I didn't drink alcohol or coffee back then". But then I stopped growing and just like that, quit smoking weed. No withdrawal, no huge cravings -- nothing. This makes it very different than, say, tobacco. You just can't find anyone who smokes a half pack a day (or more) who can just quit, the way that you can stop eating peanut butter. Even coffee has withdrawal problems -- not just a craving (the way that we all crave any enjoyable activity) but problems due to the lack of the substance. That really isn't the case with weed.

Hi #4 - I can't imagine anyone cares about this sort of thing, so I've never addressed it, but your comment is based on a completely false assumption, so this is for educational purposes. I live in Portland, and I write a weekly column for the sister publication of The Stranger, The Portland Mercury. I select my topic every week, as I have for about 3.5 years. Recently, The Stranger began reprinting my columns and blog posts on their site. (I wasn't aware this was even happening until a Seattle based friend saw my byline and hipped me.) I have absolutely zero say, influence or input as to how either paper chooses to pair the content with an advertiser. Sometimes it's a cannabis company, a cannabis science conference, or a drug treatment center. I find out when I see the piece run online or in print, just like a real, normal human person. So, no, the column is not an advertisement, as that is not how it works. I hope this helps, and thanks for reading.

Hi # 1 - Please see comment 10 as to where the piece is originally written, and how The Stranger reprints it. The link below takes you to my original headline, which does not have question mark. In this case, my "Yes?" was taken from the piece itself. The original headline reflects my belief that someone can be addicted to cannabis, although I struggle with the differences between that and a dependence. Thanks for reading. https://www.portlandmercury.com/cannabuzz/2018/08/22/22296845/can-you-get-addicted-to-weed

Pansack, that's what a Beer Bong is for....IPA Dabs are what's up.

@6: The addiction rate cited in the article is 9%. Only one in eleven users experience this. The fact that you haven't encountered it doesn't contradict this. You also use the word very loosely; read the definition in the article. These days, it seems to be used for anything people indulge in. But go to an NA meeting and tell them you're addicted to chocolate. They'll have a good laugh.

@15 They'll laugh at weed as hard as chocolate.