Daniel Sloss opens up about quitting weed after years of what he describes as addiction, explaining how it affected his anxiety, fatherhood, relationships and sense of self. Through therapy and sobriety, he says he has come to see cannabis as something he still loves but currently cannot have a healthy relationship with.
Stand-up comedian Daniel Sloss has never been afraid to tell it like it is. From pointing out toxic masculinity to the grim realities of long-term relationships and the complexities of grief, Sloss has made a name for himself by talking about things people normally don’t touch, by taking uncomfortable taboos and poking holes in them until laughter comes out.
So, true to form, he tackled a couple of difficult subjects on his recent appearance in the podcast Dropouts with Zach Justice. One of these subjects was substance use; and while he has talked about drinking and doing drugs publicly before, this time he opened up about a very recent personal development: quitting weed. And although it’s only been six months since he made this decision, he also pointed out that it’s “the longest I’ve not been stoned since I was 16.”
So how has his relationship with weed played out?
‘The Greatest Thrill of Being an Addict Is Getting Away With It‘
“A lot of people say they you can’t get addicted to to weed, but I think you can get addicted to anything,” Sloss said, comparing it to gambling, which doesn’t involve a specific chemical substance that generates addiction.
Of course, he also joked about it in a slightly self-deprecating way: “There’s something really lame about being addicted to weed… I’ve done all the drugs (apart from, like, heroin) and I didn’t get addicted to any of them… I got addicted to the non-addictive one!” Of course, that’s a popular myth that stories like his have been debunking for years.
Another comparison that drives that point home: “That’s like how Steve Irwin was killed by a stingray… You were, like, wrestling alligators and swimming with sharks and poisonous snakes and then… the fucking sea frisbee [got you]?”
Ah yes, there’s the classic death joke we’ve come to expect (and to love) from Sloss.
However, he hasn’t taken a purist approach to marijuana like we’ve seen from other people after quitting. “I still love weed. I want other people to do it. I just don’t have a good relationship with it. Which is embarrassing,” he confessed.
When asked if weed was helping him to cope with anything, like early fame, Sloss hesitated, but reflected on the things that made him love it in the first place: “It’s hard to say… it did start as just cool. It’s a cool drug to do. It’s really sort of low risk. It makes food better. It makes computer games better. It makes TV fucking better. It makes sex better.”
But pleasure isn’t the only thing he got out of it: there’s also a mental health aspect to it that those familiar with the plant can certainly attest to: “I think for a while I didn’t really understand that I had a busy brain. I thought constant noise up there was just how everyone lived. What weed did was… it didn’t stop it, but it made it easier to ignore. And then obviously the more successful I got and when I was touring and stuff… Also coming off a stage, the quickest way to go to sleep is to just get high and pass out.” Then again, as his case shows, there can be a slippery slope from using weed for self-care and health to becoming dependent on it to function.
“It was like a blankie, I’d say. I’d just been smoking it since I was so young, I was so used to having it be the thing I reach to whenever I’m freaking out or whenever I’m nervous or even sometimes as a fucking celebration.”
Sloss also recalled the satisfaction of being able to be high all the time: “I was so good at it… The greatest thrill of being an addict is getting away with it. Being high when nobody else knows you’re high.”
He even compared himself with other comedians, feeling superior to them because he could go on stage high as a kite when his peers couldn’t. But that superiority complex wouldn’t last long. Again, like with many stoners in recent years, the situation escalated after the COVID pandemic.
When asked how he has approached his recovery, Sloss didn’t hesitate to mention therapy as a great ally, though he approaches the practice a little differently than most people are accustomed to (which he referred to as “the LA version of therapy.”) “I don’t have a constant therapist for like the past 10 years who I just use as as an external diary,” he said. Instead, he goes to therapy for specific issues, works through them and then quits.
So, what part does therapy play in his recovery? Sloss cites his drug counselor as a big help, someone who provides accountability where he needs it. Though he refuses to go to meetings. Why? He doesn’t seem able to stop comparing his struggle (and his privileges) with those of others who might seem more worthy of respect. In his view, compared to heroin addiction, being dependent on weed “is the lowest form of drug addiction.” But we suspect that he would be kinder in this regard to anyone but himself.
He also joked about another aspect of it being a “low risk addiction” compared to other drugs: the money. “It’s not a drug addiction that fucks up the bank account. You can be high for a month for, you know, less than 500 bucks,” he pointed out.
So is his relationship with the plant over? Sloss remains an optimist on this front. “There is a promised land in the future. If I can go maybe 10 years without it. When it stops being such an integral part of my personality, when I see myself outside of it, maybe I’ll go back to it.“
‘A Short-Term Fix for a Long-Term Problem‘
Mind, this isn’t the first time Sloss has tackled this subject. In another recent interview with Neal Brennan, he revealed he “has known he was addicted” since he was about 29, and had attempted to quit several times through the years. A self-described “high-functioning stoner,” he would go through hyper productive streaks because, as he put it, “if I could prove there were no consequences, then it wasn’t a problem.“
But there was a problem, and increasingly so. Not only did it have a tangible effect on his fatherhood and his relationship with his children, but it also took a toll on his health and anxiety. Marijuana, he said, “is a short-term fix for a long-term problem.”
“I used to convince myself that weed reduced my anxiety, which I know for a lot of people it does. And that’s what I thought it was doing to me. It didn’t reduce my anxiety. It made my anxiety way worse. It made me talk about my anxiety less… I would just sit there in my head and spiral… It wasn’t a cure for my anxiety. It was a cure for my boredom, you know, and boredom is a real privilege.”
While reflecting more deeply on his experience, he also dropped some truth bombs, reminding us that progress isn’t always linear and uncomfortable emotions can also be healthy: “The biggest lie I convinced myself during my 20s and 30s was I was a better person when I was high. I’m a much better person when I’m not. I’m a better dad. I’m a better husband. I like myself more when I’m not high… Am I angrier and grumpier and do I experience a wider range of emotions? Absolutely. And it makes me more human. When I have those big emotions, I’m able to reconcile them afterwards. I analyze it as opposed to numbing it.”
Here, Sloss also said he still loves the plant and hopes to have a healthy relationship with it “in 10, 15 years’ time”. He also wishes everyone who does “to have the best time.” For now, he’ll just have to work on being the best version of himself, without his blankie.
Cover photo: Bryan Berlin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
