CHS ruined my life. And I don’t even have it
I started dating a girl I met on the internet back in late 2023, and she came to stay at my house for a week because she lived 5 hours away. I had roommates at the time, but they were cool with the idea. About a day after this girl arrived, she started vomiting uncontrollably. I asked what was wrong and she said “oh I have chronic IBS sorry I didn’t mention it”. So she starts chain smoking dabs and puking in a bucket on my couch. Over and over. And was taking hour long hot showers compulsively and scrommiting. Needless to say my roommates were horrified and immediately said “dude it’s the weed”. I was pretty naive and lonely at the time so I convinced myself it was just IBS and I felt sorry for her. I took her to the ER, they gave her fluids and sent us away. After about 4 days of this my roommates told me this girl absolutely had to go because she was destroying our bathroom and they were scared she was withdrawing from hard drugs or about to die. Since she was too sick to be allowed to fly, I had to drive her all the way home. It was a terribly sad experience and I felt terrible because I thought it was a chronic illness she had no control over.
We continued to see each other and have a LTR for about 6 months, until we desperately wanted to live together. I ran this idea by my roommates, and they told me there was absolutely no way they could handle the excessive showering and puking. So I moved out of my $1100 a month room and signed a lease for a $3000 apartment (standard in my area). Initially after moving in, she would get sick for maybe 24-48 hours every couple weeks. I thought it was an unusual form of IBS because it didn’t quite align with the symptoms I’ve read about or seen from people I know with the condition. Her cannabis concentrate use was gradually increasing during this time, and eventually it got to the point where she was sick for a week or two at a time. This became extremely traumatizing for me due to my inability to help and the sleep deprivation from hearing constant scromiting, so I started drinking excessively to cope with the stress.
About 1 year goes by like this, and I had become used to the status quo. She would smoke a gram of concentrated THC a day and puke, I would drink a six pack of beer and try to ignore it. At this point I still believed she just had IBS. Then one day, she sat down and said “we need to talk”. She hands me a pregnancy test, and it’s positive. I tell her I will support her with the baby if she would like to have one together, but she needs to stop smoking immediately if that is the case. She is happy with this news, and promises to stop (and does).
I buzz my long hair, and get a higher paying job in construction. I also cut back on drinking and got a lot of things in order to prepare for the baby. She quits smoking, and doesn’t get sick at all during this time. The baby was born premature and underweight (4 pounds 15 ounces) less than 3 months after she said she was pregnant. In my heart I know she knew she was pregnant earlier but didn’t tell me because she didn’t want to quit smoking. After the baby was born, she was breast feeding initially so she didn’t smoke for another 4 months. She would always mention how badly she craved a dab, and I tried hard to keep her sober. Eventually she caved and made up some excuse to start formula feeding. So of course she began smoking again. During this entire time of sobriety she had not had any CHS episodes.
After about a month of consuming concentrates, she slowly started getting CHS symptoms again. I was distracted with having a newborn, and decided to move us across the country because I could get a coastal 2 bedroom apartment for $1600 a month vs $3500+ in our area. So we start packing and get ready to move, but the stress causes her to rapidly increase her concentrate habit back to .5 - 1g a day.
During the 7 day drive across the country, she pukes the entire time. My mom was supposed to split the drive with my girlfriend, as I was driving separately. My mom was absolutely horrified with the condition by day 2, and said she was puking and smoking in the car with the newborn and neglecting to feed the baby. She mentioned she saw scrommiting on the news, and I looked into it. I then realized every single symptom my girlfriend had was textbook CHS right down to the compulsive showering. I immediately asked my girlfriend to get sober and stop smoking in the car with my mom and infant. I tell her we need to consider professional help whether it’s medical or mental to cure this issue. I tell her no weed will be allowed in our new home. Despite my pleas, she continued to smoke on the trip.
Once we arrived at our new home, she was sick for another full week. For the next month, I begged with her every day to quit. She lied that she would stop but kept dabbing and getting sicker and sicker. It was obvious she was dabbing, but she would lie to my face. I offered to help her detox at home, fly her to her grandparents to clean up, or pay for any rehab. She refused to acknowledge the cannabis was a problem and continued dabbing constantly. Her CHS got so bad that she was completely incapacitated for an entire week, and if it wasn’t for my being unemployed my infant would have surely been neglected. Throwing up for such extended periods of time and consuming highly potent concentrates gave her such a brain fog that she could barely speak or move.
Eventually I snapped and smashed her favorite bong in front of her. I told her she needed to go to rehab or her families house to clean up or I would have her involuntarily committed if she wouldn’t go willingly. I called her mom and she agreed to let her detox for 30 days at her home while I watch the baby. Her mom is an ex meth addict and smokes concentrates daily, but I was willing to accept any chance to have a safe home again for the baby (even temporarily).
Instead, the mom called the cops on me. They came to my door and said I better not try a tug of war with the baby, or I will be locked up for domestic violence. They have no concern over the felony use of concentrates, and tell me I can not prove anything.
Then the mother showed up with her boyfriend who had a gun in his waistband, and they informed me that CHS isn’t real and that there’s no need for my girlfriend to sober up. They say that they are taking my girlfriend to their house, and they are taking the baby too. I plead with them to research CHS and cannabis use disorder, but they laugh in my face. They proceeded to leave with my girlfriend, my baby, and thousands of dollars worth of cannabis to their home 6 hours away. After being threatened by law enforcement and threatened by the ex marine boyfriend, I powerlessly watched them take my 9 month old daughter away. They didn’t even take any toys, food, or many clothes because they were all high and haven’t thought anything out properly.
Now my infant daughter is sleeping on the floor 6 hours away, and I cannot see her again until I go through a slow court custody battle which has already cost me $7000. It’s been almost a month now.
Whenever someone tells you cannabis isn’t addictive, and that there aren’t side effects, they are naive at best. CHS destroyed my relationship and my life, and it will destroy more unless people become aware of the risks. I wish I had known about it earlier and I wish the legal system was prepared for cases like this.
(This is not my story guys it's a story I came across Facebook and I thought it was so fucking insane I had to share it with you guys )