Hello there and thanks for asking your question. I can see that your cannabis (weed) use is really impacting on your life—it looks as though it is making your asthma worse, and it is interfering with your school life. Lots of young people use cannabis, and for some people it becomes a serious problem. This must be pretty hard for you, and first of all I'm going to congratulate you because you've made the first step to trying to make things better by asking for help here.

When you use cannabis for a long time, it can have a lot of different effects on your health. It can affect your respiratory system, your motivation, brain function, concentration, hormones and your immune system. It can even cause dependence, which means that your body is used to having cannabis in your blood, and some people have cravings and find it very difficult to stop using it.

It's really great that you're trying to find some help with your cannabis use. Whether you want to stop or cut down, it's important that you get some support with this. Do you have an adult in your life, like a youth worker or a school counsellor, whom you can trust to talk to about this? These people will be able to give you confidential advice on where you can get some drug counselling, if that's what you think you need. Your local community health centre might also help you to find a youth-friendly counsellor.

If you don't feel comfortable talking about this to somebody in person, try calling DirectLine or the Youth Substance Abuse Service (details below)—they have confidential counsellors who are experienced in talking to people about their drug use, and who will be able to refer you to somebody who you can talk to in person, if that's what you want. There are lots of people who can help you with this, no matter what you decide to do. Take care of yourself, and good luck.

For more information about cannabis and how it can affect you, have a look at the highsnlows website.