By LAURA UNGAR

Dr. Smita Das often hears the same myth: You can’t get hooked on pot.

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They relied on marijuana to get through the day. But then days felt impossible without it

And the misconception has become more widespread as a growing number of states legalize marijuana. Around half now allow recreational use for adults and 40 states allow medical use.

But “cannabis is definitely something that someone can develop an addiction to,” said Das, an addiction psychiatrist at Stanford University.

It’s called cannabis use disorder and it’s on the rise, affecting about 3 in 10 people who use pot, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here’s how to know whether you or a loved one are addicted to marijuana — and what kinds of treatment exist.

How to identify signs of cannabis use disorder

If pot interferes with your daily life, health or relationships, those are red flags.

“The more that somebody uses and the higher potency that somebody uses, the higher the risk of that,” Das said.

It’s become more common as cannabis has gotten stronger in recent years. In the 1960s, most pot that people smoked contained less than 5% THC, the ingredient that gets you high. Today, the THC potency in cannabis flower and concentrates in dispensaries can reach 40% or more, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Cannabis use disorder is diagnosed the same way as any other substance use disorder — by looking at whether someone meets certain criteria laid out in the latest version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the main guide for mental health providers.

These include needing more of the drug to get the same effect, having withdrawal symptoms and spending a lot of time trying to get or use it.

“When we break it down into these criteria that have to do with the impacts of their use, it’s a lot more relatable,” Das said.

What the different levels of addiction are

If you’ve met just two of the criteria for cannabis use disorder in the last year, doctors say you have a mild form of the condition. If you meet six or more, you have a more severe form.

According to the latest version of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 7% of all people 12 or older had cannabis use disorder in 2024 and most had a mild form. About 1 in 5 had a severe form.

People can be dependent on and addicted to substances. Dependence is physical, while addiction involves behavior changes.

Marijuana doesn’t affect everyone the same way, though. The same amount can have “major impacts” on one person’s daily life but have no impact on another person’s, Das said. “It really comes down to: How much is that substance impacting someone’s functioning and life day-to-day?”

Where people can get help for cannabis use disorder

Many marijuana users first come to Das for help coping with something else, like alcohol use disorder. Later, she said, they’ll often come back and mention a struggle with cannabis.

She assures them that there are effective treatments for the disorder.

One is called motivational interviewing, a goal-oriented counseling style that helps people find internal motivation to change their behavior. Another is cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT, a form of talk therapy that helps people to challenge negative thought patterns and reduce unhelpful behaviors.

Twelve-step programs like Marijuana Anonymous can also be helpful, Das said. But whether someone chooses to join a group or not, even being able to lean on a community of people who aren’t using pot is an important part for recovery.

Dave Bushnell, a retired digital executive creative director, started a Reddit group 14 years ago for people who, like him, had developed an addiction or dependency to cannabis and wanted help recovering. Its discussion forum has 350,000 members and continues to grow.

Bushnell, 60, said peer support is essential to recovery and some people feel more comfortable chatting online than in person. “This is potheads taking care of potheads,” he said.

Doctors urged people who need help to get it, whether it’s with a professional or in a peer group.

As with alcohol, “just because something’s legal doesn’t mean that it’s safe,” Das said.

Associated Press reporter Leah Willingham in Boston contributed to this story.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

A Reddit user recently posited that it’s better to use a credit card to make purchases than cash or debit cards. With a credit card, the poster wrote, you can enjoy cash back or rewards, which you don’t get with cash or debit cards.

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Respondents were quick to point out that credit card usage isn’t so cut and dry for everyone. Sure, using a credit card works well for people who pay off the balance in full each month, but not everyone does that. And if they don’t, they might have to face interest and fees.

As we approach the spendy holiday shopping season, shoppers have to decide how to pay for their purchases. NerdWallet’s 2025 Holiday Spending Report found that nearly three-quarters of 2025 holiday shoppers (74%) plan to use credit cards for at least part of their gift shopping this year, while 64% said they would use cash, checks or debit cards.

Additionally, 29% said they would use money from savings, 18% cited buy now, pay later services and 10% said they would use a cash advance app.

We asked a couple money experts: Is it better to make holiday purchases with a credit card, cash or some other method?

Evaluate credit card offers with care

Credit cards can be a helpful way to pay, as long as you’re responsible with them.

Make sure you understand the details of the cards you’re using, says Lucas Wennersten, a certified financial planner and founder of 49th Parallel Wealth Management in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Some credit cards, for example, offer a period of 0% financing. “That’s a good option,” he says, because it allows you to spread out a big expense over multiple payments without paying extra.

As long as you make the minimum payments during that introductory period and then pay off the balance before it ends, you can safely use the credit card without accruing interest, he adds.

But once that introductory period ends, the interest can add up quickly.

That’s why he says shoppers need to manage their credit cards and payments diligently.

Carefully managed credit cards can net you extras just for paying — like points, rewards and cash back.

But remember: The value of rewards is negated if you can’t pay off the card in full each month.

Buy now, pay later?

BNPL is a popular payment method, but financial experts urge shoppers to use it with caution.

Carl Goodin, CFP and president of Financial Planning Associates in Ellisville, Missouri, says that while paying off a purchase in installments over several months may be better than incurring debt with interest, it’s also risky.

It can be especially dicey if you find yourself managing more than one BNPL purchase.

You might find yourself overwhelmed with BNPL payments coming due at the same time and even unable to make all the payments, which can trigger additional fees and interest. Much like with a 0% APR window on a credit card, you must take care to pay off the balance before the deadline.

Goodin suggests managing your cash flow so you’re not spending more money than you currently have in savings.

Set cash aside

Setting money aside for holiday expenses months in advance can alleviate the strain on your December budget. It’s a strategy to consider for next year.

Money saved is yours to spend — via cash, check or debit card — without worry about owing any interest or fees, Goodin says. (A debit card pulls the money directly from your checking account, essentially acting like cash.)

“If you have a spending plan that you developed beforehand that says you can spend X amount, then you won’t jeopardize your higher priorities and long-term objectives,” he adds.

Still, Goodin says every plan needs some flexibility to work. He encourages people to build a cushion into their spending plan so they have room for enjoyment this holiday season, too.

That flexibility will make it easier to stick with the plan all season long.

Reddit is an online forum where users share their thoughts in “threads” on various topics. The popular site includes plenty of discussion on financial subjects like payment methods, so we sifted through Reddit forums to get a pulse check. People post anonymously, so we cannot confirm their individual experiences or circumstances.

Kimberly Palmer writes for NerdWallet. Email: kpalmer@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @kimberlypalmer.

The article Discussed on Reddit: How Should I Pay For My Holiday Purchases? originally appeared on NerdWallet.

By ROD McGUIRK, Associated Press

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Lawyers for two sons of Virginia Giuffre, her housekeeper and her former attorney appeared in an Australian court Friday in a case deciding who controls her estate.

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Giuffre was the highest-profile accuser of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and she settled a lawsuit for an undisclosed sum in 2022 against then- Prince Andrew, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor after he was stripped of his royal titles over his association with Epstein

She died by suicide in April at the age of 41 at her farm in Western Australia state without leaving a will.

The only adults of her three children — Christian Giuffre, 19, and Noah Giuffre, 18, — filed a case in the state Supreme Court in June to gain control of their mother’s estate including property in Western Australia, where she had lived for years, and potential revenue from her memoir “Nobody’s Girl.”

The memoir, released last month, expands on her claims that she was sexually trafficked as a teen by the late financier to billionaires, politicians and King Charles III’s brother. Mountbatten-Windsor categorically rejected the allegations and said he didn’t recall having met her.

The brothers want the court to appoint them administrators of their mother’s estate.

The brother’s application is opposed by Virginia Giuffre’s former housekeeper and caregiver Cheryl Myers and her former Perth-based attorney, Karrie Louden. The women want to be made administrators.

A temporary administrator was appointed this week to manage the estate. The first court hearing in the case was held Friday and another will be scheduled next year.

Lawyers on Friday discussed a range of issues, including whether Virginia Giuffre’s daughter, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and her estranged husband Robert Giuffre should become parties in the case.

Virginia Giuffre separated from her husband and children this year. She had been charged with breaching a family violence restraining order over an incident in February, and died before she was to appear in court over the matter.

By DAVID RISING and CHAN HO-HIM, Associated Press

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong firefighters found dozens more bodies Friday in an intensive apartment-by-apartment search of a high-rise complex where a massive fire engulfed seven buildings, and authorities arrested another 8 people involved in the towers’ renovation. The death toll in one of the city’s deadliest blazes rose to 128, and many remain unaccounted for.

Burned buildings are seen at the scene of the fire that started Wednesday at Wang Fuk Court, a residential estate in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong’s New Territories, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

First responders found that some fire alarms in the complex, which housed many older people, did not sound when tested, said Andy Yeung, the director of Hong Kong Fire Services, though he did not say how many were not working or if others were.

The blaze jumped rapidly from one building to the next as bamboo scaffolding covered in netting and foam panels apparently installed by a construction company caught fire.

Authorities on Friday arrested seven men and one woman, ranging in age from 40 to 63, including scaffolding subcontractors, directors of an engineering consultant company and project managers supervising the renovation, the Independent Commission Against Corruption said in a statement.

On Friday, crews prioritized apartments from which they had received emergency calls during the blaze but were unable to reach in the hours that the fire burned out of control, Derek Armstrong Chan, a deputy director of Hong Kong Fire Services, told reporters. It took firefighters some 24 hours to bring the fire under control, and it was not fully extinguished until Friday morning.

Even two days after the fire began, smoke continued to drift out of the charred skeletons of the buildings from the occasional flare-up.

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Some 200 people remain unaccounted for, Secretary for Security Chris Tang told reporters. That includes 89 bodies that have not yet been identified. Yet more bodies might be recovered, authorities said, though crews have finished a search for anyone living trapped inside.

More than 2,300 firefighters and medical personnel were involved in the operation, and 12 firefighters were among the 79 people injured, Yeung said. One firefighter was also killed, he had said previously.

Katy Lo, 70, a resident of Wang Fuk Court, was not home when the fire started Wednesday. She rushed back roughly an hour later to see that the blaze had spread to her building.

“That’s my home.… I still can’t really believe what happened,” Lo said on Friday as she registered for government assistance for affected households. “This all still feels like a bad dream.”

The apartment complex of eight, 31-story buildings in Tai Po district, a suburb near Hong Kong’s border with mainland China, was built in the 1980s and had been undergoing a major renovation. It had almost 2,000 apartments and some 4,800 residents.

Three men — the directors and an engineering consultant of a construction company — were arrested Thursday on suspicion of manslaughter, and police said company leaders were suspected of gross negligence.

Police have not identified the company where the suspects worked, but documents posted to the homeowners association’s website showed that the Prestige Construction & Engineering Company was in charge of renovations. Police have seized boxes of documents from the company, where phones rang unanswered Thursday.

In addition to the new arrests Friday, the anti-corruption agency also searched the suspects’ offices and seized relevant documents and bank records.

Authorities suspected some materials on the exterior walls of the high-rise buildings did not meet fire resistance standards, allowing the unusually fast spread of the fire.

Police said they found highly flammable plastic foam panels attached to the windows on each floor of the one unaffected tower. The panels were believed to have been installed by the construction company but the purpose was not clear.

Preliminary investigations showed the fire started on a lower-level scaffolding net of one of the buildings, and then spread rapidly as the foam panels caught fire, said Tang, the secretary for security.

“The blaze ignited the foam panels, causing the glass to shatter and leading to a swift intensification of the fire and its spread into the interior spaces,” Tang said.

Authorities planned immediate inspections of housing complexes undergoing major renovations to ensure scaffolding and construction materials meet safety standards.

The fire was the deadliest in Hong Kong in decades. A 1996 fire in a commercial building in Kowloon killed 41 people. A warehouse fire in 1948 killed 176 people, according to the South China Morning Post.

Researcher Shihuan Chen in Beijing contributed to this report.