I'm in this camp and have met many others too. I was a typical heavy user for a few years before over the course of a week I went from chill-out high to full-blown paranoia and insomnia. Tried weed periodically after that and always got the same intense paranoia/anxiety.
Now with edibles I can eat a very small dose (2-4mg) and just skate under the threshold for freak-out, but its a far cry from when I used to eat gummies by the mouthful and have goofy fun for hours afterwards.
Fwiw, I am the opposite. When I was younger (late high school), when I would try it, I would absolutely get anxious/paranoid, which prevented me from ever wanting to do it often.
However, once I was older (late 20s), and perhaps my brain was better formed, I never had this issue again.
Paranoid thinking from weed in my late teens to early 20s had more to do with the fear of being caught by law enforcement and having my life turned upside down over a plant.
Same here. I got busted in Hollywood when I was 14 years old, back in 1973. I was the only juvenile in a group of about 20 people at a birthday party in an apartment building. They had a helicopter circling the building and shining a spotlight on the apartment we were in, then a group of police came through the door and arrested all of us.
They ended up dropping the charges on my case because the police didn't read me my rights before questioning me. I'd told them "I smoke weed and I'm not going to stop." The last question they asked me was "You were read your rights, right?", and I told them "No". A woman officer standing behind them looked at me and grinned and nodded her head up and down a bit. When I went to court a month or so later the prosecutor told I could go home because the case was dismissed.
But, for quite a few years after that every time I heard a helicopter hovering nearby I'd get a panic attack. It wasn't a vicious one, but I sure felt it.
Now with edibles I can eat a very small dose (2-4mg) and just skate under the threshold for freak-out, but its a far cry from when I used to eat gummies by the mouthful and have goofy fun for hours afterwards.