I understand just perfectly what you mean Cloud, and i guess most potheads or ex-potheads do.
I smoked cannabis for 14 years, eventually i came to the uninevidable point that i started to smoke on unappropriate occasions, at work, family meetings, etc.
One day i finally realized this was no good, and i was addicted, i didn't smoke cannabis because i really wanted to, but because i thought i needed to, so i decided to take a 30 day break to prove i wasn't addicted, but i was ofcourse.
I mannaged, 30 days past, wich where very hard, i don't smoke tobacco, so i missed the inhaling of the smoke, actually the whole ritual, more then the effect, cause it made my head feel, well.... clouded all the time, i assume you know what i mean since your nickname is cloud, i guess this has a cannabis oriented reason.
After that time i waited 2 more days, before lighting up a spliff, it didn't take much to go into a good old fashioned cannabis experience like i didn't have for at least 10 years.
Now i choose one day in the weekend to smoke, and in the evening of that weekend alone, now i decide when, that's a huge difference, before i had no control, and i smoked like there was no tomorrow, it was an addictive habbit, now i can decide for myself, although after the weekend is over it can still be hard to resist, but it's do-able.
It's much more special, but i feel it might be better to smoke once in a month or maybe twice, the specialness is fading again, the longer the pauze, the more the entheogenic effect of cannabis will reveal itself.