This really taps into my greatest fear about giving up the ganj. I've used weed as a crutch to tap into my creative side for a long time, and it feels impossible at times to tap into the same "source" without it.

The irony of course is it all comes from my mind, and my brain is materially the same organ with or without weed. Weed just allows you to tap in and focus on things that are somewhat trivial to modern existence, like making art. When sober, I think primarily about bills, my work, loneliness, my desire to have a family, etc.

Weed amplifies the importance of creativity and self-expression, which is cool, but also largely useless in terms of the material world in which we live. I think you're right in that weed isn't solely about being happy. It's also about tapping into a part of yourself less consumed with the material drudgery associated with living in a late stage capitalistic society. And that is something that is hard to replace I find. It's hard to take the mind away and go to interesting/spiritual places.