Cannabis is a drug. This is certain. \u201cSo are caffeine, nicotine, and ibuprofen,\u201d tedious pedants might say.<\/p>\n
But let\u2019s say you\u2019re in recovery. You want to be \u201cclean and sober\u201d from drugs and alcohol. Not want \u2014 you must<\/em> be.<\/p>\n Being \u201cdrug-free,\u201d of course, comes with some stipulations. Nobody would begrudge you a cigarette, a cup of coffee, or a couple of Advil. (Tobacco will kill you, but that\u2019s probably not why you sought help.)<\/p>\n But can you use marijuana and still \u201cstay clean?\u201d The notion might have been unacceptable or unthinkable, but what if it was the cannabis that helped you get clean in the first place?<\/p>\n At a recovery clinic in Los Angeles that specializes in opioid addiction<\/a>, cannabis is a key part of the treatment regimen. Granting people with heroin habits unfettered access to dab rigs might have once sounded outrageous or counter-intuitive, but using marijuana instead of other, addictive and destructive drugs is \u201creplacement therapy,\u201d one of the key tenets of harm reduction strategy. And lo, according to research, giving people weed makes them less likely to seek opiates.<\/a><\/p>\n And now, there\u2019s science supporting this method, and this research also explains why marijuana might be the solution<\/em> to certain substance-abuse disorders.<\/p>\n If it\u2019s true that drug addiction is a disease, the central issue isn\u2019t this or that drug per se \u2014 it\u2019s the underlying trauma or mental illness that leads to drug-seeking behavior in the individual. (Hence the coffee and the cigarettes at AA meetings; better those than a glass of whiskey and a line of cocaine.) According to an article published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology<\/a>, a compound in cannabis may sooth those impulses and anxiety that lead addicts towards relapse.<\/p>\n Cannabidiol, or CBD, is the less-psychoactive (or at least non-intoxicating) compound in cannabis increasingly accepted as a medical treatment, even in red states. There is medical-marijuana in Texas, and it\u2019s because of CBD.<\/p>\n Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California gave a cohort of drug and alcohol-addicted lab rats a CBD preparation. Up until then, those rats had demonstrated an \u201caddiction-like behavior\u201d where they daily sought \u201calcohol or cocaine,\u201d according to UPI.<\/a> When treated with CBD daily, the rats were less likely to seek more alcohol and cocaine. In addition, they were less likely to relapse, the researchers found.<\/p>\n More study found that though CBD itself was clear from the rats\u2019 brains and blood within three days, those rats still were less likely to relapse five months later.<\/p>\n While it\u2019s true that the study was on rats and not people, the findings demonstrate CBD\u2019s broad potential. There\u2019s not one thing that triggers a relapse in people, but there are a variety of \u201cvulnerability states,\u201d including stress and anxiety. CBD appears to act as a broad \u201ccure-all,\u201d solving a variety of these \u201cvulnerability states,\u201d according to the researchers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe results provide proof of principle supporting potential of CBD in relapse prevention along two dimensions CBD: beneficial actions across several vulnerability states, and long-lasting effects with only brief treatment,\u201d the researchers wrote. \u201cThe findings also inform the ongoing medical marijuana debate concerning medical benefits of non-psychoactive cannabinoids and their promise for development and use as therapeutics.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s true that states that have legalized medical or recreational marijuana have not suffered nearly as badly in the opiate crisis as states where cannabis is still illegal. This is a causal relationship that nonetheless is leading states with opiate problems (and that\u2019s almost every state) to consider legal cannabis. And that\u2019s when cannabis isn\u2019t applied by treatment professionals in a clinical setting.<\/p>\n Yes, cannabis is a drug, but it could also be the \u201canti-drug.\u201d<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/strong>\u00a0do you think cannabis could work as a tool to get people off harder drugs and alcohol?<\/p>\n The post Study: Marijuana Might be the Solution for Drug Addiction<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Cannabis is a drug. This is certain. \u201cSo are caffeine, nicotine, and ibuprofen,\u201d tedious pedants might say. But let\u2019s say you\u2019re in recovery. You want to be \u201cclean and sober\u201d from drugs and alcohol. Not want \u2014 you must be. Being \u201cdrug-free,\u201d of course, comes with some stipulations. Nobody wouldContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1213,50,136,53,2089],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25021"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25021"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25022,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25021\/revisions\/25022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Study: Marijuana Might be the Solution for Drug Addiction<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"