As the failed cannabis prohibition efforts continue to die a slow death some interesting new growth is emerging in the wake. Marijuana-friendly treatment centers are already up and running in California and they may be a prelude to a much larger movement in the treatment of addiction. Its possible this movement is pointing us toward using marijuana to treat addiction.
Rather than seeing cannabis as a gateway to addiction (a view without research to support it), those involved in cannabis friendly treatment see it as a gateway to recovery. As harm reduction continues to compile mounds of empirical support, the attitude towards an approach like transitioning someone off heroin with cannabis appears to be shifting from insanity to rationality.
In response to cannabis friendly recovery, we can expect a volume surge on the oft-championed argument that the approach is just replacing one drug with another. However, those championing the so-called cross-addiction argument seem to forget that replacing one drug with another is the most common method applied in addiction treatment today.
Go to any responsible detox facility for alcohol and you will immediately be put on highly addictive benzodiazapines. Go to detox for heroin or oxycontin and your habit will be replaced by another opioid like suboxone. Most of our treatment involves putting people on different drugs but we just call them medications instead to soften the idea. Using marijuana to treat addiction may be the first step towards a shifting landscape of what medications are used as substitutes in the early stages of recovery.
A recent article in the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse showed dramatic, positive results using psilocybin to treat both nicotine and alcohol dependence. Ibogaine is becoming an increasingly popular method of treating opioid use disorders and frequently completely eliminates withdrawal. MDMA will likely be an approved and available form of treatment for PTSD by 2021. With cannabis already breaking into the world of treatment and other, more powerful psychedelics accumulating increasing amounts of empirical support, the use of these once demonized substances as credible, safe, and effective methods of treatment seems to be a matter of when, not if.
Yes, using psychedelics within an integrated treatment model will be using a substance to treat substance use. But, thats what we already do, and right now we do it with drugs that are far more damaging and addictive. The risk of addiction to psychedelics is nearly zero. Yet, the go-to drugs to treat alcohol detox (benzodiazapines) are powerfully addictive and withdrawal from them can be fatal. Using ibogaine or psilocybin to interrupt addiction and cannabis as a bridge to a new lifestyle may sound like the ravings of madmen now, but may just be the norm in 50 years.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker
Full Article: Using Marijuana To Treat Addiction
Author: Thaddeus Camlin
Contact: Practical Recovery
Photo Credit: Shutterstock
Website: Practical Recovery
