How to Use Medical Marijuana for Opioid Addiction

Using cannabis in place of opioid-based painkillers (e.g., oxycodone, hydrocodone) for chronic pain is where medical cannabis has made its mark. Integrating medical marijuana with therapy and support can also enhance the overall success of overcoming opioid addiction. Overall, using medical marijuana for opioid addiction can be a beneficial and effective alternative treatment option. Begin by creating a personalized plan to manage withdrawal symptoms effectively during your journey to overcome opioid addiction.

Debate about using medical marijuana to mitigate opioid misuse

With the increased legalization and acceptance of medical marijuana, many have turned their attention to this once-controversial plant as a possible solution. When you take how to overcome alcoholism an opiate drug, the opioids attach to receptors in your gastrointestinal tract, spinal cord and brain and release dopamine, which is responsible for pain relief. Your body can’t make huge amounts of dopamine by itself, so it becomes reliant and accustomed to this new way of creating the substance. When you’re addicted, you become desensitized to its effects and need more of the drug, increasing your risk of overdose.

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As your drug use increases, you may find that it’s increasingly difficult to go without the drug. Attempts to stop drug use may cause intense cravings and make you feel physically ill. Some drugs, such as opioid painkillers, have a higher risk and cause addiction more quickly than others.

Impact of Marijuana Legalization on Opioid Utilization in Patients Diagnosed with Pain

The evidence summarized in this article demonstrates the potential cannabis has to ease opioid withdrawal symptoms, reduce opioid consumption, ameliorate opioid cravings, prevent opioid relapse, improve OUD treatment retention, and reduce overdose deaths. Cannabis’ greatest potential to positively impact the opioid epidemic may be due to its promising role as a first line analgesic in lieu of or in addition to opioids. The comparative efficacy of cannabis alone or in conjunction with current medication-assisted OUD therapies is not well characterized. However, no other intervention, policy, pharmacotherapy, or treatment paradigm has been as impactful as cannabis legislation has been on the rates of opioid consumption, overdose, and death. There is a substantial body of research examining the efficacy of pharmacotherapy and behavioral treatments for alcohol 84–88 or cannabis use disorders 78, 89–92.

If your health care provider prescribes a drug with the potential for addiction, use care when taking the drug and follow instructions. Opioids are narcotic, painkilling drugs produced from opium or made synthetically. This class of drugs includes, among others, heroin, morphine, codeine, methadone, fentanyl and oxycodone. A recent Centers for Disease Control report says that between 2014 and 2015 (the most recent stats available), opioid overdose deaths in teenagers aged 15 to 19 jumped over 19 percent from the previous year. Opioid use throughout history also has a storied past, with its origins dating back to the cultivation of the opium poppy around 3,400 BCE in Mesopotamia.

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• Over time, chronic exposure to alcohol contributes to elevated endocannabinoid levels, which in turn leads to downregulation of the cannabinoid receptor signaling 58, 64.
• These drugs can cause severe intoxication, which results in dangerous health effects or even death.
• Chronic use of drugs, such as cocaine, methamphetamine and alcohol, can lead to the formation of oxidative stress (47).
• However, the effectiveness of CBD and cannabis treatment for addiction depends very much on the drug you’re trying to quit.

Countless others have been injured, remain addicted, and are in desperate need of effective treatment. Personally, I am 15 years into recovery from a vicious addiction to prescription painkillers, I could easily have become one of these statistics. The opioid overdose epidemic is arguably the worst public health crisis in U.S. history. Cannabis alone may solve minor withdrawal symptoms for people withdrawing short-acting opioids. But, such cases do not account for the most serious addictions, overdoses, and deaths. Like many other chronic conditions, treatment is available for substance use disorders.

You may have initially begun to take the drugs in small doses, but you’ve needed to up these over time to achieve the same pain-relieving effect. Qualified professionals at drug treatment centers are available to guide you on your journey to freedom from addiction. From there, speak with your primary care physician about whether cannabis is an appropriate tool to help you overcome addiction. Under proper care and with a legal medical marijuana card, you will have the means to fight addiction. There is cross-tolerance between alcohol, opioids, and sedatives because all three substances act similarly on cannabinoid receptors (in particular, CB1 receptors) and dopamine receptors.

Opium, derived from the plant’s seed pods, was used for its pain-relieving and sedative properties by various ancient civilizations, including the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. The active https://www.saloneimmagineuomo.it/2020/12/28/alcoholic-liver-disease-symptoms-stages-and-2/ components of opium, such as morphine and codeine, were isolated in the early 19th century, leading to the development of more potent pain-relieving medications. If you are searching for a medical marijuana doctor or looking for a marijuana dispensary, let us here at  help.

• Fortunately, researchers know more than ever about how drugs affect the brain and have found treatments that can help people recover from drug addiction and lead productive lives.
• With recent studies pointing to it also having a significantly positive effect on people trying to quit opiates, the outlook is very positive.
• This increased potency has been implicated in worse behavioral outcomes including increased alcohol intoxication, yet has been largely left unstudied.

Large, US nationally representative behavioral economics studies have reported that aggregate drinking may decrease if cannabis were legalized (Clements and Daryal, 2005), and that substitution is common in young adults (DiNardo and Lemieux, 2001). The earliest published account of cannabis substitution is a case study of a 49-year-old female alcoholic who found that with Antabuse and smoking cannabis helped her to quit drinking (Mikuriya, 1970). Within 5 months, the patient’s physical and mental health markedly improved, and within 2 years, her liver and general health returned to normal. As her physician, Dr Mikuriya noted that although alcohol and cannabis differ greatly, they can both instill euphoria and detachment. But while alcohol seriously affected his patient physically and emotionally, cannabis did not produce the same negative consequences (Mikuriya, 1970).

Overall, citicoline is one of my favourite supplements for optimal brain function and mental health. Nutritional deficiencies can also cause withdrawal-like symptoms such as fatigue, depression, irritability, and other mental symptoms that block recovery and lead to a relapse. For employees facing termination for illegal use of drugs, some employers may offer an employee with addiction a “last chance” agreement. In these agreements, an employer will agree to not terminate the employee in exchange for the employee’s agreement to enter treatment. A violation of the “last chance” agreement usually warrants immediate termination (ADA National Network, 2020). The addiction builds as the opioid chemicals interact with the related neurology and what is alcoholism bio-chemistry.