Can Medical Marijuana Heal The Brain From an Opiate Addiction?
By: Christina Vaughn, Nurse, Freelance Writer
Tags: Addiction, Medical Marijuana, Cbd, Life, Heroin

The research supporting CBD as an effective treatment for opioid addiction and other medical problems.

*The US National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health published an article by Cannabis and Cannabinoid offering some very compelling evidence that cannabis, and CBD derivitive, can and do produce great relief for opioid withdrawal and prevention of relapse, reduction of opioid dosing, and swift reduced need to use opiates altogether citing the effect CBD has on the opioid receptors.

Cannabis as a Harm Reduction Tool in OUD (opioid use disorder)

Pre-clinical evidence suggests that the CB1 receptor plays a critical role in opioid reward. Cannabinoid antagonism reduces the rewarding properties of opioids and prevents reinstatement of drug-seeking.105,130,131 However, these effects were not reproducible in human clinical trials.132–134 Unlike CB1 antagonism, CB1 agonism may play a role in OUD treatment. Several studies have shown that adjunct cannabis decreases opioid consumption or prevents opioid dose escalation.37–42,121,135.” Although these findings are promising, several other studies have shown that cannabis use “either has no impact on opioid consumption or may increase nonmedical opioid use.136–138

The mechanisms underlying cannabis alteration of opioid consumption are yet to be determined; however, there is significant pre-clinical evidence which suggests that CBD, one of the most prevalent cannabinoid molecules in cannabis, plays a critical role. CBD does not have reinforcing effects in rodents, which supports its low potential for misuse.16,139. CBD has been shown to reduce the rewarding aspects of multiple drugs of abuse, such as cocaine, amphetamine,16, and nicotine.140 Administration of CBD also attenuates morphine CPP and cue-induced reinstatement of heroin self-administration in rats, without creating any aversive or rewarding effects on its own.106,141–143

These findings provide a promising rationale for the use of CBD in opioid relapse prevention in humans. In fact, pilot clinical studies have shown that in individuals recently abstinent from heroin, CBD reduces heroin craving.142 This effect occurs as soon as 1 h after administration and lasts for up to 7 days. Adjunct CBD appears to be safe and tolerable, as 400 and 800 mg oral CBD administration does not intensify the effects of intravenous fentanyl or create any adverse effects.118 Because CBD is neither intoxicating nor rewarding and has an extremely large therapeutic window and impressive safety profile, the use of CBD to inhibit opioid craving has great therapeutic potential.

*Science Daily, taking material from Experimental Biology, speaks in a 2019 article about the positive effects of combining opioids and cannabis to reduce the need for high opioid use which inadvertently reduces relapse and overdose for pain sufferers, which are among the largest group of opioid users, street and pharmaceutical.

*One of my favorite information sites is WebMd. They also cite promising relief for opioid abuse, specifically heroin, abuse with the use of CBD.

“Our findings indicate that CBD holds significant promise for treating individuals with heroin use disorder,” said first author Yasmin Hurd. She is director of the Addiction Institute at Mount Sinai in New York City.

If CBD can actually reduce opioid dependence, prevent relapse and death, and heal and help many other disorders, why is it not being immediately embraced?

Photo by cloudvisual.co.uk on Unsplash

I wince at the statements of billion-dollar medical provider industries that use their leverage in society to sway the pendulum of health in their own lucrative direction by misrepresenting the CBD movement with conflated and misconstrued information on marijuana use.

These entities who have historically and are presently benefiting monetarily, from opioid and other addictions and the need for rehabs, aim to block and destroy the avenues for efficient funding that scientists and advocates for opioid death rate elimination, via CBD and other whole plant derivatives, are vying for.

This is the major reason why we are not seeing the progress and inclusion of CBD/medical marijuana in addiction treatment, specifically heroin/opioid, and in the medical field as a whole. The deceitful misrepresentation of misconstrued data regarding the use of marijuana, rather than factual data on the healing portions of the plant itself, is also a predominant reason for the lack in funding and support necessary to establish the truth through genuine government trials.

Non-governmental trials have long confirmed the huge benefits of CBD and other proponents of the marijuana plant. Governmental trials are almost nill due to non-funding and lack of advocacy.

Recently, the discovery of positive CBD results showing brain healing from damage caused by (specifically) heroin/opioid use is the first real hope that many addicts and their families have ever had in the search to permanently and effectively help heroin addicts with the symptoms that keep them addicted.

For heroin addicts to recover, they must have several co-treatments, intensive therapies and mentoring, but if they are able to heal the medical portion of their addiction (opioid receptor stretch, withdrawal, dose reduction and eventual elimination, and reduced reward gratification) using CBD, then this substance must be legalized and become a recognized, valid form for treatment for opioid addiction.

The threat of incredulous revenue to be lost by addiction and pain specialties in the event they are forced to replace archaic, deadly and ineffective treatment modalities (opioids in pain medicine, costly and ineffective procedures and repetitive rehab admissions -physical and substance abuse-) with CBD and other plant derivatives is the source of retaliation these particular providers are in the throes of…via misrepresentation and flat out lies regarding marijuana.

What would become of these lucrative rehabs if medical marijuana’s low cost and extremely effective uses were embraced and replaced many of the beds in those facilities?

This threat is also the instigation behind the decreditization of respected medical professionals who are on the side of CBD research and are openly advocating for the use of CBD for chronic pain patients, heroin addictions, and other medical issues.

Thus the sludge-like to standstill advancement in CBD use for heroin addiction and every other diagnosis that could benefit.

Examples of billion-dollar industries and disengaged providers discrediting the CBD movement:

The Hazeldon Betty Ford Center, world renown addiction treatment center, apparently is not in agreement with the idea of a plant-based, extremely affordable alternative to a billion-dollar addiction treatment plan.

In the article linked above, educated medical staff aligns themselves with a prevalent misleading campaign that is creating a smokescreen to avert the public from the issue of the true benefits of CBD.

Their website states that marijuana is addictive and dangerous. The ideas presented do not accurately represent the treatment of opioid addiction with CBD, focusing more on the use of the word THC, which is the addictive quality of cannabis and not the property considered for use in that treatment; however, THC is also being researched for its healing properties.

As death rates would imply, heroin is a little more addictive and dangerous than marijuana, though there are plenteous articles falsifying, misreporting, and exaggerating the ‘horrors” of marijuana available; especially since CBD began threatening the pocketbooks of these wealthy advocates against marijuana.