Cannabis as a Treatment for Opioid and Heroin Abuse
On May 14, 2014 Nora Volkow, M.D., Director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse, testified before the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control stating that there are “ . . . growing and intertwined problems of prescription pain relievers and heroin abuse in this country.” She also reported there is “an estimated 2.1 million people in the United States suffering from substance use disorders related to prescription opioid pain relievers in 2012 and an estimated 467,000 addicted to heroin.”
On February 2, 2016 President Obama approved a $1.1 billion program to stem the prescription opioid abuse and heroin use.
The severity of this issue is seen in statistics from the Center for Disease Control, which reported that of the 47,055 drug overdose deaths in 2014, two-thirds were linked to opioid and heroin use and that “opioid overdose deaths, including both opioid pain relievers and heroin, hit record levels in 2014, with an alarming 14 percent increase in just one year.”
Speaking at the National Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit on March 29, President Obama noted that more people die of narcotic drug overdoses than die in car accidents each year, stating “When you look at the staggering statistics in terms of lives lost, productivity impacted, cost to communities, costs to families, it has to be something that has to be right up there at the top of our radar screen.”
Amplifying the President’s remarks at the Summit, Michael Botticelli, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, announced a new program to encourage the use of drugs like methadone and buprenorphine to treat the opioid/heroin epidemic explaining, “Expanding access to medication-assisted treatment for opioid-use disorders has been a top priority for this administration.”
“Participants who smoked marijuana had less difficulty with sleep and anxiety and were more likely to remain in treatment as compared to those who were not using marijuana, regardless of whether they were taking dronabinol or placebo.”
Using drugs like methadone or buprenorphine is not without controversy, as critics are apprehensive that they could be diverted and lead to further addiction. They also note the serious negative side effects including anxiety, insomnia, nausea, diarrhea, constipation, impotence, seizures, coma and cardiac arrest.
In a July 2015 study conducted at Columbia University and published in the international Journal of Drug and Alcohol Dependence, researchers concluded that the synthetic THC “Dronabinol reduced the severity of opiate withdrawal during acute detoxification.”
Most significantly, the study’s author recognized the effectiveness of real cannabis, noting that “Participants who smoked marijuana had less difficulty with sleep and anxiety and were more likely to remain in treatment as compared to those who were not using marijuana, regardless of whether they were taking dronabinol or placebo.”
A recent study by researchers at the University of Michigan reported similar findings, that “among study participants, medical cannabis use was associated with a 64 percent decrease in opioid use, decreased number and side effects of medications, and an improved quality of life.”
Other studies have come to the same conclusion, including a study jointly conducted by the RAND Corporation and the University of California, Irvine which suggests that cannabis is a good substitute for opioid pain medication as a whole. There are over 19,000 deaths every year in the U.S. from opioid overdoses and zero deaths have been recorded from cannabis use.
There are more and more studies and sources being published every day that conclude cannabis is a safer—and could be a more effective—method of treatment for opioid and heroin abuse.
