It’s no secret that the US is in the midst of the worst opioid epidemic anyone has ever seen. Since 1999, the sale of prescription opioids has tripled. In the same time, drug overdose rates have tripled. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, opioids killed more than 33,000 people in 2015. That’s an average of more than 90 people every single day that are dying at the hands of an opioid addiction. And if it’s not prescription pills, it’s heroin!
The Link Between Prescription Pills and Heroin Addiction
Heroin use has reached a record high, with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reporting heroin as one of the deadliest drugs, and stated that the increasing rates of use in the US being something to be concerned about.
There are over one million heroin users in the US as of 2014, a number that has undoubtedly increased over the past three years. On Twitter, Yury Fedotov, executive director of the UNODC, tweeted the following: “2016 reveals heroin hike in some regions; a drug that kills more people than any other.”
The rise of heroin abuse is directly related to the rise (and fall) in sales of prescription pills. Heroin offers the same effects as prescription opioids, at a fraction of the cost. Not only does it offer a better high, but it’s often easier to find. It’s also speculated that a crackdown in prescription opioids such as Vicodin and OxyContin has also led to a surge in the use of heroin.
Whether it’s an addiction to pills or a person is hooked on heroin, it’s an addiction that is devastating. According to ABC News, in 2015, heroin killed more people than firearms, HIV, and melanoma.
The nation sits poised, facing one of the deadliest drug epidemics a nation has ever known. And where do you turn for help when traditional addiction treatments don’t seem to help?
How Cannabis Can Help a Country Hooked on Heroin?
Many people believe the answer can be found in medical marijuana. A study in 2014 showed that in states where medical marijuana was legal, there was a 25% decrease in the number of opioid deaths from overdose compared to states that had not passed medical marijuana laws. It seems that when a person is given the option to treat their pain or symptoms with medical cannabis or prescription opioids, there is a significant portion that will pick pot over prescription pharmaceuticals.
Pain management isn’t the only way cannabis is helping where opioid addiction is concerned. Aside from being amazing for pain management, studies are showing that cannabidiol (CBD) can also be helpful in treating addiction.
A study conducted by Yasmin L Hurd, PhD., found that cannabis can be helpful in the treatment of those addicted to opioids. There is also increased suggestion that CBD not only helps with opioid withdrawal, but also decreases the rewarding properties opioids offer, which leads to decreased cravings. More CBD equals less heroin-seeking behavior. In Hurd’s study, it was found that CBD’s strongest effects were those that helped reduce the anxiety people experienced when quitting heroin.
A 2016 study highlighted the use of 244 medical marijuana patients in Michigan. Each patient was surveyed, with results showing a 64% decrease in prescription opioids, a 45% improvement in their quality of life, and a decrease of the side effects and quantity of other medications being taken.
There was another 2016 study taken in Israel that showed 44% of 176 opioid-taking patients were able to stop using opioids altogether seven months after they started using cannabis.
How it Works
Opioid addiction doesn’t just occur at the opioid receptors in the brain. There are multiple ways addiction neurologically effects the brain, with some components of addiction being in parts of the brain that CBD also interacts with.
It’s believed that CBD can help with triggers associate with addiction because of the way it interacts with the serotonin system. When there are higher levels of CBD in the brain, a person is not only less likely to react with the triggers that lead to addiction, but decreases the need for reward that affects the opioid addict’s brain. CBD is critical when it comes to stimulating serotonin sensors without the need to use heroin.
While human studies of the effects of CBD on addiction are in their infancy stage, pilot studies have shown that the potential CBD contains to treat opioid addiction to be remarkable. From reducing anxiety to decreasing a person’s trigger response, it seems that CBD can offer heroin and other opioid addicts the hope they need.