CBD May Help People’s Weed Addiction
[Please note that this page contains affiliate links. If you choose to purchase after clicking a link, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.]
While weed isn’t physically addictive as many other drugs, some cannabis users can find it hard to give up their habit. About 22 million people worldwide have some weed addiction that affects their life.
As of now, there are no drug therapies for weed addiction. Although, a new study shows that cannabidiol (CBD), the non-psychoactive compound of cannabis often found in oils and supplements, can be used to help get people off their weed addiction.
Published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal, researchers in the United Kingdom were given either two doses of CBD or a placebo to 80 people with a weed use disorder who wanted to quit using marijuana but had failed in the past. They found that a hefty daily dose of CBD helped people drastically cut down their weed use. In addition, CBD was perfectly safe, with no adverse side effects or bad reactions.
“The results from our study open up a novel treatment strategy for helping problematic weed use in a clinical setting,” Dr. Tom Freeman, the lead researcher and manager of the Addiction and Mental Health Group at the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath, he explained in a statement.
For the study 2a trial, scientists gave 48 volunteers a placebo, a daily dose of 400 milligrams of CBD, or 800 milligrams of CBD (an initial stage of the study concerning 34 participants found 200 milligrams of CBD was ineffective, so they dropped it from the study).
After one month of this therapy, the volunteers treated with CBD had their weed use cut done compared to those who had the placebo. In addition, the volunteers reported low levels of marijuana in their urine and an increased number of days they stayed away from using weed.
The scientist didn’t look to explain what the mechanism behind the findings was. Although, it is not the first research that shows CBD could be used to help people stop their weed addiction.
In one study, scientists argued that CBD could help with cravings and anxiety in those with a history of heroin abuse. In addition, evidence suggests that CBD holds medicinal value in assisting mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, insomnia, and epilepsy.
CBD is attached to a lot of false claims too. Last year, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned that many of these claims of CBD manufacturers aren’t scientifically backed and could be misleading.
