In Maine, cannabis to treat cocaine and heroin addiction

The state of Maine could become the first U.S. state to prescribe medical marijuana to treat cocaine and heroin addicts. Addiction to hard drugs could thus become one of the reasons for obtaining a prescription for medical cannabis.

About 30 doctors and patients are urging authorities to treat drug addicts with marijuana: cannabis use would satisfy their cravings without causing the side effects of antidepressants and other substitution therapies.

For now, this request exists only as a petition. The Department of Health has six months to rule on the matter. Julia Dawson, owner of a medical marijuana dispensary and the petition’s initiator, explains that marijuana will not curb the desire for drugs but will alleviate withdrawal symptoms such as nausea, diarrhea, insomnia, anxiety, and muscle spasms.

However, this petition is facing strong opposition from some doctors, who point to the lack of conclusive scientific evidence supporting this cannabis-based therapy.

In fact, according to Leah Bauer, head of the psychiatry department at Brunswick Hospital, says the petition encourages drug users to use an additional drug that could create an explosive combination. She even goes so far as to say, «Using cannabis could add fuel to the fire.» People who use opioids are prone to addiction; introducing a new drug would only serve to replace one addiction with another—or even compound it.

That said, there are also no studies examining the effects of marijuana on people prone to addiction. Dr. Dustin Sulak, a signatory to the petition, says medical cannabis is the ideal treatment: «In our line of work, we see one person a day—sometimes more—who have replaced hard drugs with cannabis. They say their lives have changed.» Like rapper and former cocaine addict Kid Cudi, thousands have overcome addiction through cannabis. Maine is facing a heroin epidemic affecting nearly 350,000 people—one in four residents—, 272 people died of drug overdoses in this state in 2015.

In Switzerland, the government distributes small doses of cannabis to treat its citizens addicted to heroin, and in Portugal, the number of overdoses has dropped since the decriminalization of drugs in 2001. In France, we have proof of the positive effects of this treatment!! on mouse.

Theo Caillart