Heroin addiction is one of the biggest causes of a series of mental and health complications. Even after you quit heroin, cravings for this dangerous drug will keep coming. Most heroin users who quit drugs get an uncontrollable urge to use it again. Yet the beginning of falling prey to the vicious cycle of using-regretting-quitting. However, there may be a ray of hope for all those who have quit heroin. Or else worried about consistent behavioral changes or withdrawal symptoms. Among the plethora of uses of CBD, it’s also found to be useful in reducing cravings. Also, it controls anxiety in heroin addicts. How does CBD do it? What’s the mechanism behind it? In this article, we shall discuss in detail the effect of CBD on our cravings for addictive drugs.
Let’s dive in!
What Does Research Say About CBD For Cravings?
A small-scale study conducted at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York in 2019 found that cannabidiol or CBD curbed all the cravings for heroin and even suppressed anxiety issues arising out of CBD use. This has raised hopes for millions of heroin addicts who keep coming back to the drug and can’t quit even though they want to. The study results in the American Journal of Psychiatry revealed CBD dampens signals that trigger cravings and other anxiety issues associated with opioids. Other benefits of CBD use for those into opioid abuse are lower heart rates and a steep decline in stress hormones. This double-blind, randomized, and controlled study involved 42 patients who abused heroin on a daily basis but with an intention to quit.
The participants either took a placebo, a 400-milligram dose of CBD, or an 800-milligram dose at random times. The study helped experts determine the long as well as short-term effects of CBD on participants’ heartbeats and blood pressure. They also examined participants’ breathing and oxygen level. To everyone’s surprise, the participants who received CBD experienced a decline in the urge to consume heroin even after exposure to drug paraphernalia. The close examination of their saliva also showed the emergence of lower stress hormones. These participants experienced similar effects throughout the week. This study established the fact that CBD may be quite useful in reducing cravings for opioids and other harmful drugs like heroin.
The Opioid Crisis
Heroin and morphine are two of many forms of opium. They are highly addictive drugs, which cause life-long illness and psychological impacts on our minds. While heroin comes from the resin of poppy plants, morhenes comes by further purification method, and as per the facts, it should be less addictive than heroin. The US Center for Disease Control has found that opioid overdose is one of the major causes of mortality in the US.
Around 600,000 people died of opioid overdose in the country between 2000 and 2016. Its overdose killed 52,404 and 42,000 in 2015 and 2016, respectively. This has caused a massive uproar in the medical community to assess its overall effects on the body. The medical science fraternity is debating whether it is time to focus research on cannabis now, which has shown potential use against opioid abuse. The preliminary data seems to point towards a bright future for medical marijuana. Many countries have legalized it for recreational use. Though many of its health benefits are yet to be explored, it is still being considered a popular option for chronic pain.
Can CBD Eradicate The Opioid Epidemic Of Uncontrollable Cravings?
Opioid abuse among US citizens, especially youngsters, is prevalent. So much so that it has decreased the overall life expectancy among US citizens. As there’s already a dearth of non-opioid medication options, CBD can play a vital role. Not only a study at Mount Sinai has made the case stronger for CBD but a 2015-16 study done in the heroin population also revealed similar results. While tight regulations around CBD research are posing a hurdle, experts are looking at ways in which it can address opioid symptoms in three phases — intoxication, dependence and relapse. They cite a slow pace of research when it comes to addressing addiction and call upon the scientific community to take it seriously so millions of lives could be saved.
What Are The Properties Of CBD?
For those who are not familiar with CBD, it’s a chemical compound, also called cannabidiol, which is extracted from hemp, a cousin of marijuana. The reason that it’s most extracted from hemp, not marijuana is because help contains the maximum quantity of this compound. Apart from CBD, hundreds of other chemical compounds are found in a hemp flower but that’s in low quality. All cannabidiols interact with two main receptors — CB1 and CB2 — in our body. While CB1 is located in the central nervous system, CB2 receptors can mainly be found in the periphery of cells with immune function and in the gastrointestinal tract.
Cannabidiol does not interact with CB1 receptors, which cause ‘high’; only THC (another cannabis chemical compound) does that. It is this ability of CBD that does not affect heart rate or blood pressure under normal conditions. In both animals as well as human studies, CBD appears to have shown no THC-like properties. In humans too, it has been found that CBD does not cause “abuse potential”. Oral consumption of CBD neither increases nor decreases the physiological or positive effects of smoked cannabis, the WHO study said. Some of the major health benefits of CBD use are lower stress, improvement in sleep, appetite, indigestion, and inflammation, among others.
The Conclusion
CBD is quite effective against several mental and physical health issues. The latest findings on CBD’s use in reducing cravings among heroin users have given a new ray of hope for those looking for a way out of the harmful addictive life. There’s a need to conduct bigger clinical trials to fully establish its efficacy, for which the federal government must ease the laws around cannabis research. CBD can offer an all-natural solution against the most critical health issues facing the world.
