Cannabis Demonstrates Improvement in Opioid Addiction Outcomes

Feb 18, 2021 at 06:50 pm by pj


 

By MICHAEL C. PATTERSON

 

Cannabis demonstrates improved treatment outcomes for people suffering from opioid addiction and reduced risk from accidental fentanyl exposure, according to research published in the December 2020 issue of the Drug and Alcoholic Dependence Journal.  The link to the article is here.

 

Cannabis use is associated with reduced risk of exposure to fentanyl among people on opioid agonist therapy during a community-wide overdose crisis - ScienceDirect

 

The study was performed by University of British Columbia and BC Center on Substance Abuse (BCCSU). The study included 819 participants, with 53 percent either intentionally or accidentally using fentanyl despite being treated for opioid addiction with treatments like methadone or buprenorphine/naloxone. The researchers found that participants who had urine tests positive for THC were about 10% less likely to have fentanyl-positive urine which puts them at a lower risk for overdoing on the opioid.

Dr. Eugenia Socías, the study’s lead author and clinician-scientist at BCCSU, said the “findings suggest that cannabis could have a stabilizing impact for many patients on treatment, while also reducing the risk of overdose.”

Previous BCCSU research found that individuals on opioid agonist treatments, such as methadone, who reported using cannabis on a daily basis were 21 percent more likely to continue addiction treatment at six months than non-cannabis users, the report says. BCCSU is set to work with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research on further evaluating the role of cannabis as a potential adjunct therapy to opioid agonist treatments.

Canadian researchers have found that without access to and rapid expansion of take-home naloxone, overdose prevention services, and opioid analog treatments, the number of overdose deaths in B.C. would be 2.5 times higher than current levels; but patient retention on these medications remains a challenge despite more individuals with opioid-use disorder being connected to treatments, the report says.

 

Analysis

This study provides positive data linking cannabis use with decreased effect of opiates.  It helps validate cannabis as a viable treatment for opiate dependence. 

This is extremely important because the US opioid crisis has picked up momentum under the distraction of the Coronavirus pandemic.  Eighteen states and Washington, D.C. have reported a 10 percent increase in opioid related deaths from 2019 to 2020.  According to Addictioncenter.com, drug overdoses rose 4.6 percent in 2020 to 70,890 cases in the USA.  

In the US, more individual states are adding qualifying conditions for medical cannabis related to opiate dependency.  Cannabis has never killed anyone in human history, and therefore safer than many prescription medications, including opiates.  The more data we collect on the benefits of cannabis for opiate addiction, the more momentum is gained to push to recognize cannabis as a legal medicine under US federal law.

 

 Michael C. Patterson, founder and CEO of U.S. Cannabis Pharmaceutical Research & Development of Melbourne, is a consultant for the development of the medical marijuana industry nationwide and in Florida. He serves as a consultant to Gerson Lehrman Group, New York and helps educate GLG partners on specific investment strategies and public policy regarding Medical Marijuana in the U.S. and Internationally. He can be reached at mpatterson@uscprd.com