As more and more
states legalize marijuana for medicinal use to qualified patients, one of the
questions asked "Is medical marijuana addictive?" With opiate
medications being highly addictive if abused with significant risks of overdose
and withdrawal, it is important to either confirm marijuana having addictive
qualities or to refute the notion. The answer is that medical marijuana may
have a psychological dependence but it does not produce a physiologic
dependence so therefore not a true addiction.
Studies of
marijuana users overall show that a large majority do not become long term
users. In the 1990's, studies showed that although 31% of Americans 12 years
and older had tried marijuana at some point, only 0.8 percent of Americans
smoked marijuana on a daily or near daily basis.
It is not
unheard of for heavy chronic marijuana users to enrol in a drug treatment
program for marijuana dependence. There is a significant difference, however,
between a dependence on marijuana and a true addiction. Are there any symptoms
of withdrawal when a heavy or frequent user stops smoking? The answer is - possibly.
Some individuals report nervousness and some sleep disturbance - about 15% of
the time. But you do not see the sweating, hallucinations, nausea, vomiting,
etc that is commonly seen from narcotic withdrawal.
In animal
studies looking at high dose marijuana administration, no matter how much of
the drug is given, animals do not self administer the drug after cessation.
Narcotics are a different story.
In 1991, a
congressional report from the US Dept of Health and Human Services stated:
"Given the large population of marijuana users and the infrequent reports
of medical problems from stopping use, tolerance and dependence are not major
issues at present."
The main point
here is that marijuana may cause psychological dependence, but not physical and
physiologic dependence. Narcotics cause both and even if a patient is able to
overcome the psychological attachment to the drug, the simple fact that the
side effects are harsh may prevent going "cold turkey" or being able
to stop at all.
Thankfully
marijuana does not act in that fashion. Even after long term heavy use, there
is minimal if any physiologic reaction upon cessation. Marijuana acts on the
brain in a different pathway than opiate medications. This may allow medicinal
marijuana being utilized to effectively decrease the amount of opiates patients
need for pain control, and in some cases entirely replace them.
Also, medical
marijuana has a psychoactive effect of decreasing anxiety and improving mood.
This is different than opiates, where patients may see a decrease in pain but
also may see a depressive effect. This helps explain why so many chronic pain
patients need to take anti-depressant medication along with the narcotics.
