Marijuana Addiction and Withdrawal in Fort Lauderdale
Why Is Marijuana Addictive And Dangerous?
How addictive is marijuana compared to other drugs?
Marijuana is less likely to cause addiction than nicotine, heroin or cocaine, but less addictive does not mean not addictive. Many people believe that marijuana use does not lead to addiction, that no one gets addicted to marijuana and no one dies from marijuana use. That belief does not hold up when you look at what happens to people who use marijuana often, and we need to look deeper at what is really happening when people use it recreationally.
Is marijuana a gateway drug?
This is the big question. Does marijuana use lead to the use of other, more dangerous drugs? For years marijuana was widely seen as a gateway to more dangerous drugs, and the research has never settled the question. Most people who use marijuana never move on to harder drugs, yet many people who use harder drugs started with marijuana. As legal use spreads, many people now argue that it was never a gateway at all. Let us think this through. Marijuana is intoxicating. Intoxication impairs judgement. Impaired decision-making can lead to making bad choices. Hence, if a person who uses marijuana is intoxicated, and they are in a setting where other drugs are present, the likelihood of experimenting with another drug is clearly increased.
Mixing marijuana.
Another way that marijuana use can lead to other drug use is by contamination. It is not unusual for people who use drugs to combine them. In a recreational marijuana use setting, it is conceivable that a person might be given marijuana that has been combined with meth, cocaine, heroin or fentanyl. Some of these mixtures are common enough to have their own street names.
Marijuana addiction is real.
Marijuana can be addictive. Cannabis contains THC, an intoxicating, mind-altering chemical. When people use it, they get high. In fact, marijuana addiction is a known problem. There are even treatment centers dedicated specifically to the treatment of marijuana addiction. Currently, marijuana on the streets is known to have a higher THC content than the marijuana of past decades.
Is synthetic marijuana, or spice, the same thing as marijuana?
No, and the name does real harm. Spice, K2, and the other packets sold as “synthetic marijuana” contain no cannabis at all. They are lab chemicals, known as synthetic cannabinoids, sprayed onto dried plant material so that it looks like something you can roll and smoke. The plant is filler. The drug is whatever was in the spray bottle that week.
These chemicals act on the same cannabinoid receptors that THC acts on, but they push those receptors far harder than any natural cannabis can. If THC turns the receptor part of the way up, a synthetic cannabinoid turns it all the way up, and the difference shows up in the emergency room. Seizures, psychosis, kidney injury, heart attacks and deaths have all followed smoking a product sold as fake weed.
Unpredictability is the other problem. Whenever the government schedules one of these chemicals, the maker changes a piece of the molecule and ships the next one, so a packet with last month’s name may hold a different drug at a different strength. For years these packets sat on gas station shelves labeled “not for human consumption,” which was the only honest thing printed on them. The federal government began scheduling the chemicals in 2011 and that era is mostly over, yet the chemistry has not stopped.
There are two more things to know. A standard urine drug screen does not detect synthetic cannabinoids, so a negative test for THC says nothing about spice, and even a specialty panel may miss the newest version. This bears repeating about every street drug: any street product may be contaminated with fentanyl, or replaced by it, and there is no way to know without testing it yourself. If someone has a seizure, chest pain, trouble breathing or signs of an overdose after using spice or any street drug, call 911.
While spice is far more dangerous than marijuana, it is rarely anyone’s only problem, because most people who smoke it were using other drugs first. If you have been smoking it and want to stop, see your doctor and tell them everything else you are using. The plan depends on it.
Are there withdrawal symptoms after quitting THC?
When a person who has become dependent on marijuana stops, do they go through withdrawal? While not even close to the severity of opioid withdrawal or withdrawal from alcohol, there are some possible symptoms when someone who has used marijuana daily for years quits the drug. Insomnia, irritability and other withdrawal symptoms can occur when a person who has been using marijuana regularly stops. Withdrawal shows physical dependence: the body has adapted to daily THC. Addiction is something else, the urge to keep using despite harm, and a person can have one without the other. Withdrawal is more likely in a person who has used marijuana often for a long time.
Is legalization of cannabis a good idea?
Cannabis is often said to have therapeutic benefits for many forms of illness. The FDA has approved one cannabis-derived medicine and three synthetic cannabis-related medicines for specific conditions, and most other claims remain unproven. States that allow only medical marijuana put some limits on who can buy it. When marijuana is legal, people with anxiety or depression may try to treat themselves with it. That can hide the problem and make it harder to treat, so it is better to see a doctor about the symptoms than to self-medicate. Improper treatment of mental health illness can be disastrous.
Can medical marijuana be used to treat addiction?
Cannabis is not a treatment for addiction. Narcotics Anonymous members have a name for someone who gives up their other drugs but keeps smoking pot: the “marijuana maintenance program.” Yet, opioid addiction needs real medical treatment, and marijuana is not that. Opiates are very dangerous with a high risk of overdose death. Additionally, people who use opioids have to deal with both physical and psychological withdrawal symptoms. There are already highly effective medications that are used in medication-assisted treatment of opioid use disorder. Marijuana as an opiate addiction treatment drug is inferior to drugs, such as methadone, suboxone or naltrexone, so it should not be used in this way.
Anyone in Florida who wants help with marijuana use can begin with a consultation. A consultation is a one-hour meeting with Dr. Leeds, by video or audio, to discuss options. Dr. Leeds sees patients by telemedicine throughout Florida, with in-office visits in Fort Lauderdale. Contact the office today.
This article is educational. It is not medical advice, and reading it does not create a doctor-patient relationship. Decisions about starting, continuing, or tapering any medication should be made with your own physician.