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Study finds CBD effective in treating heroin addiction
For their study, published Tuesday in the American Journal of Psychiatry, [Yasmin] Hurd and her colleagues looked at 42 adults who had a recent history of heroin use and were not using methadone or buprenorphine.
Recruited from social services groups, halfway houses and treatment centers, the participants had used heroin for an average of 13 years, and most had gone less than a month without using. They had to abstain from any heroin use for the entire trial period.
The participants were divided into three groups: one group given 800 milligrams of CBD, another 400 milligrams of CBD and another a placebo. All the participants were dosed once daily for three consecutive days and followed over the next two weeks.
During those two weeks, over the course of several sessions, the participants were shown images or videos of nature scenes as well as images of drug use and heroin-related paraphernalia, like syringes and packets of powder that resembled heroin. They were then asked to rate their craving for heroin and their levels of anxiety.
A week after the last administration of CBD, those who had been given CBD had a two- to three-fold reduction in cravings relative to the placebo group. Hurd said the difference between the two CBD groups was insignificant. The research team also measured heart rate and cortisol, the "stress hormone," and found that the levels in those who got CBD were significantly lower than those who hadn't received the drug
Cannabidiol for the Reduction of Cue-Induced Craving and Anxiety in Drug-Abstinent Individuals With Heroin Use Disorder: A Double-Blind Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial (DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2019.18101191) (DX)
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(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Wednesday May 22 2019, @05:32PM (5 children)
You'll have a very difficult case making a scientific argument to me against Marijuana legalization. I'm old enough to remember this propaganda...
I can't square that statement with the observable impacts of Marijuana decriminalization (Oregon 1974) and legalization (California 1996). I'm a tea-totaling prude (if a touch kinky), but I'm pro-legalization of everything. We've sacrificed a giant pile of freedoms on the anti-drug altar. I'd like to leave my kids a better world than that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 22 2019, @11:06PM (1 child)
And neither has done anything to help the impressionable youths do anything except be impressioned that authority is good, and to obey authority, even if if is making you do something illegal or bad (like shooting you up with heroin to make you more malleable for their own sexual misconduct...)
The best thing we could do for society today is make it legal to record all interactions with other people in public, and require a prominent tag on clothing in private indicating that you are recording the exchange, and that said recording is only valid in providing evidence of a crime and not for personal or commercial usage.
This would do far more to keep us safe from actual predators and those who abuse drugs to control others (whether voluntary or involuntary in their initial usage) and keeps pervasive surveillance out of the hands of the government, where it cannot be trusted at all.
A decade ago having the government provide that infrastructure might have made sense, but today it should be handled by civilians and not made too easy to stream into the cloud for public consumption. It's entirely doable, but requires society to demand the changes itself.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday May 23 2019, @06:01PM
Yeah, let's stray away from the total privacy invasion that recording every little thing ever, would introduce. Sure, it might be beneficial in some aspects, but it won't lead to a free society. It's much more likely to lead to a totalitarian regime of some sort.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 23 2019, @03:00AM
Thank you for such a reasonable and thoughtful comment. It gives me hope to see others resist the status quo; especially so in the case bad laws. Drug addition of any kind should not be a crime but rather an illness and society will be better served once we begin responding with proper treatment options instead of handcuffs and felonies.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday May 23 2019, @06:12PM (1 child)
Personally, I don't have anything against the legalization of the use and purchase of Marijuana. Legalization of the sale of Marijuana should be dependent on study of the potential harms of the use of Marijuana. Perhaps, the only real danger to Marijuana users is using it when you're brain is still developing (say random range of birth to 16 or whatever). Then, it should definitely be illegal to sell to minors, but go ahead and legalize the sale to adults. Perhaps, the drug will be a wonder drug and only has benefits, Highly doubtful, but in that case we'd only want to regulate it like we do any other crop. All I'm saying instead of going from one extreme, total ban, to another extreme, let's sell it to everyone, isn't a good choice.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Thursday May 23 2019, @08:02PM
This presupposes that we can do unbiased science on the potential harm in a world where a sitting President says the quote provided.
Even if the scientists behind it were as pure as driven snow it would still be tainted by the crap that's been peddled for the last 50 years. At 18 you are an adult. You should be able to vote, drive, drink, grow, and smoke what you'd like.
See also: Liberty - noun - the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views.