Contrary to popular opinion, marijuana addiction is real, and a lot of people get addicted to marijuana because they think it’s not a “hard” drug, therefore they don’t think that they need marijuana addiction treatment. Although marijuana may not be as physically addictive as some other drugs, it can ruin lives just like they can.
Marijuana is a gateway drug, meaning that most people who are abusers of other illegal drugs started out with marijuana use. Furthermore, the younger a person is when they first use marijuana, the more likely they are to develop an addiction to it, or another drug like cocaine or alcohol.
Those that use marijuana normally do it in order to have some form of escape from reality. However, continued use leads to addiction. Even if marijuana were legal, many people would still use it to self-medicate. Prolonged use creates problems that can only be solved through marijuana addiction treatment, and recovery.
There aren’t that many official marijuana addiction treatment programs, and that’s at least partly due to the fact that many marijuana users use the drug along with other, harder drugs like alcohol and cocaine. With the number of people that are looking for marijuana addiction treatment, science is coming up with new ways to overcome the problem.
A recent study of adults who use marijuana (most of the participants were men, in their thirties, who had used marijuana for at least ten years) found the greatest benefit from both group behavioral therapy and individual, motivational counseling. Counselors give the addict new strategies for remaining abstinent from marijuana.
Marijuana addiction treatment works by making the patient aware of the things that induce them to use marijuana, which makes it a lot easier to avoid the temptation. With proper treatment the psychological need for the drug, and other problems can be reduced or even eliminated. Yet another study says that rewarding patients for not using marijuana (with vouchers for movie tickets, food, and other things) motivates them even further.
Currently, there are no medications on the market for the treatment of marijuana addiction. But, discoveries about how THC works in the brain will lead to the development of a medicine that will block the “high” that can be obtained from marijuana. This will help to prevent a relapse by making marijuana use less appealing.
Marijuana addiction treatment is necessary to get a pot problem under control. To beat a marijuana addiction, a patient has to stay totally clean, and find different ways to cope with stress (exercise is a great stress reliever). A person in treatment for marijuana addiction can’t just light a joint to deal with their problems, so they have to find an alternative.
Drug Enforcement Agnecy (DEA) – http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/index.htm
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services (SAMHSA) – http://www.samhsa.gov/
National Institue of Health (NIH) – http://www.nih.gov/