Researchers examined whether CBD has the potential to treat meth and cocaine addiction.
CBD could help treat methamphetamine and cocaine addictions, for which there are currently no medication-assisted treatment options, according to a study released earlier this month.
The study, published in the journal Molecules, found that CBD helped reduce cocaine and methamphetamine use in rodents, and lowered their risk of relapse after a period of sobriety. The study authors say that the findings indicate that CBD should be explored as a treatment option for humans.
“While preliminary, there is some preclinical evidence showing that treatment with CBD might promote resilience to developing cocaine and meth use disorders and might prevent relapse into drug use after a period of abstinence,” the study authors wrote, according to Marijuana Moment.
Other Studies
Studies have shown that mice that are given higher doses of CBD are less likely to continue seeking out cocaine or methamphetamine. After 14 days without meth or cocaine, mice that were given CBD over an extended time period were less likely to relapse.
“A limited number of preclinical studies indicate that CBD could have therapeutic properties on cocaine and meth addiction and some preliminary data suggest that CBD may be beneficial in cocaine-crack addiction in humans,” the study authors wrote. “CBD has shown promising results in reducing the inflammation and seizures induced by cocaine and in several preclinical models of addiction to amphetamine, cocaine and meth. Importantly, a brief treatment of CBD induces a long-lasting prevention of reinstatement of cocaine and meth-seeking behaviors.”
While medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder has become the standard of care, there is currently no option for treating cocaine or meth addiction with medication.
“We’re realizing that we don’t have everything we might wish we had to address these different kinds of drugs,” psychiatrist Margaret Jarvis, a distinguished fellow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, said earlier this year.
This isn’t the first time a study has indicated that CBD has potential for treating addiction. Last year a study also found that rats who received CBD were less likely to administer cocaine or alcohol, even when they were cued to take the substances.
Researcher Yasmin Hurd, director of the Addiction Institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, has studied the potential of CBD for treating addiction.
“When we started investigating CBD, we hypothesized that perhaps it could decrease drug-taking behavior, but instead we saw that it actually decreased craving,” she said last year. “It was very specific about what it decreased, and that was surprising. Other researchers have replicated what we found, so we are confident in our results.”
