According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s (NIDA) Director Nora Volkow, there is no evidence that marijuana weans people from opioid addiction.
She announced this week that the NIDA wants to assess cannabis ingredients as possible treatments for more than 2 million Americans with opioid-use disorder. She added however that there’s not any evidence that marijuana works for opioid addiction.
“I’m not saying it’s not possible,” Volkow said. “Like anything else, we do science in order to determine and provide the evidence of whether it’s effective or not.”
Volkow is worried about people those who subsitute marijuana for FDA approved medications buprenorphine, methadone and naltrexone as they might be more likely to relapse.
“If you don’t treat it properly, your risk of dying is quite high,” Volkow said in an interview with USA TODAY Editorial Board. “My main concern is by basically misinforming potential patients about the supposedly beneficial effects of cannabis, they may forgo a treatment that is lifesaving.”
The NIDA has several studies planned or underway to evaluate the ingredients in marijuana for opioid addiction.