Cannabis-based medicine could be used to help heroin addicts quit, according to research.
A study has found CBD – a chemical called cannabidiol which is found in cannabis but doesn’t make people high – can reduce drug cravings.
Increasingly popular as a health supplement, although its benefits are debated, CBD is now readily available in high street shops.
Scientists have found giving it to recovering heroin addicts can cut their cravings by up to 300 per cent and make them less anxious or stressed.
CBD – cannabidiol – is a chemical found in cannabis which doesn’t make people high and is increasingly available as a legal supplement in high street shops (stock image)
Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York tested the effects of cannabis-based medicine, Epidiolex.
Epidiolex is a CBD medication approved by the US’s Food and Drug Administration and was designed to reduce seizures among epilepsy patients.
The research, led by Dr Yasmin Hurd, followed on from her past work which found CBD reduced heroin dependency in animals.
It comes as the US is in the grip of an opioid epidemic, with almost 400,000 people dying of overdoses from drugs including heroin, morphine and fentanyl since 2000.
Cravings are a huge problem for recovering addicts because they draw them into relapsing and may lead to overdose if their tolerance dropped while they were clean.
Drugs already used to try and help heroin addicts, such as methadone, cause concern because they are part of the same drug class as heroin, are addictive themselves, and are tightly controlled by the government.
CBD, however, was not found to be addictive and is widely available and affordable.
‘Our findings indicate that CBD holds significant promise for treating individuals with heroin use disorder,’ said Dr Hurd.
‘A successful non-opioid medication would add significantly to the existing addiction medication toolbox to help reduce the growing death toll, enormous health care costs, and treatment limitations imposed by stringent government regulations amid this persistent opioid epidemic.’
She told CNN: ‘[CBD] doesn’t get you high, but it can reduce craving and anxiety… This can really help save lives.’
In Dr Hurd’s study a group of 42 former heroin addicts were split into three groups and given either 800mg of a CBD solution, 400mg, or a placebo.
Having been addicted to heroin for 13 years on average, the people were then forced to watch videos of people taking drugs or shown syringes and packets of powder which looked like heroin.
Afterwards the patients were asked to rate their drug cravings and anxiety levels, and experts measured their body temperature, blood pressure and heart rate.
Men and women in CBD groups were found to rate their cravings two to three times lower than the placebo group.
The CBD also reduced the former addicts’ heart rates and blood pressure, as well as their levels of cortisol – a stress hormone – suggesting it was calming them down.
And the amount of CBD someone was given did not appear to affect the amount by which their responses changed, it was simply an on or off effect.
Side effects were mild, with only some patients suffering headaches, tiredness or diarrhoea.
Dr Julie Holland, a psychiatrist in New York who was not involved in the research, said the breakthrough was promising.
‘This is an extremely significant paper,’ she told CNN.
‘We need to utilize every possible treatment in helping people with chronic pain to find other ways to manage their symptoms and in people with opiate addiction to find relief.
‘CBD not only manages the anxiety and cue/craving cycle, it also diminishes the original pain and inflammation that leads to opiate use in the first place.’
Dr Hurd’s research was published in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
She plans to follow it up with follow-up studies to understand exactly how CBD affects the brain and to examine its effects over a longer period.