Canadian groups are giving free weed and edibles to combat opioid abuse

Volunteer groups in Canada are helping people struggling with addiction by giving away free marijuana and cannabis edibles to replace opioids. However, addiction professionals are wary that the unproven treatment could prevent people with opioid use disorder from seeking evidence-based therapies that have been shown to be effective.

In London, Ontario, volunteers from the Cannabis Substitution Program set up a table outside a church every Tuesday to distribute packages of free cannabis and edibles to drug users. Members of the group claim that high doses of THC, up to 100 milligrams baked in edibles, can act as a substitute for opioids and other dangerous drugs while treating withdrawal symptoms.

Since it started in April, the program has been popular, with up to 200 people showing up each week and queuing up across the block. Members of the group say that the cannabis they sell is paid for and donated by private individuals.

Stefan Nichol, outreach director at Impact Church and a supporter of the substitution program, said that while cannabis is not a definitive treatment for opioid addiction and withdrawal, it can help those trying to break the cycle of substance abuse.

“To be honest, weed will never cure dope,” Nichol told the CBC. “But it helps people sleep through a day of it.”

Cannabis Substitution Program Volunteer Mary McCarty said organizers began running the weekly events to help fight the city’s opioid epidemic after seeing similar initiatives in Vancouver, British Columbia and Halifax, Nova Scotia , had experienced.

“I thought, ‘You know what? London needs one of these, ‘”said McCarty. “It’s ridiculous what’s going on.”

In Halifax, volunteers from the East Coast cannabis substitution program put together cannabis packages that are distributed to drug users every Monday. When CBC News visited the group at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, each package included a shared roll-it-yourself kit, a cannabis gum, THC capsules, and edibles like chocolate, cookies, and a meatloaf pusher.

Volunteer Chris Backer, who travels to the north end of town each week to distribute the packages, says the donations can help people stop using more dangerous drugs.

“It breaks the cycle of addiction,” he said last year. “Cannabis has proven very successful and is a supplement to try to combat addiction.”

Addiction experts skeptical of weed and edibles as a substitute

However, addiction experts like Steven Laviolette, a professor in the School of Medicine and Dentistry at Western University in London, are skeptical about using cannabis for those struggling with opioid abuse.

“I am not aware of any evidence to suggest this would be effective as a substitute for opioid dependence and addiction,” he said.

But Laviolette acknowledged that cannabis could have a place in treating some forms of addiction. He has researched the use of CBD to treat amphetamine addiction.

“We were able to show that it literally blocks the activation of these drugs on the dopamine neurons so that the neurons stop firing in the presence of CBD,” he said. “This has a really strong impact on CBD as an anti-addiction treatment.”

Laviolette noted that researchers in the United States are also investigating the potential of CBD for treating opioid addiction. But he says THC can pose a risk to some people with addictions.

“THC has been shown to overactivate addictive pathways in the brain,” he said. “It could make it worse because THC would increase the brain’s addictive pathways, making problems like relapses and withdrawal potentially an even bigger problem for people with opioid addictions.”

Dr. Samuel Hickcox, senior addiction medicine practitioner at Nova Scotia Health, said the cannabis substitution programs do not have “high quality scientific evidence” to prove their effectiveness. He fears that people will use cannabis in place of drugs that have been shown to be an effective treatment for opioid addiction.

“This really worries me because we know that opioid addicts who take drugs like suboxone or methadone improve their health. You are much less likely to have a fatal overdose, ”he said. “If we take that away from people by offering an unproven alternative, we run the risk of actually causing more harm than good.”

McCarty says, however, that she has seen how the gifts of cannabis can have beneficial effects on addicts.

“People come and thank us all the time,” she said.