Is cannabis addiction a treatable disease? – Cannabis | weed | marijuana

Is cannabis addiction a treatable disease? According to one doctor, “Cannabis addiction is a real and treatable disease.”

She claims that the “cannabis legalization movement” has successfully pushed back against this narrative because of the drug war.

Fortunately, Dr. Salwan not one of those old school drug warriors. She knows that cannabis does not turn people into criminals and that cannabis prohibition has led to the mass incarceration of peaceful (mostly black) Americans.

Dr. Salwan represents the new school of drug warriors. The kind that promotes more opioids to get people off opioids. This makes drug use a “treatable disease” rather than an activity.

To her credit, Dr. Salwan recommends cognitive behavioral therapy as a solution to “cannabis use disorder” because that is where the evidence leads her. (But not without mentioning the “promising” FDA drug that will “reduce cannabis cravings.”)

Dr. However, Salwan is an adjunct professor of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. In other words – it falls to Dr. Salwan finds it difficult to view substance use as anything other than an illness.

What is Cannabis Use Disorder (CUD)?

Is cannabis addiction a treatable disease? What is a “cannabis addiction” anyway? “Cannabis use disorder” (CUD) is a topic we’ve covered before. It’s a myth that won’t die.

The belief that external forces determine our thoughts, behaviors, and actions is becoming increasingly important in a culture where neuroscientific theories of consciousness are accepted as “science,” despite their philosophical superficiality.

But let’s get to the heart of Dr. Salwan’s argument. “To shake the collective rejection of cannabis addiction,” she writes, “it helps to understand the clinical paradigm of all drug addictions or substance use disorders (SUDs).”

Whether we are talking about cannabis, alcohol or opioids, the characteristics of SUD are always the same and are categorized as the three Cs.

Demand: A strong desire to use the substance

Consequences: Negative consequences of using the substance

Control: A loss of control when using (or pursuing) the substance.

Other remaining SUD “symptoms” include the development of tolerance and withdrawal symptoms. But by this definition, almost every American suffers from caffeine consumption disorder and an addiction to refined sugar.

Is cannabis addiction a treatable disease?

Of course, “cravings” are just thoughts. Maybe you’ve longed for exes before when you visited areas that reminded you of them. It is an everyday human experience. You don’t have to attach your stream of consciousness to your ego and hang on to every single thought.

Especially if you’re kicking a long-standing drug addiction (or trying to get over your ex).

Likewise, it is up to you to determine whether the consequences of your actions are negative. So-called “addiction experts” are supposed to be neutral, non-judgmental scientists.

You could drink a case of beer every night. Destroy your liver, your marriage, turn your children against you, lose your job and your house and end up living on the streets. This all sounds like negative consequences of alcohol consumption.

But if you describe the experience as positive, who the hell are “addiction experts” to tell you otherwise? It may seem irrational to us, but many prefer to live on the streets and use drugs like fentanyl.

This fact is lost on many advocates of tax-financed provision of “addiction drugs.” They want to dehumanize a person’s choices and view them as “mentally ill” because they do not conform to certain social values.

I find it hard to believe that the left-wing proponents making this argument have ever read (or understood) Foucault. Although they will claim him as one of their own.

As for loss of control, despite the persistence of this myth, that is exactly what it remains. A myth. No research worthy of the name “science” supports loss of control.

Some real science to drive the facts home

Gordon Alan Marlatt. 1941 – 2011

G. Alan Marlatt was an American-Canadian clinical psychologist and researcher in the field of addictive behavior.

One of his best-known studies helps answer the question of whether “cannabis addiction” is a treatable disease.

Dr. Marlatt took in a group of heavy drinkers who had been diagnosed with alcohol addiction. He divided them into two groups in two separate rooms.

He gave a group cocktails without alcohol. But the cocktails tasted like they contained alcohol. He told this group that the cocktail actually contained alcohol. Apparently, participants reported cravings for more, continued drinking, and some even began acting drunk.

He gave the other group cocktails that contained alcohol. But the drinks did not taste like alcohol and he told the group that the drink did not contain alcohol. This group did not report cravings and did not drink excessively.

Others have Dr. Marlatt’s study repeated. The 3Cs of addiction are not scientific concepts. They are a “public health” belief system masquerading as scientific knowledge.

Contradictions in Dr. Salwan’s article

Dr. Salwan seems unaware of the contradictions in her article. For example, she writes that it is “encouraging that the prevalence of cannabis addiction among U.S. adults remained below 2 percent from 2002 to 2017, even as cannabis use increased from 10 to 15 percent.”

But how does that make sense? Especially since the THC potency has increased. If the drug itself causes addiction, shouldn’t higher consumption rates also increase addiction rates?

Dr. Salwan solves this problem by acknowledging that cannabis has been more or less destigmatized. Unless you’re losing your job or falling behind on your bills, who cares if you do wake-and-bakes or smoke weed every night after work?

Destigmatization, says Dr. Salwan, is a “desirable social outcome.” However, she believes this comes “at the expense of engagement in treatment” as only 4 percent of people received CUD treatment in 2019, down from 9 percent in 2002.

Think about it. The number of people seeking treatment for problematic cannabis use has fallen and she believes this is a problem.

If you make your money with “addiction medicine” and promoting rehab and treatment centers – then it’s a problem that people don’t see themselves as helpless addicts who need your paid expertise.

This phenomenon of people viewing their cannabis habits as habits rather than addictions is a step in the right direction. Only ideologues believe that “cannabis addiction” is a treatable disease.

FDA drugs vs. rethinking

As already mentioned, Dr. Salwan pays lip service to “promising” FDA drugs to cure cannabis addiction, or CUD. But as she writes in the article, all evidence suggests that cognitive behavioral therapy (and others) are more helpful.

And it’s obvious why. These therapies tend to challenge a person’s thought process and patterns rather than validating their feelings and looking for a “root cause” somewhere in their childhood.

Cannabis addiction is not a treatable disease because addiction is not real and mental health issues are not a disease.

Addiction is a social construct that feeds on itself.

Similar to racing. We are all Homo Sapiens. But you can classify people by skin color, create cultures based on those skin tones, and then spread and control populations according to the beliefs and values ​​of the various “in” and “out” groups you have created with that social construct.

Addiction is the same. Whether it’s limiting cannabis or social media consumption or adopting positive habits like exercise and proper nutrition.

You can embrace your free will and autonomy or believe that your habits and preferences are a “disease” or “disorder” of the brain. That you are masking an underlying cause that only years of therapy and a cocktail of medications can cure.

Dr. Salwan fears that people are being denied access to CUD treatment because it is illegal or because their symptoms are being “trivialized.”

And in fact, we’re not trying to trivialize anyone who feels addicted. It’s incredibly frustrating. But just like poor race relations that result from government policies, school indoctrination, and media coverage, this poor relationship between drugs and users is the result of “addiction experts.”

Dr. Salwan’s presentation of the problem does not help.

Is cannabis addiction a treatable disease?

“Cannabis use disorder” is a concept developed and reinforced by these so-called experts.

But what about people (e.g., “cannabis addicts”) who strongly favor the herb in their actions but not in their speech?

It could be that they think cannabis is helping them deal with a traumatic past.

And it could be that some people just like being shit on. For some reason they want to feel numb. And medication is an effective way to bring about this condition.

But it’s a logical step to blame the substance. It confuses cause and effect. It’s literally about putting the cart before the horse.