Does Medical Marijuana Have Addictive Qualities?

As medical marijuana becomes legal in more states to qualified patients, a question often asked “Is medical marijuana addictive?” With narcotics having addictive qualities if abused along with overdose and withdrawal risks it is important to either confirm marijuana’s addictive qualities or refute the assertion. The concise answer is that medical marijuana may have a psychological dependence but not a true narcotic like physiologic dependence, so not a true addiction.

Studies of marijuana users overall show that a large majority do not become long term users. In the 1990′s, studies showed that although 31% of Americans 12 years and older had tried marijuana at some point, only 0.8 percent of Americans smoked marijuana on a daily or near daily basis.

It is not unheard of for heavy chronic marijuana users to enroll in a drug treatment program for marijuana dependence. There is a significant difference, however, between a dependence on marijuana and a true addiction. Are there any symptoms of withdrawal when a heavy or frequent user stops smoking? The answer is – possibly. Some individuals report nervousness and some sleep disturbance – about 15% of the time. But you do not see the sweating, hallucinations, nausea, vomiting, etc that is commonly seen from narcotic withdrawal.

In studies with animals receiving high dose marijuana, it doesn’t matter how much of the drug is given, animals will not self administer marijuana after cessation. Opiates, however, are a different story.

The US Department of Health and Human Services issued a 1991 congressional report which stated “Given the large population of marijuana users and the infrequent reports of medical problems from stopping use, tolerance and dependence are not major issues at present.”

The key point is that marijuana may in fact cause psychologic dependence, but not physiologic or physical dependence. Narcotics can cause both and even when individuals are able to get past the psychologic attachment to the drug, the harsh side effects may prevent the patient from going “cold turkey” or stopping at all.

Thankfully marijuana does not act like that. Despite long term use, minimal physiologic reaction occurs upon stopping. Medical marijuana acts on the brain via a different pathway than narcotics. Potentially this may result in medical marijuana being able to decrease the amount of narcotics taken.

Also, medical marijuana has a psychoactive effect of decreasing anxiety and improving mood. This is different than opiates, where patients may see a decrease in pain but also may see a depressive effect. This helps explain why so many chronic pain patients need to take anti-depressant medication along with the narcotics.

Want to find out more about AZ Medical Marijuana, then visit Arizona MMC’s site on how to choose the best AZ medical marijuana doctor for your evaluation.