Saturday, January 19, 2008
Medical Marijuana to help Quit Smoking Tobacco?
Nicotine is a very powerful drug. It can suppress boredom, anger and anxiety. It can lower appetite and lends itself to a partnership with alcohol. It's also one of the most addictive drugs on the face of the earth. Many people quit numerous times, sometimes relapsing after years of being nicotine-free, and have to go through the quit process all over again. If they are surrounded by other smokers there is very little chance they will successfully quit because the pull of the drug is so powerful.
So can using medical cannabis help people break their addiction to nicotine?
By way of caveat, I want to state that there are some people who have a negative psychological and/or physical reaction to cannabis. With pharmaceutical drugs this is known as an Adverse Drug Reaction, or ADR. Some of these people get headaches, some have an anxiety attack, and some just don't feel well after ingesting cannabis.
I'm also not suggesting replacing every cigarette one smokes with a joint. That would be a debilitating amount of cannabis, and driving and/or working under the effects of cannabis can cause errors and mistakes. From 9-5 you should be as sober as the rest of us.
But when you're at home, and the cravings are getting to you, you might be irritable and angry because all those emotions nicotine was suppressing are coming to the surface. You feel like smoking.
I suggest taking two or three small hits from a pipe of good quality cannabis. The act of smoking will ease the withdrawal symptoms, as will the psychotropic effects of the drug. Those same psychotropic effects may ease your anger and anxiety, and help you relax.
There are many web sites with hints and tips to help smoker's quit, and one very common suggestion is to not drink alcohol while withdrawing from nicotine addiction. For those who might want a drink to ease their stress, those few hits from cannabis is a much less harmful replacement.
I don't really care if you're going to use the cannabis to ease the physical cravings or you're going to use it to relax and get high. If either helps you permanently quit smoking the benefit is clear. There are already millions of people who use marijuana instead of drinking alcohol, and I view that as a wise choice.
Once you get past the physical cravings you are free to stop using the medical cannabis. (It takes about 30 days for nicotine to leave the body, including the fat-cell-dump of stored nicotine right around the 30 day mark.) One month of using a little cannabis in the evening to help ease the cravings caused by years of smoking seems like a potential tool to me, and the safety profile for medical cannabis is amazing. Compared to most pharmaceutical drugs it's extremely safe.
As stated, this is not recommended for people who have a negative reaction to the drug, nor for people who are in active recovery from drug and/or alcohol addiction. I'm merely suggesting it as a potential tool for people who have no ill effects from cannabis use.
When quitting nicotine it's a good idea to pick up and use every tool that makes sense to you, including behavioral and spiritual tools as well as physical ones.
Nicotine is a very powerful drug. It can suppress boredom, anger and anxiety. It can lower appetite and lends itself to a partnership with alcohol. It's also one of the most addictive drugs on the face of the earth. Many people quit numerous times, sometimes relapsing after years of being nicotine-free, and have to go through the quit process all over again. If they are surrounded by other smokers there is very little chance they will successfully quit because the pull of the drug is so powerful.
So can using medical cannabis help people break their addiction to nicotine?
By way of caveat, I want to state that there are some people who have a negative psychological and/or physical reaction to cannabis. With pharmaceutical drugs this is known as an Adverse Drug Reaction, or ADR. Some of these people get headaches, some have an anxiety attack, and some just don't feel well after ingesting cannabis.
I'm also not suggesting replacing every cigarette one smokes with a joint. That would be a debilitating amount of cannabis, and driving and/or working under the effects of cannabis can cause errors and mistakes. From 9-5 you should be as sober as the rest of us.
But when you're at home, and the cravings are getting to you, you might be irritable and angry because all those emotions nicotine was suppressing are coming to the surface. You feel like smoking.
I suggest taking two or three small hits from a pipe of good quality cannabis. The act of smoking will ease the withdrawal symptoms, as will the psychotropic effects of the drug. Those same psychotropic effects may ease your anger and anxiety, and help you relax.
There are many web sites with hints and tips to help smoker's quit, and one very common suggestion is to not drink alcohol while withdrawing from nicotine addiction. For those who might want a drink to ease their stress, those few hits from cannabis is a much less harmful replacement.
I don't really care if you're going to use the cannabis to ease the physical cravings or you're going to use it to relax and get high. If either helps you permanently quit smoking the benefit is clear. There are already millions of people who use marijuana instead of drinking alcohol, and I view that as a wise choice.
Once you get past the physical cravings you are free to stop using the medical cannabis. (It takes about 30 days for nicotine to leave the body, including the fat-cell-dump of stored nicotine right around the 30 day mark.) One month of using a little cannabis in the evening to help ease the cravings caused by years of smoking seems like a potential tool to me, and the safety profile for medical cannabis is amazing. Compared to most pharmaceutical drugs it's extremely safe.
As stated, this is not recommended for people who have a negative reaction to the drug, nor for people who are in active recovery from drug and/or alcohol addiction. I'm merely suggesting it as a potential tool for people who have no ill effects from cannabis use.
When quitting nicotine it's a good idea to pick up and use every tool that makes sense to you, including behavioral and spiritual tools as well as physical ones.
# posted by Phillip T. Alden @ 1:24 PM 
