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Comment and Health

The surprising ways cannabis can be part of drug addiction treatment

The idea that overcoming addiction means abstaining from all psychoactive substances for good is outdated and misguided - particularly as we learn more about the potential therapeutic uses of cannabis, says Maia Szalavitz

By Maia Szalavitz

5 October 2023

HGM7GD Heavy-duty strong opioids, Hydrromorphone 12 mg, vial lid. Prescription only for managing severe pain, usually post surgery. Addiction risk. OD risk.

Prescription opioids, like hydromorphone, have a high potential for addiction and overdose

Aarts/Alamy

In 2017, clinical social worker Joe Schrank founded an addiction rehab centre with a novel selling point: it encouraged the use of marijuana as a way to quit other drugs and allowed smoking weed and taking edibles during residential treatment. He called it High Sobriety.

Located in California (natch!), it lasted only a few years before disputes between him and other investors – and the fact that insurance companies weren’t eager to cover such care – forced it to…

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