Marijuana addiction

Most scientific medical evidence indicates that marijuana is not addictive in the way that heroin, nicotine, and other drugs are addictive. Marijuana generally does not make a user s body so dependent on the drug that the person feels physically compelled to keep using it. Nevertheless, all drugs can be used in an addictive fashion by some people, and that includes marijuana. This possibility is another reason marijuana opponents contend that the drug is harmfiil. 

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In contrast, some drugs of abnse prodnce intense craving and are highly addictive bnt do not prodnce physical dependence. The absence of physical dependence indicates the relative lack of physiological withdrawal. This is not synonymous with meaning that discontinuation of these componnds may not be psychologically nncomfortable. Two examples are marijnana and cocaine. One need only look to the recent crack epidemic to see evidence of the way these substances can destroy lives, bnt they do not produce tolerance or risk of withdrawal to the same extent as alcohol or heroin. As a result, we would say that the daily crack or marijuana user meets the dehnition of substance dependence bnt does not exhibit true physical (or physiological) dependence. 

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Budney AJ, Bickel WK Amass L (1998). Marijuana use and treatment outcome among opioid-dependent patients. Addiction, 93, 493-503... 

Chronic exposure to marijuana leads to dependence, which is revealed by a distinctive, but mild and short-lived, withdrawal syndrome that includes restlessness, irritability, mild agitation, insomnia, nausea, and cramping. The relative risk for addiction is 2. 

My own research group has reported that the brain rewardenhancing property of -tetrahydrocannabinol, the addictive substance in marijuana and hashish, is much more pronounced in Lewis rats than in other strains, as measured both by direct electrical brain stimulation reward and by in-vivo brain microdialysis of synaptic DA overflow in... 

After his election Nixon created the President s National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse. In 1970, Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), the first comprehensive narcotics control law since 1914. The CSA systematically arranged drugs in schedules according to an assessment of addictive potential, dangerousness of effects, and pervasiveness of abuse. 

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