{"id":2049,"date":"2019-04-01T11:05:21","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T00:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/marijuana-as-a-cure-for-opioid-use-nation-s-top-drug-scientist-says-she-s-skeptical\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T21:00:34","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T10:00:34","slug":"marijuana-as-a-cure-for-opioid-use-nation-s-top-drug-scientist-says-she-s-skeptical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/marijuana-as-a-cure-for-opioid-use-nation-s-top-drug-scientist-says-she-s-skeptical\/","title":{"rendered":"Marijuana as a cure for opioid use? Nation&#8217;s top drug scientist says she&#8217;s skeptical"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(<em style=\"background-color: inherit; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem;\">USA Today<\/em>, March 20) As opioid misuse continues to grip the nation, some states are allowing medical&nbsp;<strong style=\"background-color: inherit; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1rem;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.getsmartaboutdrugs.gov\/drugs\/marijuana\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">marijuana<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;to be used as a treatment for opioid addiction.<\/p>\n<p>However, Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.drugabuse.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)<\/a><\/strong>, says there is currently no scientific evidence for marijuana to be used in such a way.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you don\u2019t treat it properly, your risk of dying is quite high,&#8221; Volkow told&nbsp;<em>USA TODAY<\/em>. &#8220;My main concern is by basically misinforming potential patients about the supposedly beneficial effects of cannabis, they may forgo a treatment that is lifesaving.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>NIDA is planning to conduct studies of cannabis ingredients to determine their effectiveness in treating opioid addiction.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s not possible,&#8221; Volkow said. &#8220;Like anything else, we do science in order to determine and provide the evidence of whether it\u2019s effective or not.&#8221;<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a class=\"button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/health\/2019\/03\/20\/weed-marijuana-cannabis-opioid-addiction-withdrawal-nida-nora-volkow\/3221792002\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read more<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(USA Today, March 20) As opioid misuse continues to grip the nation, some states are allowing medical&nbsp;marijuana&nbsp;to be used as a treatment for opioid addiction. However, Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the&nbsp;National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), says there is currently no scientific evidence for marijuana to be used in such a way. &#8220;If you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[77],"class_list":["post-2049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cannabis-as-medicine","tag-cannabis-as-medicine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2049\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dalgarnoinstitute.org.au\/wp_site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}