A new study’s been carried out by investigators from the Recovery Research Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) that suggests those who have recovered from problems with cannabis did so at a much younger age than those with alcohol or other drugs. These same people were also found to be less likely to have received any kind of formal help than those suffering from another kind of drug or alcohol problems.





“Very little has been known about recovery from cannabis use problems, and this is the first study to examine that on a national basis,” states John Kelly, Ph.D., a lead of the study and director of the Recovery Research Institute. “Compared with alcohol and other drugs, cannabis holds a unique place in federal and state policies – continuing to be illegal federally but with medical and recreational use legalized at the state level. Due to this increased availability and the proliferation of a for-profit cannabis industry, understanding the needs of individuals with cannabis problems will be increasingly important.”

More than 25,000 people took part in the study carried out by Kelly and colleagues. Of those 25,000 over 2,000 indicated that had experienced some form of drug or alcohol problem before but no longer do now. These 2,000 were then directed to a more extensive set of questions honing in on specific substances and details of how their problem was eventually resolved. According to the results, more than half resolved their issue with no outside help at all.





People that had issues with cannabis before made up more than 10 percent of the study, representing approximately 2.4 million people. Those that no longer saw themselves as having a problem reported resolving the issue at an average age of 29 compared to 33 for other drugs and 38 for alcohol. The study also revealed that cannabis-primary respondents had significantly shorter addiction lengths than those with alcohol problems.

“We did expect that the cannabis-primary individuals would be less likely than the illicit drug group to use formal treatment, but very little is known about the magnitude or nature of such differences,” says Kelly. “That may be due to fewer physiological and other life consequences compared with the impairments caused by drugs like alcohol or opioids dependence, withdrawal from opioids or alcohol is notoriously more severe and often requires medically-managed detoxification.”

Because of the higher potency of cannabis these days the team decided to see how formal support services had altered over time. What they discovered was that more people used outpatient services now for dealing with these problems. Whereas 20 years ago, inpatient services were more common in these types of cases.





According to Kelly, the brain changes that take place caused by the higher THC content of marijuana are now around 15 to 20 percent. That’s quite a difference compared to the 1 to 5 percent they were a decade or two ago. This alone could make it more difficult for users to stop on their own. “In the current landscape of higher potency cannabis and the greater availability and variety of cannabis products, it is more likely that individuals will need to seek help in resolving problems with cannabis,” said Kelly. “Now it will be more important to determine whether the recovery timeline from high-potency cannabis will be different and more challenging. And since so many of the cannabis-primary group resolved their problem without either formal treatment of mutual help organizations like Marijuana Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous, it will be critical to understanding the changes in their lives that helped make recovery possible.”

Related Article; Almost half of those who report resolving a problem with drugs or alcohol do so without assistance.

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