Pilot Study of Patients Who Attempt to Stop Opiate Substitutes with Cannabidiol/Tetrahydrocanabinol

Objective: Some patients seem able to reduce their dose of methadone by using the cannabidiol (CBD) or its mixtures with tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). We used a questionnaire to evaluate such cases.

Materials and Method: We located 7 opiate substitution patients (6 males, one female) who were attempting to reduce their use of opiate substitutes via CBD/THC oils: one has been on suboxone for 5 years and 6 have been on methadone for 1.5 to 14 years. All 7 reported that they initially became addicted due to pain: their current pain severity (rated on a scale from 0=no pain to 10=extreme pain) ranged from 7 to 10 (mean=8.2, SD=1.2). They have been using CBD/THC oils for between 7 and 365 days.

Results: Using the scale from 0 to 10 (0=no success; 10=CBD/THC oils helped to stop opiate substitutes completely), the patients’ average was 5.7 (SD=3.2): the range was 0 to 8. Only one patient reported a complete failure to reduce the dose of his opiate substitute (suboxone) and of other concurrent analgesics. The pain reduction by these oils (rated from 0=no success to 10=pain eliminated) averaged at 6.4 (SD=3.4). The pain relief lasted, on average, for 18.5 hours (SD=14.0).

Conclusions: While patients differ greatly in their biological characteristics and in their motivation to reduce the use of opiates or their substitutes, our data suggest that the CBD/THC oils might help many to achieve this goal, especially if provided with expert medical guidance.

Keywords: addiction, cannabidiol, opiates, methadone, suboxone, tetrahydrocannabinol.