Does Marijuana Addiction Require Treatment?
When does abuse of a particular substance require rehabilitation?The answer is when one’s life accumulates sufficient damage that the overall quality deteriorates. When one can no longer achieve one’s goals and when happiness seems unattainable unless the addictive substance is abused.
When these conditions exist, the person has long since passed the point of drug abuse and has probably entered a state of addiction.Drug abuse is defined by the fact that a person continues to abuse a substance despite the damage being inflicted on health, relationships, finances or other areas. When that person also runs into withdrawal symptoms if they try to quit using the drug, they are said to be addicted. At this point, the vast majority of people will need drug rehabilitation to help them get sober.
Narconon Drug Rehab Programs Have Excellent Success with Marijuana Addiction
Yes, it is possible to become addicted to marijuana, despite the arguments of those who support legalization of the drug. Addiction becomes a more distinct possibility when you consider that marijuana has been steadily growing in potency over the last two decades. In 1983, monitoring projects showed that the average potency of marijuana samples was less than four percent. That means that the sample contained four percent THC—tetrahydrocannabinol, the intoxicating ingredient. By 2008, the average had increased to more than ten percent THC and some samples—hydroponically grown marijuana from Canada and the US—registered 25% and higher.
To recover from marijuana addiction a person must be guided through the process of learning how to create a productive, enjoyable life. When the person has relied on marijuana to obscure problems and upsets, the road back involves learning the skills to overcome those problems. This is an essential part of the curriculum at Narconon drug recovery programs around the world.
By the time a person graduates from the Narconon program, they have learned how to:
- Distinguish those whose friendships will support sobriety and those who are likely to encourage drug abuse
- Deal with unhealthy relationships
- Turn an adverse situation around to a positive one
- Reclaim personal integrity once it has been lost and retain it thereafter
- Repair damage that was done to his or her life, family, relationships, belongings, job and so on.
Detoxification is an Essential Part of Lasting Sobriety
One of the essential components to succeeding in staying drug-free is the reduction of cravings. Many other rehabs have only one way to help a person with cravings. That is the administration of other addictive drugs such as methadone or buprenorphine (prescribed as Suboxone or Subutex). These drugs are supposed to prevent withdrawal symptoms and cravings for more opiate drugs but actually, they are just obscuring these phenomena with more drugs. Other rehabs will prescribe benzodiazepines for people they say are suffering from anxiety or other mental conditions. But in all these cases, the person trying to recover from addiction is not achieving a drug-free life. All these drugs are addictive.
As part of the Narconon drug rehab program, each person goes through a deep drug detoxification process called the Narconon New Life Detoxification. As the name implies, this process of flushing out old, lodged drug residues is key to acquiring a new, drug-free life.
THC tends to store in fat cells as it is a fat-soluble drug. It has been found that these residues from past marijuana use tend to stay lodged in fatty tissues and can be involved in the triggering of cravings. As a person progresses through this detox, spending time each day in a low-heat sauna, taking a very specific regimen of nutritional supplements and exercising moderately, his or her body is able to draw out those toxins and flush them away. With completion comes clearer thinking, higher energy better most and, most importantly, reduced or even eliminated cravings.
When someone you care about is addicted to marijuana or some other drug, don’t wait for things to become disastrous before you act. They can regain a productive enjoyable life at Narconon.
Resources:
®