“Comprehensive literature reviews of historical perspectives and evidence supporting cannabis/cannabinoids in the treatment of pain…with associated neurobiological mechanisms of pain modulation have been well described.”
“There is supporting evidence that cannabis may assist in opioid detoxification and weaning, thus making it a potential weapon in battling the opioid epidemic.”

“Cannabidiol is thought to modulate various neuronal circuits involved in drug addiction. A number of studies suggest that CBD may have therapeutic properties that treat opioid, cocaine, and psycho-stimulant addiction, and some data suggest that it may be beneficial in nicotine addiction in humans. Further studies are clearly necessary to fully evaluate the potential of CBD as an intervention for addictive disorders. CBD can also be effective in treating withdrawal symptoms (e.g., anxiety, insomnia, migraine) from the overuse of high-THC cannabis, which could potentially cause the desensitization of CB1 receptors according to some preliminary studies. One case report concluded that CBD successfully attenuated all of those symptoms during the treatment period.”

“Supporting evidence also exists for cannabis/cannabinoids in the treatment of migraine and/or chronic migraine, cluster headaches, chronic headaches, medication overuse headache, idiopathic intracranial hypertension and multiple sclerosis.
There were 21 primary illnesses that were reported as being treated with medicinal cannabis… The subsets analyzed further were headache, chronic pain, and arthritis.
Most patients in the pain groups reported replacing prescription medications with medicinal cannabis, the most common of which were opiates/opioids across all pain groups.
Growing abundance of literature suggesting that cannabis may help in weaning from these medications and perhaps providing a means of combating the opioid epidemic.”

Objective: Despite the staggering consequences of the opioid epidemic, limited nonopioid medication options have been developed to treat this medical and public health crisis. This study investigated the potential of cannabidiol (CBD), a nonintoxicating phytocannabinoid, to reduce cue-induced craving and anxiety, two critical features of addiction that often contribute to relapse and continued drug use, in drug-abstinent individuals with heroin use disorder.

Results: Acute CBD administration, in contrast to placebo, significantly reduced both craving and anxiety induced by the presentation of salient drug cues compared with neutral cues. CBD also showed significant protracted effects on these measures 7 days after the final short-term (3-day) CBD exposure. In addition, CBD reduced the drug cue-induced physiological measures of heart rate and salivary cortisol levels. There were no significant effects on cognition, and there were no serious adverse effects.

Conclusions: CBD’s potential to reduce cue-induced craving and anxiety provides a strong basis for further investigation of this phytocannabinoid as a treatment option for opioid use disorder.