In this life, everything should be as simple as it is, but not simpler.  That includes this questionnaire study about marijuana as an “exit” drug for substance abuse.    This article hit a nerve because there are issues here I have come up against before.  And I mean “against.”  I don’t mean to say it isn’t “good science;” it is. I’m talking about the emotional resistance to the idea that detoxifying from a medication can be comfortable, painless, and effective.  I see this coming like I see the sun rising in the morning, because I have been to this place. A few years ago, I found myself in an informal banquet room across the parking lot from a hotel type establishment in a touristy part of San Diego.  There was a woman rep from the drug company, Hythiam.  She wasn’t an ex beauty queen like most reps, but a fairly credentialed therapist who actually knew what she was talking about.  My husband was there with me; a younger, chubbier, and more naïve me – therefore, less authoritative.

These Hythiem/Prometa folks had a great schedule of IVs that removed physiological cravings for various substances of abuse, including methamphetamine.  Basically, they use safe and older type drugs intravenously for a lovely pharmacological intervention.  The cravings stop, and the person does not “need” to use the drug. Neither they nor I was stupid and naive enough to think that was all you had to do.  Aftercare was important and I was ready to jump in.  They recommended vitamins — I recommended lots of vitamins, high dose, and chelated to cross the blood-brain barrier. But these addicted folks needed “prosthetic lives.”  When all you can muster goes to satisfying a craving or a need, there are not many hours left in the day for work or relationships.  I helped with this, too. Some people had problems, but they were mostly because of the psychosocial void left when they did not go for drugs, and their inability to fill it.  I worked my damnedest with these folks; and like the company, was eager to be accepted into the addiction community. There was this reception, and they had invited people from every substance abuse program in town.  I was there and ready to go to bat as the only physician who had experience with these folks locally. Two people showed up.  One was an older, fatherly type. The other was a young sidekick who was presumably learning from him.  This older guy said something that rings in my ears now. “You got to earn your sobriety.” Read more on Time to Stop Judging and Start Healing…