The addiction statistics of America are quite grim; an estimated 21 million Americans are battling drug addiction, and less than 10% of the affected people bother to seek treatment.
Most of us rightly associate addiction with hard drugs like heroin and cocaine. But even mainstream substances like marijuana and cigarettes are every bit as addictive [1].
Marijuana’s addictiveness is fueled by the psychoactive chemical compound known as THC. However, in as much as marijuana is addictive, it isn’t okay to compare it with hard drugs.
Marijuana has a generous medicinal value.
But closer home, is CBD oil, a cousin of marijuana, addictive? In this post, we will see whether CBD is addictive but first let’s see what addiction really means.
Impact of Drug Addiction
Addiction is a mental illness, but its symptoms are made manifest in nearly every facet of a human being.
At the peak of addiction, the victim’s life revolves around their vice. If it’s coke, they never rest until they sniff their daily dose – which only keeps increasing.
Addiction usually ravages victims’ personal and professional lives. They usually end up mismanaging their finances and causing strife in their domestic relationships.
Overcoming addiction takes a lot of effort on the part of the victim, but it also depends on the type of drugs they are involved with. I mean, turning away from crack or heroine is thrice as hard as turning away from weed.
Can CBD Cause Addiction?
Considering that CBD is derived from the hemp plant, a cousin of the marijuana plant, this is a valid concern.
Full-spectrum CBD contains THC traces; thus begging the question; should I sample it a few times, will I develop an addiction? Nope. CBD oil contains negligible quantities of THC.
THC is the psychoactive chemical compound that manipulates the reward center of the brain) and you can’t develop an addiction from taking it [2].
Experiments have been carried out to find whether heavy consumption of CBD might result in addiction, but there weren’t any negative outcomes.
Having this in mind, you can try all the CBD products you ever wanted, and you won’t have a difficult time stepping out on the products that you never took a liking to.
Buy Quality CBD Products
One important factor that is never talked about as frequently as it should is that the effectiveness of the CBD that you ingest is tied to the quality of the product.
The manufacturing process of CBD products is quite expensive [3]. Some merchants lack the capital or the integrity to produce quality products, and nothing is stopping them from putting out inferior CBD products.
You can weed out inferior brands by simply performing an internet search and going through previous customers’ feedback. People are ruthless out here and scammers never run for long.
Mixing CBD With Addictive Products
One of the advantages of CBD is its ability to gel with other substances pretty well. You can have it alongside breakfast, dinner, and other treats.
Well, if you happen to regularly mix your CBD oil with e.g. nicotine, you are bound to develop an addiction, because nicotine is an addictive substance.
Always make sure to look at the ingredient list of the CBD products you purchase and avoid incorporating addictive substances.
CBD Oil is neither addictive nor psychoactive!
References
1. Bostwick, J. M. (2012, February). Blurred boundaries: the therapeutics and politics of medical marijuana. In Mayo Clinic Proceedings (Vol. 87, No. 2, pp. 172-186). Elsevier.
2. Lafaye, G., Karila, L., Blecha, L., & Benyamina, A. (2017). Cannabis, cannabinoids, and health. Dialogues in clinical neuroscience, 19(3), 309.
3. Mead, A. (2019). Legal and regulatory issues governing cannabis and cannabis-derived products in the United States. Frontiers in plant science, 10, 697.