CANNABIS CAN BE PATH TO ADDICTION BUT FOR SOME IT’S A WAY OUT
OPENING THE DOOR TO A GATEWAY DRUG A MISTAKE, SAY ADDICTIONS COUNSELLORS
FRENCHVALE, N.S. — Tom Blanchard makes no apologies for his strong stance against cannabis legalization.
“We believe a drug is a drug is a drug,” says Blanchard, a long-time addictions counsellor who serves as the executive director of Talbot House, a rural Cape Breton facility that guides the addiction recovery and rehabilitation of men from Nova Scotia and across Atlantic Canada.
“We still believe that cannabis is a gateway drug and that it’s highly addictive, and we still believe it can cause mental health issues for youth, that is people between 14 to 21, and that it has relapse potential for our clients if they go back smoking it recreationally.”
And he should know. After all, the sole purpose of Talbot House, operated by a non-profit society, is to help chronic addicts through the recovery process. It’s been doing so since 1959.
Blanchard isn’t saying the legalization of recreational cannabis has undermined 60 years of addictions services, but he does concede that the public perception of pot being less harmful than other drugs has made it more challenging.
“I think it’s very dangerous to think that cannabis is good for everybody — it's like when opioids started, they were great for cancer patients, but all of a sudden it became chronic and now it’s killing people across this country,” he says, adding that the hype surrounding marijuana legalization, both recreationally and business-wise, has contributed to minimizing past awareness campaigns about the now legal substance.
“In the early stages of grassroots addiction services, marijuana was considered a drug and pamphlets were distributed that stressed how it affected the body, mind, spirit and soul and now that’s all gone away.”
Neither Blanchard or Talbot House clinical therapist Dale Sharkey expect the Cannabis Act to be repealed, but they said they would like to see a more accurate portrayal of the dangers of cannabis use. Sharkey said one claim he takes issue with is that marijuana is less damaging than alcohol.
“I think the government and the media are making a mistake trying to differentiate it from alcohol,” he said.
“It’s the same, it’s a drug that you take, and you can become addicted to either one and either one can have negative consequences — it’s not a harmless drug like it’s being portrayed.” — By David Jala
FOR ALICE, CANNABIS IS BRIDGE TO CLEAN LIFE
BURIN PENINSULA, N.L. — Alice is 27. She’s been clean for a while now but still remembers being held in a vise grip of addiction she couldn’t escape, until she switched to pot.
The Newfoundland woman, who did not want her real name used, says cannabis has helped break her reliance on powerful opiates.
“At the end of my addiction I was seeking out fentanyl patches because I couldn’t get high anymore,” she told SaltWire Network.
“I’ve been clean now over three and a half years and if I wasn't smoking marijuana for my anxiety I don’t know if I would be sober this long. I give cannabis a lot of credit for saving my life.”
She’s not alone in using cannabis to help overcome an opioid addiction.
The Marystown native points to the Cannabis Substitution Project in Vancouver, started by Neil Magnuson, as a model.
Magnuson said in a telephone interview “the root cause of much of the addiction is pain of course, anxiety depression, lack of sleep, lack of nutrition. Those things are all addressed by cannabis.”
He said edible and concentrated forms of cannabis are more effective in offsetting the use of harder street drugs.
“If you smoke two good grams of cannabis, that third gram isn’t going to get you much higher, he said.
“But in the form of edibles people can find the right dose that works for them, because most of the people that are using those hard drugs are dealing with pretty serious pain, be it emotional or physical.”
Still, edibles aren’t legal yet and for Alice, getting legal cannabis products where she lives is a problem, so she buys from a trusted, but illegal source.
High prices and the scarcity of government-sanctioned pot shops make the black market attractive.
She’s not happy with the quality of government weed, either.
“When I gave it a chance, it was pure trash,” she said. “I paid almost double what I would from my friend for the same amount.”
Magnuson said the key is better price and quality. Otherwise people won’t buy legally or won’t get off the harder drugs.
“There needs to be dispensaries/storefronts that people can go in to, (they) need to have inexpensive, good quality cannabis and they need to have good strong edibles, that’s what has to happen,” he said.
“There needs to be easy access to this to combat this overdose crisis.” — By Colin Farrell