Medication to Treat Marijuana Addiction May Be On the Horizon

Breaking the cycle of generational and cultural addictions - to both substances and non-substances - is among my greatest life passions. My passion has been to awaken. 

Over the past 30 years I have been gradually coming to recognize what addiction is, what violence is, what harm can occur to ourselves and others when we are asleep. It is my belief that we all fall on a continuum of being more or less asleep or awakening. Michael Meade, one of my mentors over the years (http://www.mosaicvoices.org/), has spoken of the question we will be asked when we die and are on the other side of the veil: "Did we become ourselves?" 

I have discovered that setting the intention to become who I truly am is a very powerful one. Yet, as E. E. Cummings has said, "It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."

There are so many doorways into awakening and rooting into the path we came here to walk. Often it is in some form of loss, trauma, disillusionment, and crisis that we first discover a new doorway that we previously did not know existed. The question then and always, of course, is will fear and resistance win over or will courage? Will we begin or deepen in our journey of awakening, or will we deny, minimize, distract, and continue to engage in that which builds walls around our hearts rather than tenderly take them down? 

My deepest prayer, always, is that each year will find us growing less contracting and more expansive, less fearful and more loving, less our false self and more radiating the beauty of our true nature. 

Namaste ~ Molly

*****

Marijuana plant

NIDA funded researchers report that kynurenic acid is a naturally occurring substance in the brain that can lessen the effects of THC in animal models of drug abuse and addiction. The acid acts by reducing the function of alpha-7-nicotinic acetylcholine receptors.

If effective in humans, this could lead to a medication for the treatment of marijuana addiction. There are currently no approved medications for treating marijuana addiction, estimated to occur in nine percent of users.

For a copy of the study, published online Oct 13, go towww.nature.com/neuro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nn.3540.html.

For more information, contact the NIDA press office atmedia@nida.nih.gov or 301-443-6245.