Can weed substitute the need for methadone?

Question by : Can weed substitute the need for methadone?
If someone wanted to quit the hard core drugs they were doing, can they just smoke large amounts of weed to keep from getting “sick” and having bad withdrawals? Is there a substitute for methadone? My mom is addicted to crystal meth, I want the best treatment for her whenever I come up with the money to afford it. And I’ve heard that methadone can make things worse for a person.

Best answer:

Answer by J Miller
Crystal meth and methadone is not the same thing and the two have really nothing to do with one another. They just have similar names. If your mom is using crystal meth she is using methamphetamine, not methadone. Methamphetamine is an “upper” – a drug that makes you wide awake, enegetic and quite high. Methadone is an opiate pain medication that is also used to treat addiction to opiate pain killers and heroin (it’s not used to treat addictions to methamphetamine or anything other than opiates). Methadone at the right dose or for regular users does not make you high. If it does it makes you tired and drowsy, nothing like methamphetamine.

Fortunately for your mom meth does not cause sickness or withdrawal symptoms when the user stops taking it. It doesn’t cause a physical dependence like drugs like heroin does. When a meth user stops using it’s more of a crash landing – they come down from being all wired up and they usually sleep for long periods of time, like days. They don’t need any medication. Sleeping and eating is all they need to get back to normal. Smoking weed can help to come down and increase the appetite that if often suppressed by the meth. The weed smoking won’t help the addiction though. Just the coming down part.

Quitting drugs is not the problem though. Most meth users have come off meth a bunch of times. It’s not that hard. The hard part, that requires treatment, is not starting again. Even when the drug is out of the system the brain remains addicted screaming for the drug. It’s learning to manage that without giving in to it that your mom has to do. At this time there is no medication to help meth addicts the way methadone helps heroin addicts (and it does help, not make it worse). Your mom needs inpatient treatment (rehab) to learn to live without drugs. It’s unfortunately very expensive but some areas have free treatment for poor people. You may want to call around to charities and drug treatment centers in your area to see if there is help. If you pay for it out of pocket it costs thousands of dollars.

Unfortunately no amount of treatment and family support can make your mom quit if she isn’t ready and really want it herself. When you use drugs it changes your brain to where your brain will start making the drug a priority. It doesn’t matter that the person knows how bad and wrong using is. The brain has changed and it messes with the addict’s will. It’s extremely complicated. But until your mom gets to a point where she learns to win over her addict brain there is little you can do. All you can do is help keep her as put together as possible until she finally gets better. Some people are very much helped by NA meetings even if they are still using. You may want to bring your mom to a few meetings for support and motivation.

Good luck!

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