How to quit smoking with CBD?

CIGARETTE SMOKING EPIDEMIC

In the face of all the epidemics that break out violently, almost overnight, we forget about the one that has accompanied people for years and at their own request. We are talking about an epidemic of smoking. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), smoking kills an average of 7 million people a year. In Poland, it is 70,000 deaths in 12 months. For comparison, in Poland an average of 400,000 people die every year from various causes. It is not true that smoking only destroys the lungs, tobacco devastates the whole body – brain, lungs, throat, heart, ovaries and even the bladder. Tobacco contains more than 7,000 chemical compounds harmful to both active and passive smokers, but also to the environment.

Therefore, it is worth realizing that this addiction is not only a problem of the addicted person, but so that everyone around him. Unfortunately, the mere awareness and willingness to stop smoking are not enough, because smoking is addictive on two grounds: physical and mental. Tolerance to cigarette smoke increases, so the body demands more and more of it, and learned schemes during a break at work or a walk with a dog become particularly burdensome when we lack a cigarette in our hand. So what to do to finally cut yourself off from the addiction?

HOW TO EFFECTIVELY FIGHT ADDICTION WITH CANNABIS?

The most important thing is to understand the essence of the problem – the addicted person must assimilate the fact that he has a problem and needs help. It is necessary to control your reactions to specific situations that were conducive to reaching for a cigarette (for example: a break at work). However, this is only a way to combat mental dependence, but what about the physical withdrawal symptoms? A person who breaks the addiction has to face a mass of withdrawal symptoms, such as: anxiety, aggression, sleep problems, increased sweating, headaches and depressive states. Here pharmacotherapy comes to the rescue, which unfortunately is not as effective as we might think.

Some medications that support the process of quitting smoking can cause rapid mood swings in patients. In addition, all smoking cessation aids contain nicotine, which replaces cigarette smoke, but does not eliminate the body's addiction to the substance itself.

Fortunately, in 2013, researchers at the University College of London conducted a study on 24 active smokers who had trouble quitting. Half of the subjects were given a placebo and the other half received CBD. The substances were available to the subjects in the form of an inhaler, which they were to reach for at the time of nicotine cravings. The results were astonishing, as ALL of the CBD users showed a tendency to gradually stop smoking, which reached up to 40%. The situation of people who received a placebo did not change, which proves that the therapy combated the problem of physical rather than mental dependence. This indicates the beneficial effect of cannabidiol on recovery from addiction. These studies were repeated in 2018, which finally proved the thesis that preparations containing even a trace amount of CBD can play a significant role in breaking with cigarettes.

BENEFITS OF USING CBD TO TREAT ADDICTION

A study conducted by the WHO in 2017 showed that the use of cannabidiol has a number of positive effects on health. In addition, CBD has no intoxicating, psychoactive or addictive effects, which gives it a significant advantage over its isomer – THC. In addition to all aspects of health strcite, CBD is characterized by the fact that it relieves withdrawal symptoms when quitting smoking, or eliminates them completely.

Benefits of using CBD when quitting smoking:

- It is not addictive – this is a very important aspect, because we want you to get out of addiction and not fall into another one;

- Does not contain nicotine – unlike pharmacological agents of smoking cessation aids, cannabidol does not contain nicotine, and thus does not reduce the body's tolerance to this chemical compound, and completely eliminates it;

- Supports the fight against psychological addiction -  psychological addiction is much harder to eliminate than physical dependence. To get rid of the mechanism of reaching for something that can be ignited, you need long weeks, months and even years of work on yourself. It's hard to stop smoking overnight. Unfortunately, electronic cigarettes have proven to be as harmful an alternative as regular ones, so the best temporary replacement will be smoking dried cigarettes;

- Calms – CBD allows you to calm down, which is necessary during stressful recovery from addiction;

- It has health properties – cannabidol has a number of health properties that are still being studied by various scientists around the world. On the occasion of quitting smoking, we can slightly compensate the body for the damage caused by inhalation of tobacco smoke.

CBD AS A HOPE FOR SMOKERS

The biggest problem in quitting smoking is the inability to get rid of certain learned habits. An alarming number of active smokers are aware of the harmfulness of their addiction and the fact that they have a problem with it, but they cannot end it (most often as a result of poorly selected therapy based on supporting treatment with nicotine-containing products).

Heavy smokers face health problems and die prematurely because they cannot overcome the urge to reach for a cigarette, but now there is hope for them. This hope is cannabis, which allows us to look into the future more optimistically, with the perspective that this time quitting the addiction will not be a traumatic experience, but a winning fight.

Source:

https://www.who.int/medicines/access/controlled-substances/5.2_CBD.pdf

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29714034/

https://www.who.int/fctc/publications/WHO-FCTC-Enviroment-Cigarette-smoking.pdf