SMOKING marijuana could help recovering cocaine addicts to stay clean, a new
study suggests.
Scientists made cocaine-addicted rats go cold turkey for 14 days, then
exposed them to environmental cues associated with their drug taking. Such cues
often trigger relapses in recovering human addicts.
When the rats were also injected with a synthetic drug that blocks
cannabinoid receptors—the same ones that are blocked by marijuana—
they were found to be much less likely to seek a fix of cocaine (Nature
Medicine, vol 7, p 1151).
Team leader Taco de Vries of Vrije University in Amsterdam says that drugs…
