USC study finds cannabis can help manage withdrawal symptoms, as well as cravings and anxiety after withdrawal

New research from the University of Southern California shows that cannabis might help some people stop or cut down on their opioid use.

“We interviewed 30 people who were using opioids and cannabis and injecting drugs,” said Sid Ganesh, a PhD student at USC’s medical school and lead author of the study.

The participants, who were receiving services from a methadone clinic and a syringe exchange in Los Angeles, said cannabis was a useful tool to help manage their opioid use, in part because it has become so much easier to access in recent years.

Opioid use disorder patients often have to jump through hoops to access life-saving treatments such as suboxone and methadone, and the overdose-reversal drug naloxone.

The study, published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence Reports, received federal funding through the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which has more typically supported research that looks at cannabis’s harms rather than potential benefits. Notably, the study is unique because it uses qualitative data and focuses on the lived experience of people who use drugs.

Ganesh says qualitative research provides insight into what actually works for study populations and why, especially when those populations are vulnerable and dealing with all kinds of issues that might not show up in a data point. Fifty-seven percent of participants in her study were unhoused or unstably housed, and 70% made less than $2,100 a month.