Is CBD Addictive?

If Oxycontin is highly addictive and relieves pain, then does that mean CBD is also an addictive substance because it alleviates pain, discomfort, stress, anxiety, and depression? The short answer is no. CBD is not chemically addictive, but it does show great potential benefits and can be used to address a variety of illnesses both physical and mental.

What is CBD?

CBD stands for cannabidiol and is one of two major chemical components found in the cannabis plant. The other infamous chemical compound is THC. Together, with their combined effects, THC and CBD are responsible for the great feeling associated with smoking pot. THC, however, is the chemical compound responsible for providing the “high” feeling one experiences when getting high. On the other hand, CBD lacks any psychoactive properties and alone will not make you feel high. Instead, CBD is responsible for most of the relaxation, anti-inflammatory, and calming benefits of cannabis. Premium CBD is typically sourced from high quality industrial hemp that is cultivated for non-drug use. In other words, hemp is grown to have lots of CBD and very little if any THC. Hemp-derived CBD oil is federally legal in all 50 states as long as its THC content is not more than 0.3%.

How Does CBD Work?

CBD is exploding in popularity because of its wide range of potential benefits including anxiety and pain relief, better sleep, neuroprotective properties, and more. At this point you may be wondering how exactly does CBD work chemically in the body to achieve all this good stuff?

The answer is with the endocannabinoid system (ECS). The ECS is the prime regulatory network in all animals including humans. Receptors travel all throughout the body and deliver messages for the brain to interpret. A symphony of receptor signals work together in your body to achieve and maintain homeostasis, the scientific term for biochemical balance. In other words, the ECS plays a vitally important role in maintaining your body’s natural processes and keeping things in smooth order. In a nutshell, CBD interacts with major receptors in the ECS to help strengthen and alter these natural processes to your potential benefit.

For example, CBD interacts with the TRPV1 receptors by blocking signals responsible for pain perception. Hence CBD has the potential to relieve pain. Similarly, CBD’s ability to elevate positive feelings and support an overall sense of wellbeing, relaxation, and happiness could very well be related to how CBD acts as a natural inhibitor of the 5-HT1A receptors which are sensitive to serotonin. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that plays an important role in mood regulation. By inhibiting the 5-HT1A receptors, CBD can block serotonin reuptake in the brain allowing for greater amounts of the neurotransmitter to circulate throughout the body.

What Leads To Addiction?

Now that we’ve covered some necessary CBD background, we can discuss why CBD is not addictive. Addiction is scientifically defined as both a physiological and psychological response to external stimuli. In other words, addiction is when something outside of the body provokes a response that convinces the very physical structure of your brain itself that your body needs more of whatever it has become addicted to. Addiction is not just a matter of strong and weak willpower or something that takes place only in the mind. Addiction is rather a complex problem that is rooted in real chemical interactions happening inside of your physiology.

Psychologists who study addiction have outlined three major things that can lead to addiction:

1. Pleasure triggers
2. Learned behaviors
3. Prolonged exposure to certain substances

Pleasure Triggers

At the beginning of this article we established in the short answer that CBD is not chemically addictive. So what does that even mean? Other substances that are known to be chemically addictive such as nicotine, caffeine, and cocaine flood the brain with neurotransmitters such as dopamine. The artificial surge in chemicals like dopamine entering the brain is what contributes to elevated feelings of pleasure. Dopamine plays a natural role in facilitating feelings of happiness, joy, and pleasure, but when artificially and externally introduced to the brain, it can have a tremendously negative impact. The sudden influx of dopamine causes build up in a region of the brain known as the nucleus accumbens, a part of the hypothalamus which plays an important role in addiction.

Research suggests the development of addiction depends on several variables including the speed, reliability, and intensity of dopamine buildup. How the substance is introduced to the body can also influence dopamine response. For example, there is a difference between smoking and ingesting pills in how the body responds to the external stimuli even if the substance consumed is the same.

Learned Behaviors

Pleasure triggers leading to pleasure-seeking is not the only factor that leads to addiction. Learned behaviors are another reason why users continually seek out addictive substances. Most experts posit a reward-related learning process as the main mechanism behind addiction. According to these theories of addiction, dopamine works together with another neurotransmitter called glutamate to make the brain connect pleasurable feelings with activities associated with them. In other words, the activity that occurs during or preceded before said pleasurable feelings is what the brain thinks leads to pleasure. In such a way, dopamine from external stimuli is tricking the brain to continuously seek even more of that external stimuli in order to feel “good”.

Prolonged Exposure to Substances

Certain substances with active compounds when used continuously for a prolonged period of time can cause nerve cells in the prefrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens to become dependent on them. Nerve cells that would otherwise function normally on their own gradually become so dependent that they have to rely on activation from compounds brought in by external stimuli. This leads to more use of the addictive substance which subsequently results in a less impactful psychoactive experience. In other words, we have just described the process of how humans build tolerance to certain addictive substances.

Drug tolerance in particular is a very dangerous phenomenon because it can lead to fatal overdose. For example, opioids are a highly addictive substance with a high risk of lethal overdose. Prolonged exposure, dependence, and tolerance to certain substances will also result in withdrawal symptoms when a user attempts to quit. Withdrawal symptoms can include headaches, tremors, nausea, physical pain, irritability, and vomiting.

CBD and Addiction

According to science, because CBD doesn’t provide the psychoactive high that THC does, it has an extremely unlikely potential for substance abuse. Additionally, however, even THC shows no evidence of leading to physical addiction! Addiction experts state that 91% of cannabis users will never get addicted to THC whereas the remaining 9% will merely form negative habits around the substance which could lead to abuse. To be clear, that means the 9% is not physically or chemically addicted to THC like we described with other substances. Rather, the 9% is addicted to cannabis in the same sense anything can be seen as an addiction if it leads to negative habits and harm.

Research so far has found no link between CBD and alterations in perception, judgement, or cognition. The lack of a psychoactive high may help the brain to not make reward-centered connections with CBD that it would otherwise make with chemically addictive substances such as nicotine. It is also worth mentioning that CBD does not have overdose potential and is not known to cause any withdrawal symptoms.

On the other hand, recent studies have actually shown that CBD may in fact be useful for fighting against addiction and helping addicts recover. Research suggests CBD may help with combatting physiological addictions to substances such as nicotine, opioids, heroin, and alcohol.

In conclusion, CBD is not addictive, is safe to use, legal in the United States, and if anything could actually help us combat and cure other substance addictions.