What Is The Marijuana Maintenance Program and Does It Work?

There are many different methods and theories about the best way to get sober. Certain things work for some people and not others. Marijuana has become a common practice for many people during recovery. Some get it prescribed and others just buy it on the street. 

Medication-assisted therapy is very common within rehabs and the recovery community. MAT (medication-assisted therapy) can help ease withdrawal symptoms, combat drug cravings, and get people through those first few months of sobriety. As marijuana becomes increasingly popular both within the medical community and the general public the question of smoking weed during recovery is becoming a hot topic. A common self-medication program many people in recovery use is the marijuana maintenance program.

What Is The Marijuana Maintenance Program?

Marijuana maintenance is a practice used by people struggling with addiction who use marijuana to get off “harder” drugs such as alcohol, cocaine, heroin, or meth. This method is commonly referred to as the Harm Reduction Approach. Marijuana maintenance and the harm reduction model believe it’s better for a person to use a drug like marijuana over a drug like cocaine, meth, or heroin. During early sobriety, individuals experience a vast range of emotions, some good, some bad. It’s common for people to use marijuana to cope with this emotional turmoil. I smoked weed for a good portion of my first year in recovery. The marijuana maintenance model was not a good fit for me. 

Does The Marijuana Maintenance Program Work?

The overwhelming consensus from addiction doctors and treatment providers is: No the marijuana maintenance program is not a good idea. With that being said recovery is different for everybody and the marijuana maintenance program may have worked great for some people. As marijuana becomes more accepted throughout society and used in medical settings more data is coming out daily on how effective marijuana is in the harm-reduction model. 

Smoking weed was not a good fit for me during my recovery. I wasn’t using heroin and cocaine anymore which was a huge step in the right direction, but I used marijuana as a substitute. Getting high every day allowed me to avoid doing the work in recovery to dig deep and find out why I used drugs and alcohol in the first place.

Lesser of Two Evil’s

The most common justification people use who are smoking weed during their recovery is that marijuana is a lot less dangerous than heroin, cocaine, or whatever drug they were previously using. This is a true statement. Marijuana is definitely safer than heroin, meth, alcohol, cocaine, and many prescription drugs. But just because it is safer than the “harder” stuff doesn’t mean it’s going to be effective for a healthy long-term recovery.

Some of the other justifications for marijuana maintenance are: 

• Marijuana is an anti-depressant for me
• Marijuana reduces my anxiety
• I’m focusing on quitting ____, I’ll worry about weed later
• Marijuana is not addictive
• Weed helps with other drug cravings
• Marijuana is harmless
• Marijuana is safer than taking prescription medications 

Some of these may be true for certain people. Marijuana is quickly becoming more available throughout the US and around the world. Many places are legalizing weed or at least lowering the punishments of getting caught with marijuana. The more marijuana is studied the better information we will have about its effects on reducing anxiety, depression, and other ailments.

I absolutely believe that marijuana can be beneficial to certain people for certain ailments but I don’t think it’s a good fit for people in early sobriety.

Substituting Addictions

“The possible effects of marijuana include mood changes, suicidal thinking, and disruption to normal learning abilities. It may also be capable of producing dependency, psychosis, and addiction.” (source)

Many people who suffer from substance use disorder have addictive personalities. Basically, whatever we decide to do we take to an addictive level. Sometimes it’s positive things like exercise or AA meetings and other times it’s negative like substituting our heroin addiction for marijuana addiction. If a person who uses heroin or meth 5 times a day quits and smokes weed 5 times a day, it’s definitely a better option. With that being said it’s still substituting one drug for another. 

Using Marijuana To Help Or Hide

Determining if someone is using marijuana as a substitute or an aid is a big distinction. If a person is using marijuana so they can still get high and avoid the work required for a healthy recovery, then I believe this will eventually lead them back towards the harder drugs/alcohol.

If the person is using marijuana to help cope with withdrawal symptoms and the roller coaster of early sobriety, but still doing the hard work of outpatient, therapy, 12-step, or some other recovery program then they probably will have a substantially higher chance of success.

Feelings and Emotions

One of the main reasons people turn to drugs and alcohol is to escape reality. A past trauma, abuse, illness, disorder, or other pain is the fueling factor for many addicts. In order to have a healthy recovery, we need to take a deep look at why we feel the need to escape reality with drugs and alcohol. If we continue to mask and hide from our emotions and feelings with marijuana then we will never get to the root of what is fueling our addictions.

Feelings and emotions are good. Even negative feelings play a role in our lives. We need to learn how to understand our feelings and why we may be feeling sad or depressed. Every day isn’t going to be a wonderful day. We all have good days and bad days, learning how to deal with the negative feelings in a healthy way is essential for long-term recovery.

If we smoke weed every time we have a bad day in recovery, we never learn how to deal with these feelings. We have to go through these feelings and emotions to come out stronger.

Using Marijuana As A Crutch

I used weed as a scapegoat/crutch for almost a year during early sobriety. I HATE SMOKING WEED and I still smoked all the time because I just wanted something to get me high. Marijuana makes me paranoid and gives me a ton of anxiety yet I still used it almost daily. This can be a common trap for addicts who may have given up heroin or something harder but still use weed. They still want to leave that door open for a substance to get high on. 

I not only wasn’t being honest with myself during this period, but I also wasn’t being honest with my sponsor and other people in recovery. Eventually, the weed wasn’t doing what I wanted it to and this led me to use heroin and cocaine again. 

Thankfully my heroin and cocaine relapse was only 3 days and I didn’t overdose. After that relapse, I had to be honest with myself and come to terms with all my feelings and emotions. I knew that if I really wanted to be sober I couldn’t smoke weed or do any drugs.

Marijuana Culture

One of the challenges with the marijuana maintenance program is the whole culture surrounding weed. Some states in the US have legalized marijuana but it’s federally illegal and illegal in many states. For people in recovery who have to go buy weed from a drug dealer, this can bring up old memories and cravings. This can be a very dangerous situation.

The dealer might have other drugs he/she offers me, it may be in an old neighborhood I used drugs in, there might be people with the dealer still using heroin and other drugs. All these things are things I go out of my way to avoid in recovery. If I have to see my old dope house every time I buy weed this is eventually going to send me on a spiral of using again.

Conclusion

Everybody is different and every recovery is different. Marijuana might help certain people a lot more than others. The overall consensus of addiction doctors and specialist believes the marijuana maintenance program does more harm than good. I believe people should stop all drugs in recovery and find out why they were using so much in the first place. Getting to the root of the issues is a major part of recovery. Marijuana can lead people back to using other drugs if it’s not used with great discipline.

The marijuana maintenance program didn’t work well for me, I just substituted using heroin and cocaine for smoking weed. I was still trying to avoid all my feelings.  I was escaping reality by smoking weed and not facing my past issues and trauma’s which were feeding my addiction.

Sources:

1. American Addiction Centers : The Myth of Marijuana Maintenance 
2. https://www.addictioncampuses.com/polysubstances/alcohol-cannabis/

Related Questions:

Many people say marijuana is better than drugs like suboxone is this true?

Suboxone has medication within it (Naloxone) specifically designed to block opioids. It also has (Buprenorphine) in it designed to help with drug cravings. Marijuana doesn’t have either of these. Suboxone was specifically designed for opioid addicts to safely detox and get off heroin or other opioids. If someone is trying to quit heroin or any other opioids, suboxone is the better choice.

Suboxone helped me quit opioids and keep me sober, marijuana led me back to using heroin and cocaine.

Please consult a medical professional before starting or stopping any medical treatment.