Just Say No To Herbal Treatments for Drug Addiction
You’ve spent months, maybe years, addicted to chemical painkillers. You’ve taken the first step toward a healthier life by signing up for a Suboxone/Subutex treatment plan with Meditox. You’ll be surprised at how much better you feel when it’s all said and done, but any detox, even one that’s done to clean out the body when no drugs are involved can make you feel sluggish, tired and even a little ill. A lot of companies out there may try and push “herbal” remedies for addiction, reminding you that buprenorphine is a prescription drug just like the one you are addicted to. It’d be nice if that were true. But it’s not.
Listen carefully: herbs are not safe because they are natural. Yes, they’ve been in use for centuries but keep in mind, too, that 100 years ago, people had a life expectancy of about 50 years. And “natural” doesn’t necessarily mean good for you.
Consider poison ivy, hemlock take either of those and you won’t be feeling much of anything at all.
An international convention came together to discuss the use of herbs in the treatment of drug addiction, 20 people from 10 countries. A lot of talk, a ton of meetings, comparisons, research, evidence. It came down to this: we don’t know enough to advocate any herb for addiction treatment.
ICDP Director Professor Hamid Ghodse put it in a little fancier terms: “Although herbal medicines have long been used, there is little systematic evidence regarding their safety and efficacy because of the lack of quality control and an improper use by consumers, cases of misuse of herbal preparations have been reported. There is a need to ensure the safety and efficacy of herbal medicine in general and their use in the treatment of addictions in particular. The number of countries with regulations on herbal medicine has increased over the last few years. There might be a place for the use of herbal medicine in the treatment of addictions, but in the absence of proper scientific studies the claims for the effectiveness and above all the safety of such preparations is unjustified.”
There you have it.
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