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For some, marijuana is strictly a drug—one you might need to detox from, say the proprietors of Aminokit Laboratories, the state’s first medical marijuana detox program (Westword). The same type of amino acid treatments have been used to help wean users off alcohol and hard drugs, says owner Tamea Sisco. She’s seeing users who have taken medical marijuana to get themselves off harder substances but now want to be clean of all drugs, including marijuana, which over time can impede the brain’s ability to make its own dopamine. “If you’re smoking pot instead of heroin, great,” she says. “It is still a brain-altering substance, it is still addictive. And when it’s no longer strong enough, you will just go back to heroin.”
For the folks who are using pot legally to treat their maladies, they can rest a little easier knowing edible marijuana products have survived an earlier attempt at a ban (Denver Post). And patients in Loveland can still hit up a neighborhood dispensary while a judge waits to hear a case that could shutter them all (Reporter-Herald).