Could marijuana help wean addicts off of harder drugs? Uruguay – the first South American country to legalize the sale of pot – may attempt to answer that question in its prison system.
The country is considering using marijuana to treat inmates addicted to a crude form of cocaine, according to the World Post – a partnership of the Huffington Post and the Berggruen Institute on Governance. Uruguay and Argentina apparently have a public health crisis after “pasta base” or “paco” – both a byproduct of the cocaine refining process – became widely available at a low price, and more people became addicted to it, the website reports.
It’s still unclear whether marijuana is an effective treatment for drug addiction, as research on the subject appears to be limited, according to the World Post.
The World Post quotes Coletta Youngers, an associate at the International Drug Policy Consortium, as saying that marijuana may “reduce anxieties when you go off that drug.”
Colombia also is considering using marijuana to treat addicts, the website reports.

The World Post’s article is available at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/04/uruguay-medical-marijuana_n_5092773.html?&ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067