11
Oct

Can CBD Help Cigarette Smokers Quit Smoking?

The world is going crazy for cannabidiol (CBD) right now from both an investment and research perspective. As more and more trials are completed, and more clinical data gets recorded, the full scope of CBD’s potential benefits are starting to reveal themselves. One of the newest areas of research? CBD’s possible role as a smoking cessation aid. 

Can CBD Help You Quit Smoking Cigarettes?

 

For all the potential health benefits of CBD, it’s incredible that perhaps cannabidiol’s greatest effect of all might be to save us from our own worst self-destructive impulses. There’s no shortage of scientific research discussing the incredibly harmful effects of smoking cigarettes. Smoking has been empirically linked to everything from lung disease, to cancer, to heart problems. Yet, the addictive nature of nicotine makes it all but impossible for long-term smokers to refrain from reaching for another cigarette.

That’s precisely what a team of London researchers wanted to explore when they completed a clinical trial surrounding CBD’s potential to help wean people off of a daily smoking habit. In the study, they split participants into two groups of cigarette smokers, each with access to a vaporizer. In the control group, the vaporizer was filled with a placebo. In the other group, the vaporizers contained CBD. At the end of the study, there was essentially no change in the placebo group’s smoking habits. The CBD group, however, saw a reduction in their smoking by as much as 40%!

Of course, one study isn’t nearly enough to make any hard and fast claims or assertions about using CBD for cigarette addiction treatment. Even the study’s authors used careful language, stating that CBD “may reduce temptation” for smokers. That being said, the potential to use CBD oil for quitting smoking is there, along with the foundation research that has already been done.

 

How Might Someone Use CBD To Quit Smoking Cigarettes?

The study’s authors posed a few hypotheses as to why they saw a reduction in smoking during the week long trial. One theory is that smokers were replacing one ritual with another. Instead of reaching for the smelly pack of cigarettes in their pocket, they were able to take a pleasing, cleaner drag off of a vape that was enjoyable in and of itself (despite the fact that CBD, obviously, does not contain any nicotine). For that same reason, stopping cigarettes with CBD gummies as part of a daily routine might also be worth exploring.

Cannabidiol has enormous potential to help treat an extremely wide variety of health issues. There’s some initial research — as well as no shortage of wildly positive anecdotal accounts — to suggest that there might be real benefit to taking a daily dose of CBD. Using CBD drops for quitting smoking might be just the latest reason why that daily regimen is catching on with more and more people worldwide.