Antabuse for Pot Use?

[nell]

Spoke with our therapist today about my son's ongoing pot use...he thought that he had read something about an Antabuse type drug for pot use... Anybody heard of this? I am willing to try anything at this point.

[Mike Bradley]

Dear Parent,
The only such medicine that I know of (and there might well be others) is one called Rimonabant which was really developed as an anti-obesity drug. It happens to block the "marijuana receptor sites" in the body, and so was touted by some as being Antabuse (an anti-alcohol drug) for weed. Unfortunately, the FDA advisory panel evaluating this found that it also increased suicidal thinking by a whopping 200%. Therefore in June of 2007 they voted 14-0 against approving this med for any use. This panel only makes recommendations to the FDA but most (perhaps all) practitioners have moved away from this drug due to the risks.
Even if such a drug existed, please know that it would not likely be a "silver bullet" for your kid's problem (as is the case for alcoholics with Antabuse). Addicts must first really, really want to stop using before anything will help much. When they do decide, then there are lots of tools to help.
I'd refocus on the counseling with the goal being to help your son to make that decision to truly fight his addiction. Be sure that the family is brought into that counseling process as well.
Good luck and hang in there. Sobriety is a long and frustrating journey, but one well worth the effort.