Screening Medications for the Treatment of Cannabis Use Disorder.

Cannabis use has been increasingly accepted legally and in public opinion. However, cannabis has the potential to produce adverse physical and mental health effects, and cannabis use disorder (CUD) occurs in a substantial percentage of both occasional and daily cannabis users. Many people have difficulty discontinuing use despite receiving treatment. Therefore, it would be beneficial to develop safe and effective medications for treating CUD. To achieve this, methods have been developed for screening and evaluating potential medications using animal models and controlled experimental protocols in human volunteers. In this chapter, we describe: (1) animal models available for assessing the effect of potential medications on specific aspects of CUD, (2) the main findings obtained so far with these animal models, (3) the approaches used to assess potential medications in humans in laboratory experiments and clinical trials, and (4) the effectiveness of several potential pharmacotherapies on particular aspects of CUD modeled in these human studies.