Forget weight loss! Ozempic could help drug addicts: Miracle jabs can slash cocaine use

Gamechanger weight loss jabs could help curb cocaine use and help drug addicts,  new research has suggested.

Semaglutide—the powerful ingredient behind Wegovy and Ozempic—has long been hailed a monumental breakthrough in the war on obesity.

Now, according to US and Swedish scientists, the injections could slash cocaine use by more than a quarter. 

And those who undertook a period of abstinence from cocaine were also 52 per cent less likely to use again, compared to those not taking semaglutide. 

Researchers, who conducted the trial on rats, couldn’t be sure why the medicines—collectively known as GLP-1 agonists—may help in this way.

But, experts who labelled the findings ‘very promising’, said the jabs should be investigated as a new addiction treatment.

Professor Elisabet Jerlhag, an expert in pharmacology and addictive disorders at the University of Gothenburg and study lead author, said: ‘Previous results, both from our group and from other groups, have found that semaglutide can reduce alcohol consumption and craving in both humans and animals.

‘This work on cocaine seems to reflect these previous findings on alcohol use. This is the first trial showing semaglutide’s potential as a drug for cocaine dependence.

Semaglutide—the powerful ingredient behind Wegovy and Ozempic—has long been hailed a monumental breakthrough in the war on obesity 

‘Importantly, we also found that after a period of abstinence, there was a 62 per cent drop in cocaine seeking in those animals which had taken semaglutide and the motivation was lowered by 52 per cent.’

She added: ‘This is animal work, so at the moment, we can’t say that we have anywhere near a viable treatment for human cocaine dependency. 

‘We need a bigger study to confirm these results, and then we need to see if the findings also apply to humans. 

‘However, these results are very promising, underlining the need for human studies, especially since there are no existing pharmacological treatments for cocaine dependency.’

British adults are now consuming record amounts of cocaine hydrochloride, the bitter white crystal that European chemists first learnt to refine industrially in the 1860s.

In fact, the UK has the world’s second highest rate of cocaine use—Australia scored first—at around 117 tonnes a year, according to latest data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

It’s also the biggest market in Europe, according to the National Crime Agency.

In 2023, cocaine-related fatalities in the UK reached 1,100—roughly a thousand times that seen 30 years earlier in 1993, when the total was 11.

And the highest drug-death rate is among men in ‘Generation X’, particularly those aged 40-49, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) say.

In the small study, researchers gave male rats access to directly-injected cocaine, which they could dispense by pressing a lever in the cage. 

Around half of these rats were treated first with semaglutide. 

They found self-administration of cocaine use dropped by 26 per cent in those animals which had been given the injection.

Two higher doses of semaglutide injection also reduced cocaine taking, far more than a lower dose, suggesting a higher dose ‘produces a more sustained reduction in cocaine taking. 

Writing in the journal the European Neuropsychopharmacology, the scientists hypothesised that reduced cocaine taking may be because ‘there was an overall reduction on dopamine levels evoked by cocaine’, in the rats brains. 

A similar effect was seen in earlier studies by the same team which found that semaglutide could reduce alcohol consumption. 

But further research was first vital to prove this is the case, the researchers said. 

The UK has the world’s second highest rate of cocaine use—Australia scored first—at around 117 tonnes a year, according to latest data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

‘These findings suggest that semaglutide could be a promising candidate for future clinical trials as a treatment for cocaine use disorder’, they added. 

Semaglutide injections have been shown to help users lose up to 33lbs (15.3kg) on average over 68 weeks.

They work by tricking the brain into thinking it’s full, consequently slashing appetite, and helping people lose weight as a result.

Semaglutide has been available on the NHS since 2019, and in the US since 2017, for type 2 diabetics to manage blood sugar levels.

Another semaglutide drug was also approved in Britain for weight loss in 2022, and in the US in 2021, under the brand Wegovy.

Like any medication, semaglutide can cause side effects that vary in both frequency and severity. Reported problems include nausea, constipation, diarrhoea, fatigue, stomach pain, headaches and dizziness.

Bizarre symptoms, such as hair loss, have also been reported among some patients.  

Weight-related illness costs the economy £74billion a year, with people who are overweight at increased risk of heart disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes.

Two in three Britons are classed as overweight or obese and NHS figures show people now weigh about a stone more than 30 years ago.