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Cannabis addiction
Cannabis addiction treatment in Spain
A licensed 28-day residential programme in the Málaga countryside, run by an English-speaking team, for daily cannabis use that has stopped being a choice and taken the shape of the week with it.
A private room as standard, a price published in full, and no referral fees paid to anyone for sending you here.
Checked for accuracy on 28 July 2026. Next review due July 2027. This page is general information about our programme and is not a substitute for advice about your own situation.
Cannabis addiction is treated at Sierra Recovery as a 28-day residential programme in the Málaga countryside, published in full at £9,900. Cannabis withdrawal is uncomfortable rather than dangerous, so most people do not need a hospital detox first, but where alcohol or benzodiazepines are used alongside it a medically supervised withdrawal is completed before you arrive, because we are a registered health centre and not a hospital. What follows is three structured group sessions a day, one-to-one therapy, a seventeen-module curriculum and an aftercare plan agreed before you leave. Below is what that actually involves, who it suits, and when it is time to stop reading and make the call.
Programme
28 days residential
Published price
£9,900
Group work
3 sessions a day
Room
Private, as standard
Language
English throughout
Registration
N.I.C.A. 67331
What cannabis addiction actually is
Cannabis comes from the plant Cannabis sativa and is used as herbal cannabis, as resin, and increasingly as high-potency concentrates and edibles. Its main psychoactive compound is THC, which acts on the brain's endocannabinoid system, the network involved in mood, appetite, memory and stress response.
The idea that cannabis is not addictive is the single biggest obstacle to people getting help for it. It is addictive, and dependence is recognised in both major diagnostic systems. Roughly one in ten people who use cannabis develop dependence, and the figure is higher for those who start young or who use daily. What has changed the picture is potency: the THC content of what is commonly available now is far above what it was a generation ago, and dependence and psychiatric harm both track potency closely.
Dependence on cannabis rarely looks dramatic from the outside. There is usually no crisis, no overdose and no dealer at the door. What there is instead is a slow contraction of the life around it, and the fact that it looks unremarkable is exactly why people leave it for years.
What heavy use actually does
The effects that bring people to treatment are mostly cognitive and motivational. Short-term memory and concentration deteriorate. Learning becomes harder. Motivation drains away, and the flattening is so gradual that most people attribute it to age, work or life rather than to the drug. Smoked cannabis damages the lungs, usually alongside tobacco. Where it is used daily and at high potency, it raises the risk of anxiety, paranoia and psychosis, and that risk is highest in people who start in adolescence or who have a family history of psychotic illness.
Cannabis hyperemesis syndrome, cycles of severe vomiting relieved only by hot showers, is increasingly common in long-term heavy users and is very often misdiagnosed for years. If that pattern is familiar, mention it at assessment.
The signs people recognise too late
| What you might notice | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Using every day, and usually from earlier in the day than you used to | The clearest single marker. Daily use is where dependence forms, whatever the amount. |
| Needing more, or stronger, for the same effect | Tolerance. It arrives faster with high-potency products. |
| Not being able to sleep without it | Cannabis suppresses REM sleep. The insomnia that appears on stopping is withdrawal, not proof that you needed it. |
| Deciding to take a break and not managing it | The gap between intention and behaviour is the definition of the disorder, not a failure of character. |
| Irritability, low appetite and vivid dreams when you stop | Cannabis withdrawal. It is real, it is well documented, and it peaks in the first week. |
| Doing less than you used to, and not minding as much as you should | The motivational flattening. It is the effect people notice last and miss most once it lifts. |
| Anxiety or paranoia that has grown alongside the use | Very common at higher potency, and it is often what finally makes someone stop. |
If several of those land, our four-question self-check takes under a minute, stores nothing, and will tell you whether a fuller conversation is worth having.
Where the treatment actually happens
People ask for photographs before they ask about therapy, and they are right to. You are deciding whether you could live somewhere for a month. This is the place, not a stock library.
See the full gallery · how people get here.
Cannabis withdrawal, and where detox fits
Cannabis withdrawal is not usually medically dangerous, and most people do not need a hospital detox for cannabis alone. It is, however, genuinely difficult, and the reason so many attempts to stop fail at home. Irritability, anger, anxiety, insomnia, vivid or disturbing dreams, loss of appetite, restlessness and low mood typically start within a day or two, peak in the first week and settle over two to four weeks. Sleep is the last thing to return.
On our side of the line we are precise. Sierra Recovery is entered in the Registro Andaluz de Centros, Servicios y Establecimientos Sanitarios (the Andalusian register of health centres, services and establishments) under N.I.C.A. 67331, authorised by the Junta de Andalucía for the care unit atención sanitaria a drogodependientes (healthcare for drug dependency, authorised care unit U.71). That is a registered health centre with a supervised treatment residence. It is not a hospital and it is not a detox unit. Where your assessment shows a medically supervised withdrawal is needed, most often because of alcohol or benzodiazepines used alongside the cannabis, it is completed in an appropriate medical setting before you arrive and billed separately. Qualified nursing is part of the team during your stay. You can check our registration yourself on the Junta's public register.
Not sure whether cannabis alone justifies residential treatment?
The assessment answers that honestly before you commit to anything, and it happens before you travel. If something closer to home would serve you better, a clinician will tell you so.
What a day here looks like
Nobody arrives knowing how twenty eight days are actually spent. This is the real timetable, Monday to Friday.
| Time | What happens |
|---|---|
| 08:00 | Breakfast, cooked by a Michelin-trained chef |
| 09:15 | Planning: the day is set out together |
| 10:30 | Process group, the harder one |
| 12:00 | Therapeutic group |
| 13:15 | Lunch |
| 14:30 | Psychoeducation, working through the curriculum |
| 16:00 | Group activity, often outdoors or with the horses |
| 18:30 | Dinner |
| 20:00 | Day closing, together |
Saturdays turn to holistic and body-based work. Sundays are a supervised excursion, because reconnecting with the world outside a clinic is part of the treatment rather than a break from it.
What the treatment actually involves
The programme runs Monday to Friday on a fixed structure, with Saturdays given to holistic and body-based work and Sundays to a supervised excursion. Rather than list therapy names, here is what each part of the week is for.
Three group sessions a day, five days a week
The day opens with a process group at 10:30, a second therapeutic group runs at midday, and a psychoeducation session follows lunch. A group activity fills the late afternoon and the day closes together in the evening. That is roughly fifteen structured group contacts a week, which is the part most people underestimate before they arrive and value most afterwards.
Groups are small, in English, and run by the clinical team. Hearing someone else describe your own thinking back to you does something that individual work cannot, and it is the fastest route out of the isolation that cannabis use builds.
A seventeen-module curriculum, not a rest cure
The psychoeducation strand moves through a fixed seventeen-module curriculum written by our clinical director. It is the core of what we call the Regulation Model, which is our adaptation of the PROMIS Clinics methodology to this centre rather than a model of our own invention. It covers skills training, communication styles, boundaries and decision-making, trigger recognition, self-esteem and self-concept, dual diagnosis, self-care and habits, emotions, crisis identification and management, suicide prevention, goals, grief, values, trauma and relapse, perfectionism, loneliness and isolation, and cross-addiction. Every module runs the same structure: check-in, theory, an experiential dynamic, shared reflection, and a commitment carried into the week.
The cognitive work uses the ABC model, the same structure that underpins cognitive behavioural approaches: the event, the belief you attach to it, and the consequence that follows. It is taught, practised, applied between sessions and reviewed, rather than talked about once.
Individual therapy alongside the group programme
One-to-one sessions run three times a week and are where the material that will not surface in a group gets worked. For most people that is the thing underneath the use rather than the use itself.
You are treated by the same small team throughout, in the same house. Nobody is handed between departments, and there is no rotation of therapists mid-stay.
Yoga, meditation and body-based work
Saturdays turn to holistic and body-based practice: yoga, meditation and mindfulness, breathwork, art, and time outdoors on the land. This is not decoration and it is not a spa timetable. Early recovery is a physiological event as much as a psychological one, and sleep, appetite and the ability to sit still are usually the first things to return.
The self-care and habits module runs alongside it, treating rest as a right rather than a reward and food as connection rather than control.
Equine therapy on working farmland
The horses live here, on the forty hectares around the house, and equine work is part of the working week. Horses respond to what you are actually feeling rather than what you say you are feeling, which is why the work reaches people who have learned to talk their way around a therapy session.
What happens when you go home
Aftercare is planned before you leave rather than mentioned on the last day. For clients returning to the UK, care continues online or in person at the PROMIS clinics in London, with a weekly session for a full year, more than 48 in the twelve months after discharge, and a written handover to your GP so nothing has to be explained from scratch. For clients elsewhere in Europe we arrange continuity online and help find local services.
Alongside that, mutual-aid groups are free, run everywhere, and are worth using whatever else you choose.
Who will actually treat your cannabis addiction
A small team, in one house, in English. You are not handed between departments and there is no rotation of therapists halfway through your stay.
Nerea Encinas Sánchez
Director · General Health Psychologist
MSc General Health Psychology. Leads clinical standards, the assessment you have before you travel, and admissions.
Berenice Paramés Jones
General Health Psychologist
Individual and group psychological work inside the house, crisis follow-up and coordination of the group programme.
Marta Leal
Social worker
Family mediation, links to services back home, and preparing for independent life after discharge.
Robin Lefever
Founder of Sierra Recovery; MD, PROMIS Clinics UK
Founder of Sierra Recovery and Managing Director of PROMIS Clinics, whose method this programme adapts. PROMIS has been treating addiction in the United Kingdom since the mid-1980s, and Robin has worked in addiction treatment for around 35 years, with thousands of patients treated with the PROMIS method in the United Kingdom.
Meet the whole clinical team and their qualifications.
What is treated, and what that looks like day to day
| What you arrive with | How it is worked |
|---|---|
| Withdrawal | Irritability, insomnia and vivid dreams are expected in the first week and named in advance so they are not mistaken for something going wrong. Qualified nursing on site throughout. |
| Insomnia | A fixed sleep and wake time, daily activity outdoors and the self-care module. Sleep normally returns over two to four weeks, and knowing that stops it becoming the reason people go back. |
| The flattening | Structure, group work and physical activity from day one. Motivation returns with routine rather than with rest, which is why this is not a retreat. |
| Anxiety and paranoia | The emotions and crisis-management modules plus individual therapy three times a week. Where a mental health condition sits underneath, see dual diagnosis. |
| Trauma | The trauma and relapse module, run alongside the addiction work rather than after it. See trauma and addiction. |
| The habit itself | Cannabis dependence is unusually tied to routine, place and company. The trigger-recognition module works on the actual architecture of your day rather than on willpower. |
Treatment options for cannabis addiction, and how they compare
Residential rehab is one treatment option among several, and it is not automatically the right one. Being straight about that is more useful to you than a page that pretends otherwise.
| Option | What it involves, and who it suits |
|---|---|
| Residential rehab inpatient treatment | Living at the centre for the whole programme. It suits daily, high-potency use where cutting down at home has failed repeatedly, or where anxiety or psychosis risk sits alongside. |
| Outpatient treatment day programmes and therapy sessions | Attending sessions and going home between them. A reasonable first attempt where use is not yet daily and home is free of the routine that sustains it. |
| Community and NHS services | Free local drug and alcohol treatment services, reached through your GP or by self-referral. Waiting times vary and residential placements are rationed, but the support is real and it costs nothing. For many people this is the right first step rather than a lesser one. |
| Mutual aid and support groups | Free peer support meeting in person and online, everywhere, with no waiting list and no cost. Worth using alongside whatever else you choose rather than instead of it. |
A treatment plan should be built around your circumstances. If an outpatient or community route fits you better, we will say so at assessment and we will not charge you for the conversation.
The therapies used, in plain terms
Every centre lists the same acronyms, so here is what each one actually is and where it appears in the week.
| Therapy | What it is, and when you would meet it here |
|---|---|
| Cognitive behavioural therapy CBT, and the related REBT | Evidence-based work on the link between an event, the belief you attach to it and what you then do. Taught through the ABC model in psychoeducation, practised in group therapy and applied between sessions. It is the backbone of the cognitive work rather than an optional extra. |
| Acceptance and commitment therapy ACT | Learning to have a difficult feeling without having to act on it, and choosing behaviour by your values instead. Module eight, on emotions, is built on it. |
| Dialectical behaviour therapy DBT | Distress tolerance, emotional regulation and interpersonal skills, used where emotions arrive faster and larger than they can be managed. See DBT. |
| EMDR | A structured trauma therapy, used where trauma is driving the use and always after stabilisation rather than before it. See EMDR. |
| Group therapy | Three group sessions a day, five days a week: a process group, a therapeutic group and psychoeducation. It is the largest single component of the treatment programme. See group therapy. |
| Individual therapy one-to-one counselling | Three therapy sessions a week with the same clinician throughout, where material that will not surface in a group gets worked. |
| Family therapy | Offered where it is wanted, in person or online, because the people around you are part of what happens next. See the family programme. |
| Motivational interviewing | Used throughout rather than booked as a session. It is the stance the team takes: working with your reasons for change rather than arguing you into someone else’s. |
| Holistic therapies | Yoga, mindfulness and meditation, breathwork, art and equine work, on Saturdays and through the week. See equine therapy and all our therapies. |
Every element above is delivered by the clinical team as part of the residential programme. Your treatment plan sets out which of them apply to you, and it is reviewed during the stay rather than fixed on day one.
Where else to get help, free
Not everyone needs residential rehab, and nobody should be waiting on a private programme before they get any support at all. Everything below is free, and none of these organisations pays or receives a fee from us.
| Organisation | What they do |
|---|---|
| NHS drug and alcohol services | Free local treatment services, reached through your GP or by self-referral. The usual starting point for community-based drug and alcohol treatment. |
| Talk to FRANK | Confidential drugs information and advice, 24 hours a day, on 0300 123 6600. No judgement and no cost. |
| Narcotics Anonymous | Free mutual aid meetings for anyone with a drug problem, in person and online, with no cost and no waiting list. |
| We Are With You | Free, confidential support for drug, alcohol and mental health problems, in person in many areas and by webchat. |
| Adfam | Support and information for families and friends affected by someone else’s drug, alcohol or gambling use. |
| Samaritans | Free and confidential, 24 hours a day on 116 123, for anyone struggling to cope or having thoughts of suicide. |
Sierra Recovery neither pays nor accepts referral fees, so nothing on this list depends on where you go. If a free or community service is the right fit for you, use it.
How to get ready
- Compare on licence, not on photographsAsk any centre abroad for its registration number and the register it sits on, then look it up yourself. Ours is N.I.C.A. 67331 on the Junta de Andalucía register.
- Get the medical picture togetherCurrent medications, any previous withdrawal, and any diagnosed conditions. This is what the pre-travel assessment needs, and it is what decides whether a detox is required first.
- Ask what the price actually includesOurs is published: private room, meals, the core therapy programme, and a year of weekly UK aftercare, with medical, psychiatric, laboratory and hospital costs quoted separately. You get an itemised written quotation before admission.
- Be accurate about potency and formHerbal, resin, concentrate, vape or edible, and roughly how much per day. Withdrawal severity tracks potency and dose, and it changes what the first week looks like.
- Say what else is in the mixTobacco, alcohol, benzodiazepines, stimulants. Alcohol and benzodiazepines are the ones that decide whether a medically supervised withdrawal is needed first.
How Sierra compares with private cannabis rehab at home
| What you get | Sierra Recovery | Typical private residential clinic |
|---|---|---|
| 28-day residential programme | £9,900, published in full | UK £12,000–£40,000 · Australia A$30,000–A$50,000 |
| Is the price on the website | Yes, in full | Usually "contact us for pricing" |
| Your own private room | Included as standard | Often an upgrade |
| Referral fees paid to third parties | None | Common |
| Written itemised quotation before admission | Yes | Varies |
| Distance from the people and places tied to use | Rural Andalucía | Usually close to home |
| Medically supervised detox | Arranged and quoted separately | Quoted separately |
Comparison figures are the published ranges collected on our cost calculator: the United Kingdom at roughly £12,000 to £40,000 a month, Australia at roughly A$30,000 to A$50,000, and the United States at roughly $20,000 to $40,000 for a 30-day programme. New Zealand, South African and Canadian ranges are set out on the country cost guides. Indicative, not a quotation. Every clinic sets its own fees.
When cannabis sits on top of something else
Cannabis is very often doing a job: holding down anxiety, blunting trauma, making an untreated depression tolerable or quieting the noise of undiagnosed ADHD. Treating the using while sending the rest elsewhere rarely holds. At Sierra the emotional and trauma work runs alongside the addiction curriculum rather than after it. Our anxiety, dual diagnosis and trauma and addiction pages explain how the two are worked with together. Where psychiatric care or medication is part of your treatment, it is arranged through the appropriate medical route.
When is it time?
Cannabis is the drug people apologise for asking about, because the culture around it insists it is harmless. If daily use has narrowed your life, if you have tried to stop and could not, or if the anxiety has grown alongside it, that is enough. You do not need a rock bottom, and the absence of drama is not evidence that nothing is wrong.
Talk to a clinician today
You will speak to our admissions team, all of them clinicians. Confidential, no obligation, and we will tell you honestly whether this programme fits or whether something closer to home would serve you better.
Questions people actually ask
Is cannabis actually addictive?
Yes. Cannabis use disorder is recognised in both major diagnostic systems, and around one in ten people who use cannabis develop dependence, with higher rates among those who start young or use daily. Withdrawal is well documented: irritability, anxiety, insomnia, vivid dreams and appetite loss, peaking in the first week. The rise in potency over recent decades has made dependence more likely, not less.
Do I need a detox before I come?
Usually not for cannabis on its own, because cannabis withdrawal is unpleasant rather than medically dangerous. We still assess everyone before they travel, because cannabis is often used alongside alcohol or benzodiazepines and withdrawal from those can be dangerous. If a medically supervised detox is needed it is completed in an appropriate medical setting before admission and billed separately.
How long does cannabis withdrawal last?
Symptoms usually begin within one to two days of stopping, peak during the first week and settle over two to four weeks. Sleep and dream disturbance are typically the last to resolve. Because THC is stored in fat, traces can be detectable for far longer than the withdrawal itself lasts.
Is residential treatment not excessive for cannabis?
It depends entirely on what has already been tried. If cutting down at home has failed repeatedly, if the use is daily and high potency, or if there is anxiety, psychosis risk or a mental health condition alongside it, a structured month away from the routine that sustains the habit is a proportionate response. If it is not warranted, we will say so at assessment.
How long is the programme and what does it cost?
It is a 28-day residential programme, published in full at GBP 9,900. That covers a private room, meals, the core therapy programme, and a year of weekly UK aftercare. Detox, if needed, is arranged and billed separately, as are medical, psychiatric and laboratory costs. You get an itemised written quotation before admission.
What about cannabis prescribed for a medical condition?
Tell us at assessment. Prescribed cannabis is a clinical matter to be coordinated with the prescriber, not something to be stopped unilaterally by us, and the treatment plan is built around that rather than around an assumption.
How do I get help for cannabis addiction?
The first step towards recovery is an assessment, and ours is free and carries no obligation. You can also seek help through your GP, through a free local drug and alcohol treatment service, or through a mutual aid group, and none of those routes costs anything. If you want to talk it through with a clinician, call +44 1202 653136 and you will reach our admissions team.
What does cannabis addiction treatment involve, from start to finish?
The course of treatment runs in four stages. An assessment before you travel, which decides whether a medically supervised detox is needed first. Any detox, completed in an appropriate medical setting and billed separately. Then the 28-day residential treatment programme itself: three group therapy sessions a day, individual therapy three times a week and the seventeen-module curriculum. Then aftercare, agreed before you leave and continuing online or in person in London.
How much does cannabis rehab cost, and what affects the price?
Sierra publishes a single figure: GBP 9,900 for the 28-day residential programme, with a private room included. What changes the total is whether you need a medically supervised detox, which is arranged and billed separately, and any medical, psychiatric or laboratory costs. Private residential rehab elsewhere commonly runs from around GBP 12,000 to GBP 40,000 a month in the United Kingdom and from roughly A$30,000 to A$50,000 in Australia. You get an itemised written quotation before admission, and we neither pay nor accept referral fees.
What are the signs and symptoms of cannabis addiction?
Cannabis withdrawal symptoms include irritability, anger, anxiety, insomnia, vivid or disturbing dreams, restlessness and appetite loss, starting within a day or two and peaking in the first week. The signs of dependence are daily use, using earlier in the day, needing more or stronger for the same effect, and being unable to sleep without it.
Is lasting recovery from cannabis addiction actually possible?
Yes, and the evidence is better than the public conversation suggests. What predicts long-term recovery is not willpower but what is in place afterwards: continuing therapy, a treated mental health condition, a support network and a relapse plan that was written before it was needed. That is why completing cannabis rehab matters less on its own than what follows it, and why aftercare is planned during the stay, so it is in place before you leave.
How can I help someone with cannabis addiction?
Start by getting support for yourself, because living alongside someone with an addiction is its own burden and Adfam and Al-Anon exist for exactly that. Beyond that: raise it when they are not intoxicated, be specific about what you have seen rather than general about what they are, and offer a concrete next step such as an assessment or a call to a free service. Ultimatums delivered in anger rarely work. We speak to families every day and that conversation costs nothing.
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Talk to a clinician today
You will speak to our admissions team, English-speaking clinicians who know the programme and the people in it. Callback within 24 hours.
Registered health centre. Authorised by the Junta de Andalucía, N.I.C.A. 67331.
