does the placebo effect help ween someone off drug addiction? like replacing their drug with a fake?

Do NOT do this. It's not just a matter of the effects they experience - you might fool the mind, you might not...

But drugs also have a physical effect on the body, and by suddenly stopping them 'cold-turkey, ' you may very well do serious damage. Their body's now used to having this drug regularly, and so the best way to get them off of it, would be to talk to a doctor about a detox kit.

If you can't talk to a professional, the best strategy I would be to talk to the person directly, and convince them to lower their dosage a TINY bit every day, over an extended period of time. Without knowing exactly what drug it was, there's no way to say exactly how long that would be... however, I am not a doctor, and can only make educated suggestions, not tell you what to do.

Just remember, it's a tricky thing to handle the task of helping someone detox. Even with their cooperation, their body will be fighting them for more the whole way. It may be hard for them to stay focused on the goal of being clean.

And if they DON'T want to get clean, there's very little you can do short of calling a professional to forcibly take care of their detox... and that's a very, VERY unpleasant option at best, one I'd only take if their life were at risk.

Again, not a doctor, just a concerned individual.

It might trick their mind very briefly but it wouldn't take long before their body would feel that they haven't had their fix.

no because they wont experiance the high the drug gives them