Marijuana

Marijuana

study results just released today as it regards the (over)use and addiction to opioids.

Considering the plague in a lot of places - including up here - that surrounds the opioids trade and use, you'd think states and leaders might look to this as an alternative. It seems, further, that the prescribed opioids are more gateway drug than the nefarious marijuana.

Here's an article on the published research:

UC Berkeley and HelloMD Release Study on Cannabis Use as a Substitute for Opioid and Non-Opioid

Here's the Abstract:

Introduction: Prescription drug overdoses are the leading cause of accidental death in the United States. Alternatives to opioids for the treatment of pain are necessary to address this issue. Cannabis can be an effective treatment for pain, greatly reduces the chance of dependence, and eliminates the risk of fatal overdose compared to opioid-based medications. Medical cannabis patients report that cannabis is just as effective, if not more, than opioid-based medications for pain.

Materials and Methods: The current study examined the use of cannabis as a substitute for opioid-based pain medication by collecting survey data from 2897 medical cannabis patients.

Discussion: Thirty-four percent of the sample reported using opioid-based pain medication in the past 6 months. Respondents overwhelmingly reported that cannabis provided relief on par with their other medications, but without the unwanted side effects. Ninety-seven percent of the sample “strongly agreed/agreed” that they are able to decrease the amount of opiates they consume when they also use cannabis, and 81% “strongly agreed/agreed” that taking cannabis by itself was more effective at treating their condition than taking cannabis with opioids. Results were similar for those using cannabis with nonopioid-based pain medications.

Conclusion: Future research should track clinical outcomes where cannabis is offered as a viable substitute for pain treatment and examine the outcomes of using cannabis as a medication assisted treatment for opioid dependence.

And, finally, a link to the actual article:

http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/can.2017.0012

We need to be prescribing these much less. We need less of the supply in the system. We need to be finding other ways to deal with pain and pain management. I am sure this is not welcome news to the pharmaceutical manufacturers, but the initial results are absolutely encouraging.

After watching my dad get progressively more crippled because of a crushing spinal stenosis, and then see him refuse pain medications because he doesn't want to be taking a Fentanyl patch because of the side effects, so he mostly goes totally medicine-free and just copes with constant pain.

I see no reason why he should not be able to use cannabis if it were to help him.

Maybe one day it will be legal and he'll be able to access it. That would be great. But it also means nothing for the last 20 years of his life, spent more or less miserably.