Medical Marijuana Linked to Reducing Opioid Prescriptions
Chronic pain and other illnesses (like epilepsy, cancer, and more) can be treated with cannabis. Cannabis could have been helping people for decades in a legal manner, but it was outlawed early in the 20th century for various flawed reasons. Laws have been changing now where people can be prescribed medical marijuana products or freely purchase cannabis as adults to treat themselves.
Source, CC BY 2.0
Health professionals have recognized that there is an opioid epidemic of sorts caused by the over prescription of opioids like morphine and oxycodone related substances. People have overdosed and died from opioid use. Cannabis use is showing to be a safer alternative to the risks of opioid use.
Research from two new studies has shown that the legalization of marijuana tends to reduce the prescriptions of opioids. As such, less of the addictive opioids are being prescribed by doctors. This is better for patients since opioids have more negative side effects on our health compared to cannabis use. But that doesn't mean patients will stop using opioids due to existing addictions.
Graph by @krnel from publication data
In one study, prescriptions for opioids covered under Medicaid for low-income adults between 2011 and 2016 showed a 6% drop on average in areas where laws were changed to allow the use of cannabis for medical reasons. Also, states that passed laws to allow recreational marijuana use showed an additional 6% average drop of opioid prescriptions for pain. This translated into 39 less prescriptions per 1000 people using Medicaid.
In the other study, data between 2010 and 2015 of people over 65 years old or with disabilities using Medicare was look at. States that had medical marijuana laws were compared to states that didn't. Initially in 2010, 14 states had medical marijuana laws, and an additional 9 other states adopted medical marijuana laws during the period of the study. Medicare patients in states with legal access to cannabis provided by prescription use, had 14% less daily doses of opioids. States that allowed home growing but lacked marijuana dispensaries showed 7% fewer doses of use.
People have been using cannabis to relieve pain even before medical marijuana laws were adopted. The so-called illegal use of cannabis for self treatment is why there is even prescription marijuana these days. The evidence of the benefits for cannabis use in relieving pain was in the real world, outside of the legal framework and legal scientific research. These studies, along with others, now provide a lot of scientific weight for the evidence that cannabis is an alternative to opioid use for pain relief.
Source, CC BY 2.0
The government that alleges to help and protect people has removed this treatment potential for decades, and they are responsible for preventing people from seeking pain relief in safer ways. Individual states have been listening to people and allowing them the freedom to relieve their pain through cannabis, and now it's up to federal regulations to change so that the use of cannabis to treat pain can be promoted across the nation.
Contrary to opioid use where you can die from an overdose, no one can overdose and die from cannabis use. Just that alone makes it much safer to be prescribed by medical professionals. More research can be done to prove the drop in opioid use relative to the accessibility of cannabis. The recent studies only showed evidence for Medicaid and Medicare patients, so they don't want to conclude how this applies to other people. The studies also don't prove that the patients avoided using any opioids at all when they increased their use of cannabis.
References:
- Studies link legal marijuana with fewer opioid prescriptions
- Studies link legal marijuana with fewer opioid prescriptions
- Association of Medical and Adult-Use Marijuana Laws With Opioid Prescribing for Medicaid Enrollees, JAMA Intern Med. Published online April 2, 2018. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.1007
- Association Between US State Medical Cannabis Laws and Opioid Prescribing in the Medicare Part D Population, JAMA Intern Med. Published online April 2, 2018. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.0266
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Thanks for sharing this great information. Cannabis is way better than opioids. It's a shame that someone could be forced to turn to opioids and possibly have no legal ways to obtain cannabis. At least some places are catching up and changing the laws.
Yes, it's good that times are changing.
opioids is already a money making machine to the health industry, since they have already the monopoly, for right now they don't have the monopoly on cannabis yet, it's only a matter of time when they have the monopoly they will endorse it right away.
Followed and resteemed. Is there anything this plant cannot do?!!
What I know about cannabis, the patients who are receiving treatment to fight certain disorders must take into account the possible interactions between cannabis and the medicines they take.
The effect of prescription drugs may increase or decrease when they are mixed with marijuana. In some cases, these interactions translate into an impediment to perform daily tasks; in others, they could lead to more serious disorders.
Some time ago I read an article that said the great majority of patients tolerate the combined effects of medicinal cannabis and prescription drugs. In some cases, marijuana may cause mild side effects, while in others, these effects should be taken more seriously. Cannabis by itself has never caused death as you say in your article, and there have been very few cases of diseases resulting from its abuse. Despite this, mixing different drugs or substances can have an unpredictable effect on every patient.
Yup, be careful mixing. It's still not as bad as mixing with alcohol. Alcohol is crap :P
Will it help with fibromyalgia? , thanks mike thanks
Yes! Especially with sativa strains for energy.
Thank you I will tell the wife, cheers mike
Of course. And keep a journal of medicine strains you have tried and how it works. That makes finding a good strain set easier! Good luck!
That makes sense, cheers
Although I never found marijuana useful for chronic pain, it's proven invaluable for ADHD. Throughout my life I've had difficulty focusing, particularly where reading or studying was concerned... until I found pot. For whatever reason it makes my mind slow down and allows me to compartmentalize information.
Most of the opioid overdoses are from fentanyl and oxycontin... I've been on opioids for 15 years and find that if I use them the way prescribed- there are no problems (although I'd prefer not to take them).
Yes, take them properly, but there can still be overdoses if you make a mistake. Weed can't do that if you make a mistake ;) Have you tried ingesting cannabis to pain relief?
Brother, I've tried everything!!! I hate having to take opioids but they're the only thing that gives me any relief. Without them I'm unable to move. If I could spend all of my time in bed wrapped in a heating blanket, it might be bearable.
I fell 25-30 feet from a bridge in 1985 and landed on boulders on my back. Needless to say it was badly broken. The orthopedic surgeon said within 5-10 years I'd be paralyzed in a wheelchair- so I guess I'm lucky. Unfortunately the pain becomes unbearable on a daily basis. I've used opioids on and off since and steadily for the most part since 2003... I've never overdosed because I pay attention. The problem I see is twofold- first, stuff like Fentanyl (which should be illegal) and second mixing opioids with other meds like Xanax, and drugs of that sort- that's where most of the mistakes come in.
Anyway- this "War on Opioids" is just another inept attempt at control... why do I have to pay for the irresponsibility of others???
I'm all for the legalization of medical (or not medical, but that's a whole different issue) marijuana. There is nothing bad with it and its in fact much milder than most drugs of its kind. In most cases medical marijuana doesn't even get you high. It's really absurd for crazy strong drugs that might kill you to be prescribed and marijuana to be excluded.
Following! Powerful words.
Here in the UK, we can only get CBD (Cannabidiol) oil. My wife uses it to help with her CFS and she has found it aids in giving her a better nights sleep. It's great to see that the benefits of Marijuana for the treatment of pain are finally being recognised. Thanks for the post.
Has she tried the full cannabis profile with THC?
No. The oil allowed in the UK only contains trace amounts of THC (the unwritten allowable amount is 0.2% apparently) anything higher and it would be illegal. The only way to go would be to grow some real stuff! :-)
Following and have the @greenunion voting! Love this! Nice work.
And I've seen it first hand.
I gave up pain pills and prescription drugs as my health just kept getting worse.
LOL, ganjafarmer, of course you support cannabis :P
I hope I would!
Wow! I never knew that no one can actually overdose and die from cannabis. That's an eye opening post.
Thanks for sharing
You're welcome. It's good to know ;)