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The Free Thought Project reports via AlterNet
There's one thing that appears to be saving more lives during the opioid epidemic than anything else--medical cannabis. While government touts meaningless attempts at addressing the problem--paying lip service to the people while protecting Big Pharma's profits and filling jails--people are saving themselves by turning to an ancient plant.
Yet another scientific study has confirmed that medical cannabis access reduces harm from opioid abuse among the population. A recent study published in the Drug and Alcohol Dependency journal found that states with legal medical cannabis experience fewer hospitalizations related to opioids.
"Medical marijuana legalization was associated with 23% and 13% reductions in hospitalizations related to opioid dependence or abuse and [opioid pain reliever] OPR overdose, respectively; lagged effects were observed after policy implementation."
Researchers from the University of California analyzed hospital administrative records for the period of 1997 to 2014. The author reported:
"This study demonstrated significant reductions on OPR- (opioid pain reliever) related hospitalizations associated with the implementation of medical marijuana policies. ... We found reductions in OPR-related hospitalizations immediately after the year of policy implementation as well as delayed reductions in the third post-policy year."
The data also show that cannabis-related hospitalizations did not increase after legalization, contrary to what prohibitionists would have you believe.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by redneckmother on Friday March 17 2017, @07:23PM (5 children)
The opioid epidemic is profitable for some of the corporations that run the US government. Pot is too easy to produce at home for them to decriminalize it.
Does anyone really think the overlords really care about individuals?
Mas cerveza por favor.
(Score: 4, Informative) by ikanreed on Friday March 17 2017, @07:31PM (2 children)
The problem with that logic is that a great many of the people who were addicted to Oxy switched to heroin because it's way cheaper, and, once you have a contact, easier to get.
I don't know if that's an indictment of how expensive the American medical system is, how much the drug war failed to stop opium imports, or both, but it's still true.
(Score: 5, Informative) by edIII on Friday March 17 2017, @07:45PM (1 child)
Indictment of both. Having a relative that was addicted to heroin, I learned first hand that the biggest problem.... was how cheap it was. That truly surprised me. I always thought heroin was one of the more expensive drugs that forced you into petty crimes and shitty lives like crack-whorin' for crack.
Price in Northern California to get high on heroin these days? $5. I'm not kidding. $5. My relative wasn't stealing to get high or committing crimes. Didn't have to. Just a small portion of the daily budget for living.
For LESS than a Starbuck's coffee, for LESS than a fucking cheeseburger at fast food, LESS than food at the grocery store, I can get high on heroin today. Legal options for eliminating pain? $35 per fucking pill. Legal weed? $2,200 per pound at the high end. $9 per pre-rolled joint at the lower end. That's commercial.
Heroin is less costly than almost every other legal or illegal drug out there. So when opiate addicts are switching to weed, that is opiate addicts putting their money where their mouth is in their desire to stop using.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by dry on Sunday March 19 2017, @02:46AM
Actually it is really hard to find heroin, the price crash is due to the other opiates that are sold as heroin. Femoral is the big one, cheap as hell to buy in China and mail to N. America. Cheap to make as well. There's some others around as well w, another one that is used for tranquilizing elephants, synthetic opiates where a grain of salt sized dose will kill you.
It is the free market in action, heroin is not as cheap and is bulky and the market has replaced it with fake heroin, even the dealers often think it is heroin they're selling. Being free market, there is also a minimum of quality control, leading to something like 1500 overdose deaths in the last year here in BC. It's hard to cut something that potent. It's hard to gauge the dose when the potency is unknown.
The solution being talked about more and more here in Canada is the government selling legal heroin (it's happening a bit) as it is cheap and actually heroin is pretty safe, especially compared to many drug store drugs. It's just societies hatred of (some kinds of) addiction that is the big problem.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday March 17 2017, @10:14PM (1 child)
Opium is equally easy to produce, humans used it as pain relief at least 7000 years back [wikipedia.org], while in Neolithic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by dry on Sunday March 19 2017, @03:31AM
The seeds are also commonly available, like most racks of garden seeds include opium poppies. Once you know what they look like, you see them all over the place. They self seed well too.