SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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: 2) by edIII on Friday March 17 2017, @07:34PM (2 children)
Sorry, but you are perpetuating a myth. Weed is not addictive at all, beyond the possibility of psychological addiction. So if weed addition is an actual thing, so is sex addiction, chocolate addiction, and addiction to soap operas. Dunno about you, but I'm pretty "addicted" to sex and chocolate. Not so much soap operas.
Addiction without any special context means BIOLOGICAL OR CHEMICAL addiction. Weed is simply not chemically addictive like opiates or cigarettes. That's a myth you should stop spreading around.
I smoke a weed a lot, for medical reasons having to do with pain that doesn't respond to opiates. Opiates have a very bad reaction with me anyways. I'm not addicted at all, beyond the psychological addiction of not wanting pain. To put it simply, you're not addicted to something like an addict is addicted to heroin, until you're sucking cock in a bathroom to get it. I've never heard of a pot smoker telling me, "Man, nobody was holding so I had to blow this shady looking dude in an alley to get a joint". I sure as shit don't need weed that badly. I'll take the all the pain first. Plus death. So I sincerely doubt I'm addicted in the classic clinical sense.
The worst that can happen to you is actually getting sick from being too saturated with it. That goes away after stopping for a week or two. Operative word there is stop. There are way too many pot smokers able to stop for extended periods of time, without withdrawal symptoms for weed addiction to be a medically verifiable phenomenon.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 17 2017, @10:20PM
Yep. Here too.
I'm getting on in years and have my own set of medical issues. Heart, arthritis, and have found cannabis a life saver. Alcohol is poison to me and has destroyed most my heart's nerve bundles. Got a pacemaker ICD now.
Cannabis has also been helpful in weight loss and even getting my blood pressure down.
Unfortunate our leaders are ignorant neanderthals making up lies and tall tales to keep something so good and beneficial out of the hands of people that would benefit from it, all for crony capitolism and corruption in the highest levels of our government. Even more unfortunate that glue sniffers like that idiot above citing lies told by the fucking criminals in our government.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 17 2017, @11:18PM
The worst that can happen to you is actually getting sick from being too saturated with [weed]
I really enjoy the story about NYT's ridiculous redhead who went to Colorado, bought a candy bar, ate the whole thing (when the dose was 1 square), and completely freaked out. Maureen Dowd [google.com]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]