Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by on Friday March 17 2017, @05:04PM   Printer-friendly
from the better-solutions dept.

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.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 17 2017, @08:32PM (9 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 17 2017, @08:32PM (#480605)

    As a long term patient on strong prescription painkillers, I'll add this... I started weaning myself off the prescription crap due to near ineffectiveness and switched to weed. It's the best pain relief I've had in 15 years. I have absolutely no withdrawal symptoms with weed, as opposed to the very strong and miserable withdrawals from prescription meds. Yeah, the doctor gave me the lecture about still being a fed offence, but also added some people do get relief using weed where the other meds fail. Sidenote... Our elected officials here in San Diego just passed an ordinance banning weed outlets in all of San Diego county, only within the city limits are you allowed to operate a weed outlet now. I will not be voting for those fucktards next election.

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +1  
       Interesting=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   1  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 17 2017, @08:35PM (8 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 17 2017, @08:35PM (#480609)

    Umm, is this the real EF without the fake troll persona??

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 17 2017, @08:40PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 17 2017, @08:40PM (#480613)

      Nooooo. I live in the good part of San Diego county. And I don't drink alcohol.

    • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday March 17 2017, @09:49PM (6 children)

      by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Friday March 17 2017, @09:49PM (#480649) Homepage

      No, as they pointed out, but I never understood the appeal of painkillers either. I was prescribed Vicodin after hurting my back and although it put me in a different headspace it did nothing for the actual pain, which is the only reason why I took it. Over-the-counter anti-inflammatories and pot were way more effective.

      I ended up throwing away over half a bottle of Vicodin.

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by LoRdTAW on Friday March 17 2017, @10:49PM (1 child)

        by LoRdTAW (3755) on Friday March 17 2017, @10:49PM (#480679) Journal

        Friend of mine did the same thing. They gave him something along the lines of Vicodin or hydrocodone. It made him nauseous and disoriented. Just completely shitty. He switched to smoking weed and took advil. Not only did it numb the pain, but he could also eat. The choice between the overpriced "legal" crap and cheaper weed is a no-brainer.

        It's going to be a tough fight to legalize because a LOT of fat cats stand to loose a shit load of money if it's legalized. Drug companies, Alcohol industry, Law Enforcement vendors, Prison companies, and I'm sure a whole lot more. Not to mention we get to deal a huge blow against the drug cartels, who like the bootleggers, will simply go away.

        Hell I'm gonna smoke a bowl right now.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 17 2017, @10:56PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 17 2017, @10:56PM (#480684)

          Lets see... $360 for a 30 day supply of fentanyl patches which comes with addiction, side effects, withdrawals, shitty pain relief, and possible death... or $90 for a 60 day supply of weed which almost cuts the pain level to nothing, no withdrawals, and is not addictive. No brainer.

      • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday March 18 2017, @12:36AM (1 child)

        by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Saturday March 18 2017, @12:36AM (#480715) Journal

        Asking this seriously: how does cannabinoid-mediated analgesia work?

        I ask this because in studying the effects of acetaminophen (Tylenol/Paracetamol) on myself, I noticed it has an anxiolytic effect, which further research suggests is because it's essentially a weak anandamide reuptake inhibitor. It doesn't seem to inhibit cyclooxygenase the same way aspirin and other NSAIDs do, at least not directly at the site of inflammation and pain. Anandamide is an endocannabinoid. So what's the mechanism of action here? Does it simply make the pain more bearable, or does activation of certain endocannabinoid receptors actually abolish nocoception to some degree?

        --
        I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
        • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday March 18 2017, @01:16AM

          by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Saturday March 18 2017, @01:16AM (#480725) Homepage

          Fuck if I know, that's way out of my league.

          The only thing I can say about all that is that being a drunk, I swear by ibuprofen rather than acetaminophen because ibuprofen is much more friendly on the liver and just works. And if one's stomach can't handle ibuprofen then they shouldn't be drinking either.

          With respect to pain, I have a lot more experience with hangovers, so I can make a couple of quite-possibly-bullshit assumptions here based on Wikipedia. The first is that the CB1 receptors within the brain decrease GABA activity, which would alleviate some symptoms of hangovers since part of a hangover is caused by a GABA rebound, in which the brain's compensation for suppressed GABA activity while drunk becomes excessive after the booze wears off, causing excitability (mania, anxiety, or even death by seizure; depending on the extent of the alcohol abuse).

          The second possible-bullshit assumption is that, since CB2 cannabinoid receptors are part of the immune system (among other parts of the body), and alcohol is inflammatory, and the immune system is responsible for inflammation; then stimulating that receptor in the immune system (and possibly other parts of the body) could lead to a reduction of inflammation (and thus a reduction of pain).

          The Rastafarians say that Jah (God) put Marijuana on the Earth specifically for Man to use. That we have cannabinoid receptors within our bodies is proof of that.

      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by anubi on Saturday March 18 2017, @08:52AM

        by anubi (2828) on Saturday March 18 2017, @08:52AM (#480807) Journal

        I got some Vicodin after some oral surgery.

        Like you, ended up taking two or three of 'em before I figured out those were best left in the bottle.

        For some reason, these drugs don't seem to do anything for me. Alcohol puts me to sleep. Both pot and tobacco makes it really hard for me to breathe and I cough up a storm. I seem to get some benefit from aspirin. I do enjoy eating pot, though - but smoking it just plugs me up and it takes weeks to clear it out.

        I can think of four chemicals that do have an almost immediate effect on me... beer will make me pee, calcium carbonate will quickly neutralize an upset tummy, phenolpthalein will give me the squirts, and potassium bicarbonate will quickly stop leg cramps. I also salt food with potassium bicarbonate, potassium gluconate, or potassium chloride, as when I get too much sodium in me, here come leg cramps. It seems as if I am literally shorting out. To me, the potassium salts taste like sodium chloride, while anything I made with magnesium tasted absolutely terrible.

        I am careful about ingesting too much potassium at one time though... I get the idea that one good heavy dose will be my last.

        --
        "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
      • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Sunday March 19 2017, @12:47AM

        by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Sunday March 19 2017, @12:47AM (#480983) Journal

        Interesting. They gave me Vicodin after my gall bladder was removed, and I didn't find it very effective. I think I still have about half a bottle, but by now it's way past the expiration date. Now I don't know whether it really wasn't effective or not. It could be that I just had enough pain (for awhile) that following the prescription orders would only dull things down a bit, and that it lasted long enough that there was a lot of overlap between doses. Or it could be because different medications have different effectiveness for different people. E.g., Acetaminophen has so little effect on me that it's worthless, but Asprin is pretty good, and ibuprofen is nearly as good. Unfortunately, side effects...
        Asprin leads to a tendency to bleed, which increases the probability of certain kinds of strokes, and since I know that, for me, it leads to nose-bleeds, it's quite likely that that would be a result.
        And I'm told that using ibuprofen more than twice a week damages the nerves within the ear. My mother and her father both ended up going deaf, and I've got little desire to go the same way.

        So currently for pain I either tough it our or take some booze. Neither is a particularly good result. Neither is getting high. Marijuana *might* work, but I tend to be risk averse, so I'm waiting for it to become legal before I see how well it would work, and whether it would interfere with my life more than the pain. (OTOH, it's also true that the pain I'm talking about is minor compared to, e.g., extensive operations. I'm just dealing with arthritis, the thing that my grandparents thought aspirin was the best thing for.)

        --
        Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.