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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: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Friday March 17 2017, @09:04PM (2 children)
>Weed isn't an opioid so what they are trying to say that getting stoned on weed is better then getting high of something else?
No, they're saying that legal marijuana one of the first truly effective thing we've found to fight the epidemic opioid addiction.
Presumably, because pretty much every addict knows that opioid addiction is really screwing up their life, and that marijuana is much, much safer. I've met a few people that have used marijuana to kick an opioid addiction - marijuana helps with the nausea of withdrawal, stimulates appetite (which can fade under opioid use), and promotes a sense of well-being. Nothing like the intensity of an opioid high, which stimulates the brain's endorphin "pleasure" receptors, but stimulating the brain's canabanoids receptors generally induces a feeling that everything is all right - you may be in constant pain and your life is a mess, but everything is still basically okay.
And marijuana leaves you functional - critical thinking skills usually suffer while you're high, but intuitive reasoning may actually be enhanced, and you're not in some opioid induce quasi-dreamstate, so are quite capable of cleaning the house, cooking dinner, and taking care of all the chores necessary to keeping your life in order. An awful lot of people even go to work high - a good attitude and near-total immunity to boredom and bullshit can actually be a much larger advantage in a whole lot of jobs than the enhanced critical thinking skills you've traded for them. And unlike alcohol, marijuana has negligible effect on reflexes or reckless behavior - in fact there's even some evidence that people tend to become more cautious when high than when sober.
And yeah, you can get addicted to marijuana, in the same way you can get addicted to shopping or chocolate. There's no physical addiction or withdrawal, just an unhealthy psychological obsession. And frankly, replacing an opioid addiction is a marijuana addiction is a *huge* step up. Heck, it'd be a huge step up from an alcohol addiction. We all have our little addictions (Caffeine? Internet?), they're only a problem if they interfere with our ability to function well in society.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 18 2017, @12:39AM (1 child)
Hmmm, getting an idea here. Do you really think that I could use pot to break my internet addiction? As it is, I work from home on the screen and also spend much of my "down time" on the screen reading (and SN commenting). I do get out for bicycle rides when the weather is reasonable (spring & fall). Medical pot has just started being legal here, but I'm guessing that a 'script for it would be hard to get with these symptoms.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 18 2017, @02:44AM
From what I've seen it tends to make everything more interesting, internet included, so probably not...