The link below explains this new research:
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/4/30/17302692/opioid-epidemic-medical-marijuana-painkiller
"[T]he best review of the research to date about marijuana’s health effects, from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, found that there’s “conclusive evidence” for marijuana as a treatment for chronic pain. At the same time, there’s evidence questioning whether opioids really are more effective at treating chronic pain compared to alternative treatments, suggesting that there’s a lot of room to substitute marijuana, at least for some patients.
One potential wrinkle: We already have a lot of non-opioid pain treatments. As Stanford University pain specialist Sean Mackey previously told me, there are 200-plus non-opioid pain medications, not to mention nonpharmacological approaches. So marijuana isn’t providing something entirely new here if it’s used for pain treatment.
Perhaps the most compelling evidence to date, though, comes from a recent study by David Powell and Rosalie Pacula of the RAND Corporation and Mireille Jacobson of the University of California Irvine, who looked at how medical marijuana legalization — particularly in states with the most access to medicinal cannabis — affected opioid-related deaths. They concluded, “These findings suggest that broader access to medical marijuana facilitates substitution of marijuana for powerful and addictive opioids.”
What are your thoughts? Does the logic behind the argument made work seem reasonable?
There seems to be contradicting evidence all over the place, some saying marijuana can help opioid addicts, and other disagreeing. I think in the grand scope of working towards reducing opioid overdose deaths, a more comprehensive approach should be utilized. Marijuana may help some kick their opioid addiction, while others may need more hands on treatment in the form of face-to-face rehabilitation and treatment.
ReplyDeleteConsidering a study done in 2009 in American Scientist on the relative toxicity of recreational drugs indicated one would have to use more than 1,000 times the effective dose of marijuana in order for it to be potentially fatal – not even a certain death. 175 people die per day in opioid addiction deaths. If marijuana can be just as effective, I think these numbers say we should pursue it. Non-opioid medication is also something to look into.
ReplyDeleteI would agree with this. I personally don’t think medical marijuana is the sole solution to the opioid crisis, but due to the aforementioned reasons, I definitely think it would help
DeleteThe fact that no legislation has been able to significantly reduce the number of opioid-related deaths may give reason for something "radical" like the legalization of marijuana to happen. Some studies will prove to be beneficial and others may not, but perhaps it is time to weigh the pros and cons to make a meaningful change.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Tyler regarding the evidence all over the place. I believe that medical marijuana is an avenue we need to pursue. I also was not aware of all the non-opioid pain medications. I'd be curious to see how those are used.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Todd and Tyler that this article is all over the place. However, as we discussed in class we are not sure that medical marijuana is necessarily a substitute for opioid use.
ReplyDeleteWhile it doesn't seem like a direct substitute, medical marijuana seems like a safe solution. It could have positive impacts beyond aiding people in pain, as crime would go down in the illegal drug trade.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what most others have stated so far. Marijuana is definitely a safer alternative to opioids, however we should be careful of just going one drug to another. The thing about marijuana is that there has never been a reported overdose. If we were to treat people with chronic pain with marijuana, we clearly see that they are much less likely to overdose when compared to taking opioids .
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