“A new study suggests that medical marijuana could provide some relief from the national epidemic of prescription painkiller overdoses, which kills more Americans each year than car crashes do.
States with medical marijuana laws on the books saw 24.8 percent fewer deaths from painkiller overdoses compared to states that didn’t have such laws, according to the study published in JAMA Internal Medicine. That meant 1,729 fewer deaths than expected in 2010 alone, and states saw their overdose rates generally improve each year after their medical marijuana laws were passed, researchers found.
Almost half of the states in the country now have laws allowing access to medical marijuana, with pain management as the primary reason for use. The study looked at the 10 states that implemented laws between 1999 and 2010 and the three states with earlier laws. Nine more states have passed laws since the end of the study period, according to the researchers.”
John Iadarola (http://www.twitter.com/jiadarola), Gina Grad (http://www.twitter.com/ginagrad) and Ana Kasparian (http://www.twitter.com/anakasparian) discuss.
* Read more here from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/08/25/is-medical-marijuana-the-answer-to-americas-prescription-painkiller-epidemic/
Comments
Hi. I am a practicing physician and was horrified at the poor understanding of the facts in this video. The point that cannabis should be considered in general pain management is valid and to suggest that addictive pain medication prescribing practice should be stricter is also a good point. But to say it is always equivalent to opioids is simply ridiculous especially when considering patients who have experienced acute trauma etc. Opioid based painkillers are quite simply the most potent painkillers out there where as cannabis which acts on a different receptor in the brain could help with long term pain management but would NEVER replace opioids in any dramatic way they wouldn’t even come close. Also this video suggests marijuana has no side effects which again is ridiculous. It is a strong predisposing factor towards schizophrenia which you have neglected to mention but important for people to know. Young people are especially vulnerable to this and it does ruin lives which I have seen first hand. As opioids are addictive it is important to improve prescribing practice by only prescribing in small quantities and only if absolutely necessarily but to stop their prescription would be a huge step back in terms of general pain management. Video clips like this really need to be better researched. And misinformation like this to the public causes real problems for doctors. Ps to me it sounds like your doctor made the right drug prescription for your mum Anna. Rant over. As a side note I would be happy to advise you guys for such clips if you want and watch pain pus and poison series to better understand pain management and pathways.