Is medical marijuana the cure for opiate addiction?
In recent news medical marijuana has taken the country by storm. The legalization of medical and recreational use in both Colorado and Washington have given scientists the opportunities to freely study the effects it has on patients, and the positive and negative affects it has on medical patients. In a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, Melissa Healy put her focus on a recent study that suggests that “medical marijuana could reduce painkiller abuse.” The course of study is focusing on the question of “Could medical marijuana be an antidote for the nation’s scourge of fatal overdoses caused by prescription pain medication?” The new research was recently published this past Monday in the journal “JAMA Internal Medicine” and found that deaths associated with prescription medicine fell dramatically in 13 states after legalizing medical marijuana. Dr. Donald Abrams, an oncologist who is not involved with this study stated that “it’s so apparent that our patients can decrease, diminish or wean themselves completely off opiates, and that improves their quality of life.” This news is surprising since the “war on drugs” has stated that marijuana is a gateway drug and will only lead to harder things. This is showing a flaw to that argument in that it is actually helping people wean themselves off of prescription drugs instead of get them on them, so the study says.
The article continues to show examples of how medical marijuana has helped cancer patients experience greater pain relief when a vaporized form of marijuana and a lower dosage of morphine and oxycodone than with the previous higher doses. The national institute on Drug Abuse stated “clearly the study raised an intriguing hypothesis, but many questions still need to be answered.”
The premise of the argument is that medical marijuana will help take peoples’ addiction to prescription medicine and help cure them of their...