Skip to main content

Legal Marijuana Helps Reduce Opioid Dangers Studies Reveal

Another day, another round of studies suggesting that legalizing marijuana can help mitigate the harms of the opioid epidemic.

This time, one study published Oct. 25, 2018, in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence looked at how adult-use legalization impacted opioid prescriptions. And a separate research paper published Oct. 20, 2018, explored how medical cannabis dispensaries affect opioid overdoses.

Both studies bode well for reform advocates who’ve argued that legal marijuana can serve as a safer alternative to prescription painkillers. Here’s what you need to know about each new paper.

1. Adult-use legalization is associated with a decrease in the number of prescriptions, total doses and spending on opioids among Medicaid enrollees.

Researchers examined prescription data for Medicaid enrollees from 2010 to 2017. The team found “no evidence to support the concern that recreational marijuana legalization increased opioid prescriptions received by Medicaid enrollees.”

Rather, implementing a fully legal cannabis system in 2015 was linked to a 32 percent decrease in the total number of opioid prescriptions, a 30 percent decrease in the number of doses and a 31 percent decrease in spending on Schedule III opioids.

2. Deaths from opioid and heroin overdoses are lower in counties where medical cannabis dispensaries operate.

Looking at mortality data from 2009 to 2015, researchers found that counties with medical cannabis dispensaries experienced significantly lower rates of opioid and heroin overdoses, compared with counties without dispensaries.

Specifically, the average mortality rate for any opioid overdose increased by 0.37 per 100,000 people in counties without dispensaries from 2009 to 2015, while it increased by 0.07 per 100,000 in counties with dispensaries during the same time period. Prescription opioid mortality rates “increased by 0.05 [per 100,000]in dispensary-counties and rose by 0.2 [per 100,000]in non-dispensary counties,” according to the study.

Mortality rates associated with heroin overdoses increased by 0.61 per 100,000 people in counties with marijuana dispensaries, while increasing by nearly 1 per 100,000 in non-dispensary counties.

Both new studies come on the heels of yet another round of research on cannabis and opioids issues that came out earlier this month.

This article has been republished from Marijuana Moment under a content syndication agreement. Read the original article here.

Original Article Source: https://www.marijuana.com/news/2018/10/legal-marijuana-helps-reduce-opioid-dangers-studies-reveal/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New York City Adds More Exceptions To Pre-Employment Marijuana Testing Ban

An ambitious campaign to decriminalize psychedelics in Washington, D.C., is one step closer to placing their measure on the November ballot with the formal submission of tens of thousands of voter signatures. Organizers have been scrambling for weeks to collect enough signatures from D.C. voters by Monday’s deadline amid historically difficult circumstances: a global pandemic, months of stay-at-home orders and protests over racism and police violence that filled the streets of the nation’s capital. But with the help of innovative signature-gathering techniques and allies flown in from across the country, advocates said they had successfully submitted upwards of 35,000 signatures—more than enough to qualify the initiative. If approved by voters, Initiative 81 would make enforcement of laws against plant- and fungus-based psychedelics among the “lowest law enforcement priorities” for the Metropolitan Police Department. It would not, however, legalize or reduce penalties for the subs
Post a Comment
Read more

Charlotte Figi The Girl Who Inspired A CBD Movement Has Died At Age 13

Charlotte had recently been hospitalized due to pneumonia, breathing problems and seizures. She was treated as a likely case of Covid-19, her mother, Paige Figi, said Wednesday, although she tested negative for the virus. “Charlotte is no longer suffering. She is seizure-free forever,” a family friend wrote on Paige Figi’s Facebook page, announcing Charlotte’s death. “Thank you so much for all of your love.” Charlotte became a symbol of the possibilities of CBD after CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta told her story in the documentary “Weed.” In the film, Charlotte was shown to be a playful child who was overcome by horrific seizures, which were quelled with Charlotte’s Web, a marijuana strain named in her honor. Charlotte had Dravet syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy which was not controlled by medication. The Stanley brothers, marijuana growers in Colorado, were crossbreeding a strain of marijuana high in CBD and low in THC, its psychoactive ingredient. After Charlo
Post a Comment
Read more

Virginia CBD Program Criticized As Multistate Medical Cannabis Operators Gain Edge

Seven companies are challenging a CBD licensing process in Virginia that resulted in multistate medical marijuana operators getting a majority of available licenses. The appeals called the process “wildly prejudicial.” Out of 51 applicants for five vertically integrated CBD and THC-A licenses, multistate operators received three, a situation that spurred the appeals, The Virginian-Pilot reported. Applicants filing the appeals complained the closed-meeting review process lacked fairness and transparency. One consultant to an applicant said the selections felt “predetermined.” The Virginia Board of Pharmacy reportedly sent information to the applicants in December explaining its selections, but some applicants weren’t satisfied. A board spokeswoman wrote in an email to the Pilot that the board “does not comment on pending litigation.” The five winning applicants , called “pharmaceutical processors,” have a year from winning the licenses to become operational. The multistate
Post a Comment
Read more