One of the best things about medical marijuana is that it is an all around wonderful ailment against a lot of illnesses out there. However, due to the fact it has been stigmatized for decades, people would resort to less appealing options of the pharmaceutical variety. You see, Vicodin and Oxycontin are killing people in the US on a daily basis. 46 lives a day are ended by overdose with the mentioned opiates. Yet, both medications remain legal, free to pursue their killing spree. But wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could use marijuana to combat opioid addiction or better yet – opioid related deaths?
A New Study Confirms What We Suspected
A study came out recently and the findings were astonishing. It seems that US states that have medical marijuana dispensaries have witnessed a huge decrease in opioid related deaths. It makes sense. If you have the choice between chugging Vicodin, Oxycontin and consuming marijuana in one form or another, you would probably align with the former. So that is why this is good news. Marijuana is not only a confident ailment but it also gives people another chance at life.
The study was conducted by the RAND Corporation with researchers from UC Irvine. This research was kind of motivated by the last year’s report, which claimed that between 1999 and 2010, opioid related deaths declined by over 24%. Naturally, this specifically refers to states that have legalized medical marijuana and have allowed for it to be sold in licensed medical marijuana dispensaries. The thing with this report is that nobody is claiming that people are actually taking marijuana instead of Vicodin and Oxycontin. An entirely different research would have to be made to come up with results for that.
The Findings Are Conclusive?
However, considering that the findings from the former study are strictly focused on states that have legalized medical marijuana, it is kind of inevitable to assume that people have been substituting their meds with weed. It would be interesting to compare the numbers of Vicodin and OxyContin consumption in the pre-legal and post-legal medical marijuana periods. That would give us a clear picture on how much direct effect did marijuana have on these states.
Regardless of the fact that people may not be directly substituting marijuana for painkillers, it is safe to assume that this natural pain reliever has found its way into the homes of people who consume painkillers, not just the mentioned two brands but others as well. With that in mind, we cannot emphasize enough the importance of education. If more people get educated on the benefits of medical marijuana, they will soon recognize it as a much safer alternative to painkillers. All they have to do is chose a way to consume it, albeit through vaping, smoking, eating or drinking. But then again, that might go against Big Pharma’s goals so you can imagine that they will ensure this process moves as slowly as possible. In the meantime, don’t overdose on painkillers and explore other options.
