States with medical pot see nearly 25 percent fewer fatal prescription drug overdoses

Study may prompt future changes in jurisdictions where weed can’t legally be prescribed

States with medical pot see nearly 25 percent fewer fatal prescription drug overdoses

Image Credits: dankdepot, Flickr

by RT | August 27, 2014


A new study reveals that states where medical marijuana is legal experience around one-quarter fewer deaths from prescription drug overdoses, signaling perhaps a small victory for proponents of pot’s alleged pain-alleviating powers.

According to the study published in the latest installment of JAMA Internal Medicine, the 13 states in America that have legalized the use of medical marijuana for patients with valid prescriptions see a 24.8 percent lower annual opioid overdose rate that those where weed can’t legally be offered to treat ailments.

Dr. Marcus A. Bachhuber of the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center writes in the study that“States that implemented medical marijuana laws appear to have lower annual opioid analgesic overdoses death rates (both from prescription pain killers and illicit drugs such as heroin) than states without such laws,” but acknowledged that the exact reason isn’t quite clear at this point.

“Prescriptions for opioid painkillers for chronic pain have increased in the United States and so have overdose deaths. However, less attention has been focused on how the availability of alternative nonopioid treatment, such as medical marijuana, may affect overdose rates,” his team wrote.


Now after reviewing overdose rates across the US from 1999 through 2010, Dr. Bachhuber and his colleagues determined that states with legal weed witness fewer overdoses.

“As our awareness of the addiction and overdose risks associated with use of opioid painkillers such as Oxycontin and Vicodin grows, individuals with chronic pain and their medical providers may be opting to treat pain entirely or in part with medical marijuana, in states where this is legal,” Colleen L. Barry, PhD, a senior author of the study, said in a statement.

Despite identifying what could be a trend, however, the researchers fell short of attributing lax pot laws on the lack of ODs.

“In summary, although we found a lower mean annual rate of opioid analgesic mortality in states with medical cannabis laws, a direct causal link cannot be established,” the researchers wrote. “If the relationship between medical cannabis laws and opioid analgesic overdose mortality is substantiated in further work, enactment of laws to allow for use of medical cannabis may be advocated as part of a comprehensive package of policies to reduce the population risk of opioid analgesics.”

Indeed, a review of the research published alongside the study in JAMA prompted Dr. Marie J. Hayes and Dr. Mark S. Brown to ask questions about how the study may prompt future changes in jurisdictions where weed can’t legally be prescribed.

“If medical marijuana laws afford a protective effect, it is not clear why. If the decline in opioid analgesic-related overdose deaths is explained, as claimed by the authors, by increased access to medical marijuana as an adjuvant medication for patients taking prescription opioids, does this mean that marijuana provides improved pain control that decreases opioid dosing to safer levels?” the doctors opined. “The potential protective role of medical marijuana in opioid analgesic-associated mortality and its implication for public policy is a fruitful area for future work.”

The latest report was put together with evidence from the 13 states where medical marijuana was legal through 2010, although 10 more have since followed suit, as well as Washington, DC. As of this year, recreational marijuana is legal for adults in the states of Washington and Colorado. 

 

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  • "YOU CAN'T OVERDOSE ON POT"

    No, but you CAN smoke too much and too often, which will not kill you but it'll turn you into an evolutionary stagnant looser that does not go forward in life either mentally nor physically.
    I speak from experience. 10+ years of my life I lost to that god damn drug.. :)

    So, use it with moderation and DO NOT, I repeat: DO NOT use it every day!!

    • Thanks Acute Observer.  That is very good advice.

  • the elite have always not like the power and effects this sacred plant does to the human mind, specially with the new earths heart beat or the schumann resonance from being for 29000 yrs since our solar system is traveling AGAIN THU THE PHOTON BELT which has risen the 7.83hz of earth to now in the 12hz range, THIS DOES EFFECT US FOR WE ARE MOSTLY WATER AND WE ARE VIBRATING IN THE 12HZ. also absorbing the photon energy as well,that the human has not been in 29000yrs, these are the days i.m.h.o. talked about for thousand of years of the story of man tranforming it's d.n.a. at a fast fast rate.    i know seeing is believing, for i too have heard enough lies of church and state concepts of what is life and what is not, just because they say so, should been our i.q. and beliefs.

    for one it makes us focus and study on the simple things (and all the angles to it) in life, THEN the mind wanders into what is going on about human life and human rules, and how they are NOT balanced for ALL OF US.

    this i feel is why the elites do not like us being a nation of expansion of the minds thinkers, but only want a nation of workers (rocky), for the woo woo stories of the church and state lies and deceptions are just becoming more and more transparent, even down to the less educated, who for some reason does not want to read, even if the lies on print is seen and feel it no matter what is the truth. 

    blessings to all of us for we are all one

    • Good write.  As George Carlin says, what "the owners" really want are "obedient workers who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork, and just dumb enough to passively accept these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime, and the vanishing pension that disappears the moment you try to collect it." 

      'Cause the elite belong to "the big club."  AND YOU AINT IN IT.

      • so true Malcolm,

        WE ALL THE USELESS EATERS AS WE ARE REFERRED AS by the elite, even the queen's slip of the tongue called us that,**** that is the 95% of mankind****, the other persons must be the trained maintenance people to keep the machines working that keep the d.u.m.b. bases in working order, while they the elite wait it out.

        we are not alone anymore, seeing is believing.

        blessings to all of us for we are all one 

  • Love the picture.  It makes your eyes red just looking at it.

    • I'll be glad when Texas turns blue so our eyes can 'legally' turn red. LOL

      • Touche'

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