8/11/2019 Pot for Pain_ More Patients Are Saying Yes _ the Daily Caller
1/4
Share
Deputy Director,NORML
See All Articles
Subscribe to RSS
Bio
Opinion
Pot For Pain? More Patients Are
Saying Yes 10:22 AM 09/05/2014
Are patients in medical cannabis states substituting pot
for potentially lethal painkillers? It appears that way.
According to datapublished in theJournal of the American
Medical Association Internal Medicine, the enactment of
statewide medicinal marijuana laws is associated with
significantly lower state-level opioid overdose mortality
rates. Investigators conducted a time-series analysis of
medical cannabis laws and state-level death certificate
data in the United States from 1999 to 2010 a periodduring which 13 states instituted laws allowing for cannabis therapy.
Researchers reported, States with medical cannabis laws had a 24.8 percent lower
mean annual opioid overdose mortality rate compared with states without medical
cannabis laws. Specifically, they found that overdose deaths from opioids decreased
by an average of 20 percent one year after the laws implementation, 25 percent by two
years, and up to 33 percent by years five and six.
Although the exact mechanism is unclear, our results suggest a link between medical
cannabis laws and lower opioid analgesic overdose mortality, they reported.
Commenting on the study to USA Today, co-author Colleen L. Barry said: [The study's
findings] suggest the potential for many lives to be saved. We can speculate that
people are completely switching or perhaps supplementing, which allows them to
lower the dosage of their prescription opioid.
It is understandable why many chronic pain patients are making the switch. Annual
deaths by opiates have increased over 400 percent since the late 1990s, and now
average over 16,600 per year. In addition, over 100,000 hospitalizations are
attributable annually due to the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (e.g.,
Advil, Aleve) as well as numerous fatalities. (One studytallied over 16,000 deaths per
year due to the use of NSAIDS by patients with rheumatoid arthritis or
osteoarthritis.) Even the use of acetaminophen poses severe risks, contributingto
more than 50,000 hospitalizations yearly and an estimated 500 fatalities (attributable
to acute liver failure). By contrast, cannabinoids are comparatively non-toxic to healthy
cells and organs and are incapableof triggering lethal overdose.
Emailed
NY Dem Who Said Feds ArePreparing To ExterminateBlack Race Storms Out OfMeeting [VIDEO]
Main Witness In FatalWal-Mart Police ShootingChanges His Story
Longmire And HollywoodsMisplaced DemographicFocus
Obama: I ShouldveAnticipated The Optics OfGolfing After FoleyBeheading [VIDEO]
What To Expect From BennyJohnson At National Review
The Shameful Honoring OfRay Lewis
Paul
Armentano
More videos:
Antonio Brown Kicked A Punter In TheFace - @TheBuzzeronFox
For Pain? More Patients Are Saying Yes | The Daily Caller http://dailycaller.com/2014/09/05/pot-for-pain-more-patient
4 9/8/2014
8/11/2019 Pot for Pain_ More Patients Are Saying Yes _ the Daily Caller
2/4
Share
They are also efficacious in addressing pain, including chronic neuropathy a hard to
treat type of nerve-related analgesia that is typically resistant to conventional
painkillers. (It is estimated that some eight percent of U.S. citizens suffer from
neuropathy, which is associated with a variety of diseases, including diabetes, HIV, and,
multiple sclerosis.) In FDA-approved clinical trials, neuropathy patients have
consistently reportedsignificant pain relief following whole-plant cannabis
administration, even when it is administeredin especially small doses. A recent review
of a number of these trials, published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology,
concluded, [I]t is reasonable to consider cannabinoids as a treatment option for the
management of chronic neuropathic pain with evidence of efficacy in other types of
chronic pain such as fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis as well.
Separate clinical data, published in 2011 in the journal Clinical Pharmacology &
Therapeutics, further reportsthat cannabis administration possesses a synergistic
analgesic effect when used adjunctively with opiates. [This] combination may allow for
opioid treatment at lower doses with fewer side effects, authors theorized.
Other pain experts have made even stronger recommendations in favor of the use of
cannabis as either an adjunct treatment or a substitute for prescription painkillers. A
review appearing in 2012 in the Harm Reduction Journalacknowledges, Prescribing
cannabis in place of opioids for neuropathic pain may reduce the morbidity and
mortality rates associated with prescription pain medications and may be an effective
harm reduction strategy. It concludes, In states where medicinal cannabis is legal,
physicians who treat neuropathic pain with opioids should evaluate their patients for a
trial of cannabis and prescribe it when appropriate prior to using opioids.
Apparently, a growing number of pain physicians, and their patients, are now heeding
this advice.
Tags: Colleen L. Barry, medical marijuana, Paul Armentano
Beaten At Bus Stop ForActing Too Much Like AWhite Person
Obama Blames Children ForHostility To His AmnestyPlans
GOP Senators Split OnObama Amnesty
Atlanta Hawks Owner WillSell His Team Due To HisOwn Self-Reported RacistEmail
These Hot NFL Wives AndGirlfriends Are The PlayersReal Achievements[SLIDESHOW]8:43 AM 09/07/2014
Happy Birthday Pippa! SeeHer Most Beautiful Moments
[SLIDESHOW]9:31 AM 09/06/2014
Celebrate The Most-WantedWomen This Week[SLIDESHOW]9:20 PM 09/05/2014
Its Beyonces Birthday, SoHere Are Her HottestMoments [SLIDESHOW]1:10 AM 09/04/2014
The Ugliest Victorias SecretAngels [SLIDESHOW]10:55 PM 08/31/2014
Celebrate Cameron Diazs
Hottest Moments[SLIDESHOW]7:00 PM 08/31/2014
Jennifer Anistons HottestMoments [SLIDESHOW]4:09 PM 08/30/2014
The Hottest Women On TheInternet This Week[SLIDESHOW]10:42 PM 08/29/2014
These Hot Ladies Are ReadyFor Labor Day [SLIDESHOW]12:21 AM 08/29/2014
Celebrate Shania TwainsBirthday With Her HOTTESTMoments Ever [SLIDESHOW]11:05 PM 08/27/2014
Tweet
Share
For Pain? More Patients Are Saying Yes | The Daily Caller http://dailycaller.com/2014/09/05/pot-for-pain-more-patient
4 9/8/2014
8/11/2019 Pot for Pain_ More Patients Are Saying Yes _ the Daily Caller
3/4
11 Comments 1
TheRuleOfLaw
Big Pharma is one of the main lobbyists against legalization. From someone
who was confined to a wheelchair 10 years ago due to a back injury, I havebeen without a wheelchair now for 9 years. I even go snowboarding and
hiking. Thanks to the wonderful plant cannabis...:)
James Linthicum
NJ should not be included in this study. Thanks to the Govenhater, the MM
law is tantamount to fraud.
Nov-cubed
produce it in a pharmaceutical grade pill or the like,
8/11/2019 Pot for Pain_ More Patients Are Saying Yes _ the Daily Caller
4/4
SECTIONS
HOME
POLITICS
US
ENTERTAINMENT
SPORTS
BUSINESS
TECH
EDUCATION
OPINION
VIDEO
GUNS AND GEAR
BLOGS
JOBS
COLUMNS
ANN COULTER
ASK MATT LABASH
KAUSFILES
MATT LEWIS
THE MIRROR
DC TRAWLER
GINNI THOMAS
FOLLOW
GOOGLE+
RSS CORPORATE
ABOUT US
DAILY CALLER STORE
TERMS OF USE
PRIVACY POLICY
Copyright 2010 - 2014 The Daily Caller. Version 2.81
For Pain? More Patients Are Saying Yes | The Daily Caller http://dailycaller.com/2014/09/05/pot-for-pain-more-patient
4 9/8/2014