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Opioid Abuse Drops In States With Legal Cannabis

  • April 04, 2017

In a clear vindication of medical marijuana, Housely reports that a new study shows that opioid abuse — and its subsequent hospital visits — dropped in states where cannabis is legal for medical purposes. The study looked at discharge records for the 27 states with databases that contained enough information to do a fair before-and-after comparison.

This highlights the frustration that many people feel in states where medical cannabis is not an option. This is a vastly underutilized therapeutic option that basically is tied up by bureaucratic efforts to keep medical marijuana on the Schedule I controlled substance list — right along with drugs like heroin, LSD, Ecstasy, methaqualone and peyote.

Marijuana received this label in 1970 when the Controlled Substance Act was enacted. This act labeled marijuana as a drug with a "high potential for abuse" and "no accepted medical use" — the latter of which is being increasingly disproven. That’s why, in an apparent direct disregard for the truth, cannabidiol (CBD) has also been reclassified as a Schedule 1 controlled substance, despite having no psychoactive component, meaning it cannot render you “high” and therefore has little potential for abuse.

Another point is that when the plant is unheated, meaning raw, it actually does not have THC in it, so when you eat it raw, you’re getting relief from pain and spasms without the “high.” A number of doctors have become proponents of using raw cannabinoid as a dietary supplement. The hard facts are there is no fatal toxicity associated with cannabis, so the idea of making this safe opioid alternative inaccessible is ludicrous.