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People do turn to weed when it is legal [1]: "The researchers found that doctors in a state where marijuana is legal ended up prescribing an average of 1,826 f
by tominous 10y ago
People do turn to weed when it is legal [1]:
"The researchers found that doctors in a state where marijuana is legal ended up prescribing an average of 1,826 fewer doses of painkillers per year"
[1] http://time.com/4404697/marijuana-opioid-epidemic/ http://time.com/4404697/marijuana-opioid-epidemic/
- fragmede 10y agoMoreover, certain types of marijuana do a superlative good job of providing non-opiod relief from chronic pain and aren't psychoactive, so in the same way you or a co-worker might have some Tylenol if they're feeling physical pain while at the office, you or a co-worker could use marijuana to manage chronic pain, without their mental state being noticably altered. That's not to say marijuana cannot be abused nor is it a silver bullet, but in the middle of an opioid epidemic, holy shit, maybe something many people are illegally using to manage chronic pain without causing an epidemic; maybe it might be worth studying? The vast majority of users continue to be productive members of society; judging by the number of states that have legalized marijuana, we should be in the middle of a marijuana crisis compared to opioids, yet no such crisis exists. Yet the DEA classifies marijuana as having zero medical benefit, which makes it almost impossible, practically speaking, to study properly.
- akjainaj 10y ago"an average of 1,826 fewer doses" is what percent?
- xkcd-sucks 10y ago5 patients dosed once per day... Not a lot?
- akjainaj 10y agoYes, but without knowing what the total number of prescriptions is... it could be 50%, or 0.005% By the way, props to your nick :)
- tominous 10y agoFrom eyeballing exhibits 2 and 3 in the paper, it looks like pain medication doses dropped 5-10%. That seems like a lot in only a couple of years.