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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPainkiller Deaths Drop By 25% in Medical Marijuana States
Marijuana advocates have long known that the holy plant can be a great replacement for other types of addiction that come with the use of more dangerous substances like OxyContin, heroin or alcohol. A study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, a scholarly journal, now provides further evidence of the good marijuana legalization can do. The study shows how opioid overdoses have declined in 13 medical marijuana states.
According to the study reported on by Newsweek on Monday,
America has a major problem with prescription pain medications like Vicodin and OxyContin. Overdose deaths from these pharmaceutical opioids have approximately tripled since 1991, and every day 46 people die of such overdoses in the United States.
However, opposed to the rest of Americas increased rates, in the 13 states that passed medical marijuana laws prior to 2010, opioid overdoses declined by 24.8%. Those states were California (1996), Oregon (1998), Washington (1998), Alaska (1998), Maine (1998), Colorado (2000), Hawaii (2000), Nevada (2000), Montana (2004), Vermont (2004), Rhode Island (2006), New Mexico (2007) and Michigan (2008).
The article goes on to point out that the reduction in overdoses is not necessarily linked to a substitution of marijuana for opioids, but like we continually note, it certainly makes a great replacement. And it sounds about right.
http://marijuana.com/news/2014/08/painkiller-deaths-drop-by-25-in-medical-marijuana-states/
grahamhgreen
(15,741 posts)UglyGreed
(7,661 posts)types of pain??? Are you willing to have an operation and have the nurse hand you a joint afterwards?
grahamhgreen
(15,741 posts)UglyGreed
(7,661 posts)chatting with a person who many doctors are amazed by my tolerance to pain.
Beaverhausen
(24,466 posts)you know what I meant......
UglyGreed
(7,661 posts)also just get drunk.
Beaverhausen
(24,466 posts)well, not an effective one anyway.
My husband has herniated discs in his back and uses MJ in addition to his pain management meds, which he can take far less of.
UglyGreed
(7,661 posts)icon lead to my remark, it was not appropriate. Glad your husband is allowed to use what he feels is best for him.
UglyGreed
(7,661 posts)is easiest and cheapest way to use MJJ which many people who suffer from chronic pain also suffer from lack of funds. This why the law that they just passed in NY stinks.
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)... that deals mostly with the pain (and all those other goodies, of course).
- But the CBD does help. It does a whole lot of other great things too. Like curing cancer.....
[center]Cannabis compound profile videos -- SC Labs.
Study: CBD Inhibits Brain Cancer Through Multiple Pathways
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grahamhgreen
(15,741 posts)UglyGreed
(7,661 posts)trade in your pain medication for pot?
madokie
(51,076 posts)I don't like pain meds but I like to function at some level except rolled up in a ball crying so I take the pain meds. I had to quit the pot smoking in order to keep the pain meds coming. If we had medical marijuana I'd drop the pain meds so fast it would make your head spin but we don't and probably won't in my life time. I really don't want to check out of this world in prison or broke so I gave up the pot.
Pot is a good pain med for Peripheral Neuropathy of which I have but don't tell the politicians that because they might have to rethink their stance on medical marijuana
UglyGreed
(7,661 posts)and it really did nothing for my pain. Never mind the constant headaches I suffer from. Pot is not one size fits all and anyone who says it is misinformed.
Mariana
(14,847 posts)Many people can't take them at all because of allergies and/or side effects.
People who are suffering from pain should take whatever works best for them. The government should not be in the business of preventing them from doing so.
UglyGreed
(7,661 posts)thank you for the reply.
madokie
(51,076 posts)for me it sure works though. I've never had a head ache from smoking pot either
UglyGreed
(7,661 posts)from Hydrocephalus AKA water on the brain which no one can tell me how it happened, perhaps being undertreated for pain???
cali
(114,904 posts)I have a mess of stuff going on in my left foot and leg as a result of having shattered it 3 years ago- CRPS which is neuro-vascular, traumatic arthritis and nerve damage- not to mention the pain from from multiple rods, pins and plates.
UglyGreed
(7,661 posts)not want you lose ANYTHING that might give you some relief, be it pot, opiates, Serotonin, Corticosteroids and Tricyclic Antidepressants which I have tried and the one with least amount of side effects was the opiate. For example Celebrex was one the first medications I took and within a year I developed a hiatal hernia. Never mind having to go to be tested for AIDS, Hepatitis and other diseases when my former pain management doctor was too cheap to use fresh needles. I may never find relief but I don't want anyone to go down the road I have traveled.
cali
(114,904 posts)sympathetic nerve blocks to multiple drugs. For me, opiates, used judiciously, have been the most effective. But beyond that, I think exercise, diet and meditation have been even more important
Dustlawyer
(10,493 posts)they tried. Pot works on neuropathy very well, but special interests like the police, Big Pharma, and Alcohol Lobby's influence keep it illegal to make more money!
UglyGreed
(7,661 posts)from quitting pain management and going back to using marijuana? You made the choice of giving up MJJ and go to pain management which IMO tells me that pot wasn't working too well at the time.
madokie
(51,076 posts)and I'm 66 years old too damn old to continue to worry with a bust and winding up in jail or losing what we've been working for these last 25 years.
I had to quit the pot to continue to get the meds.
UglyGreed
(7,661 posts)so in the best scenario you would use both if the laws would allow. It's a crying shame.
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)Though in general, I prefer to simply tough it out. I remember after I had my appendix out, they hooked me up to an opioid-delivering pump and told me to press the button to self-deliver painkiller. I don't recall ever pressing the button, in part because I didn't want to get charged for extra meds.
But if I had chronic pain, I might be open to using 'chronic' as relief.
UglyGreed
(7,661 posts)done that.
UglyGreed
(7,661 posts)hard to tough it our for over twenty years. Studies show that when pain goes untreated it actually can cause brain damage. I toughed it out for ten years before I started taking ANY medication for the pain. Now that I look back it may be the very reason I suffer so much today.
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)between acute (appendix extraction) and chronic pain. If there's something out there that chronic pain sufferers can use that isn't an opioid, more power to them.
UTUSN
(70,494 posts)"For when a woman is giving birth or when a man breaks a limb."
UTUSN
(70,494 posts)If this can be used as an alternate for some people, fantastic.
I still want the nice, hefty painkillers available for use, however--never throw a valid weapon away just because it has some problems. And some people are not going to respond to pot, or tolerate it well, just like I don't do well on codeine for acute pain.
Iggo
(47,486 posts)Right?
Right?
madokie
(51,076 posts)Crazy ain't it
riversedge
(69,708 posts)madokie
(51,076 posts)Thats what makes this place so good. As we each find something of interest we can share it with our fellow DU'rs. In the end we're all better equipped to handle the days ups and downs, ins and outs.
wyldwolf
(43,865 posts)Kaleva
(36,145 posts)From the article in the OP:
"However, opposed to the rest of Americas increased rates, in the 13 states that passed medical marijuana laws prior to 2010, opioid overdoses declined by 24.8%. Those states were California (1996), Oregon (1998), Washington (1998), Alaska (1998), Maine (1998), Colorado (2000), Hawaii (2000), Nevada (2000), Montana (2004), Vermont (2004), Rhode Island (2006), New Mexico (2007) and Michigan (2008)."
http://marijuana.com/news/2014/08/painkiller-deaths-drop-by-25-in-medical-marijuana-states/
From an article discussing an increase in heroin use in Michigan:
"Recent statistics from the Michigan Department of Community Health show heroin overdose deaths in Michigan increased from 271 in the four-year period of 1999 to 2002 to 728 between 2010 and 2012."
http://woodtv.com/2014/07/20/michigan-heroin-use-od-deaths-increase/
fizzgig
(24,146 posts)we also have one of the highest rates of painkiller abuse.
Kaleva
(36,145 posts)and this is why overdoses from prescriptions drugs are dropping.
malaise
(267,791 posts)Big Pharma must be in pain
AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)I think MJ has an important rile to play.
However, this is a misleading stat. DOJ has been cracking down on oxy and the ilk. People are getting off pills and going to heroin. Thus, legal painkiller deaths go down, heroin deaths up.
The is not a cure for cancer. Or addiction. But MJ is pretty benign.
daredtowork
(3,732 posts)I'm not sure if my condition qualifies, but I also can't take most standard pain relievers, and frankly I'm just curious if medical marijuana works. Also my area just voted to make it free for for low income people. I find it kind of astounding that they don't address the housing crisis and the fact social services has no program to supply basic necessities beyond food, but they will pony up for free weed. But it is what it is.
I've never smoked or done any drugs beyond what has been prescribed to me. I've avoided both narcotics and opiates because I already have a lot of fatigue, and I didn't want to be sleepy during the day.
The neural-based medications I take now work somewhat, but not completely. I'd like to try something additional. Maybe there's an alternative to smoking and brownies. I heard in Washington, D.C. they mixed marijuana into some sort of drink...? Maybe there will be a weed cafe here, and I can see if those drinks do anything for me.