Painkiller Deaths Drop 25% In States That Legalized Marijuana

 A woman observes inspects a cannabis plant with a magnifying glass

Researchers analyzed all deaths caused by opioid overdoses between 1999 and 2010 in the U.S. Then, they determined the association between medical cannabis laws and opioid analgesic-related deaths using linear time-series regression models.
The various models helped the researchers determine that in every state that legalized medical marijuana between the aforementioned years (a total of 13 states), there was a 25% reduction in deaths related to the overdose of legally prescribed painkillers.

“The difference is quite striking,” said Colleen Barry, the study’s co-author and health policy researcher at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.
It is hypothesized by the researchers that in states where medical marijuana is legal, patients are opting to smoke cannabis to alleviate their pain rather than consume prescription opiates, as the latter tend to cause side effects. In addition, marijuana accounts for 0 deaths per year, whereas overdose of opiates are responsible for over 14,000 deaths annually (source).
While the statistics speak volumes, however not everyone  agrees with the findings. Dr. Andrew Kolodny, chief medical officer at the national nonprofit addiction treatment agency Phoenix House, says that the immediate reduction in overdose deaths is extremely unlikely to be a result of the herb being substituted. This, he says, is because physicians rarely prescribe marijuana for chronic pain.

source://www.mintpressnews.com