Hundreds of people in Massachusetts who are addicted to opioids are being treated with medical marijuana, according to the Boston Herald.

 

“We have a statewide epidemic of opioid deaths,” said Dr. Gary Witman of Canna Care Docs, a network of facilities that qualifies patients into medical marijuana programs in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, Delaware and the District of Columbia. “As soon as we can get people off opioids to a nonaddicting substance — and medicinal marijuana is nonaddicting — I think it would dramatically impact the amount of opioid deaths.”

 

Witman, who works in a Massachusetts Canna Care clinic, has treated about 80 patients who were addicted to opioids, anti-anxiety medication or muscle relaxers with cannabis through a one-month tapering program. More than three-quarters of patients stopped taking the harder drugs, he told the newspaper.

 

Witman said cannabis can be a safer alternative for managing the symptoms patients had been using opioids to treat, such as chronic pain or anxiety.

 

Another Massachusetts physician, Dr. Harold Altvater, said he has also successfully used medical marijuana as a substitute for other medications. “You are basically taking something that can be very harmful for an individual, and substituting it with another chemical, just like you would any other drug, that has a wider safety margin,” he said. “So if the goal is to decrease the body count … the goal would be to get them on to a chemical that was safer.”

 

Some doctors say cannabis substitution therapy needs extensive followup. “It might be an exit drug for some, or an entry drug for others,” said Dr. Anil Kumar. “If you don’t have a way of monitoring this patient who is saying ‘give me marijuana and I will stop taking narcotics,’ they may do both.”

 

Opioid Addiction Being Treated With Medical Marijuana in Massachusetts - Partnership for Drug-Free Kids

In mid-July, he and Ashley C. Bradford, his co-researcher and daughter, published one of the more compelling studies about medical marijuana to date. Theirreport, which ran in the journal Health Affairs, looked at data on prescriptions filled by Medicare enrollees from 2010 to 2013—and found that older people who qualified for Medicare were, where appropriate, making use of medical pot. Not only that, they also found that when states legalized medical marijuana, prescriptions dropped significantly for painkillers and other drugs for which pot may be an alternative. Doctors in a state where marijuana was legal prescribed an average of 1,826 fewer doses of painkillers per year.

 

Medical Marijuana for Painkiller and Opioid Epidemic

^I'd like to know more about those studies. With all due respect to the publisher, I'm skeptical of research without knowing the source, the funding, and the parameters. (forgive my pessimism, but seems "Canna Care Docs" might have financial gain in the outcome of the study) But if this indeed could curb the heroin epidemic I'd be all for that.

Hmm, the almighty dollar reigns supreme and no oversight on how drug companies market narcotics. I'm sure someone smarter than I am can speak more intelligently to the alleged link between the pill problem and the heroin problem, but I sure wish someone had the nuts to gain some oversight and control of drug companies (and insurance companies). But that would take money out of a politicians pocket, so..

 

Give this a read:

 

Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic

 

The rise of OxyContin addiction and subsequent heroin use has been much in the news lately as we try to make sense of what is happening in suburban and small town America. Sam Quinones’ Dreamland takes a multifaceted approach to the subject, profiling people from all walks of life, ranging from citizens of impoverished Mexican ranchos to young affluent white athletes, all cogs in the wheel of the latest drug epidemic. Unlike the crack cocaine phenomenon of the 1980s, today’s widespread opiate addiction has roots in the prescription pads of certified physicians and the marketing machine of Big Pharma. When the addict, forced by availability and economics, transitions to heroin he is met by a new breed of entrepreneurial drug dealers who are only too happy to take calls and make deliveries. The changing landscape of small town America, along with science, opportunity, shame, and of course greed, all play a role here and to see the puzzle come together, one comprehensible piece at a time, is as fascinating as it is unsettling

Give this a read:

 

Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic

I think I'll do that. Thanks

Give this a read:

 

Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic

 

What you posted looks like what we have already covered.

^I'd like to know more about those studies. With all due respect to the publisher, I'm skeptical of research without knowing the source, the funding, and the parameters. (forgive my pessimism, but seems "Canna Care Docs" might have financial gain in the outcome of the study) But if this indeed could curb the heroin epidemic I'd be all for that.

 

Me too Doc.

 

That is the problem, the Federal Government is standing in the way.

 

And for what it is worth, one of those links is Time.com.