State Finally Looks at Science, Approves Use of Marijuana to Treat Opioid Addiction

 

Making illegal or banning arbitrary substances does nothing to curb  their use. In fact, as the increasingly deadly opioid crisis  illustrates, it makes matters far worse. What does help to foster  improvement, however, is when the state reverses prohibition. 

The most  recent state to figure this out is Pennsylvania, who just added opioid  addiction to the list of conditions for which it will allow people to  obtain marijuana. Of course, total legalization would be ideal. However, this move by  Pennsylvania lawmakers shows that the science can no longer be denied  and bureaucrats have to finally admit it. 

“We have expanded the number of serious medical conditions to include  neurodegenerative diseases, terminal illness, dyskinetic and spastic  movement disorders and opioid-use disorder,” Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Health, Dr. Rachel Levine, wrote Marijuana.com in an email. 

As Marijuana.com  reports, Levine said that while medical cannabis won’t necessarily be  the first or only substitute for other more established treatments in  opioid recovery, marijuana may prove to be a viable option for some. “We’re making medical marijuana available to patients if all other  treatments fail, or if a physician recommends that it can used in  conjunction with other traditional therapies,” Levine said. 

Although this is a very limited beginning, as attorney and director  of the Pittsburgh chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of  Marijuana Laws (NORML), Patrick Nightingale points out, this action is  going to save lives. “Dr. Levine chose not to subject the additional four medical conditions to a 90-day comment period,” he told Marijuana.com. 

 “No one expected it to happen with such speed, but this is all the  better for patients who are suffering. Indeed, the real game-changer  here is the decision to add opioid-use disorder to the list of  qualifying conditions.”

 On top of the immediate benefit to those addicted to opioids, adding  marijuana to the list of approved drugs for opioid addiction  also “enables research to be carried out on medical marijuana’s  effectiveness in treatment opioid-use disorder because only approved  conditions can be studied through our research program,” according to  Levine. 

Indeed, after this move, the Pennsylvania Department of Health has approved eight Pennsylvania universities as Certified Academic Clinical Research Centers that  will “help shape the future of treatment for patients who are in  desperate need not just here, but across the country,” Governor Tom Wolf  recently announced. 

This research will undoubtedly help to add to the ever-increasing  mountain of evidence showing that opioid addiction can be fought with  marijuana. 

As TFTP previously reported, in a recently published study in a  peer-reviewed journal, Melvin D. Livingston, Tracey E. Barnett, Chris  Delcher, and Alexander C. Wagenaar, set out to see if any association  existed between Colorado’s legalization of marijuana and opioid-related  deaths in the state. The researchers looked at all of the available data from the year  2000 to the year 2015.

What they discovered may come as a shock to many.  While the rest of the nation struggles with a burgeoning fatal opioid  and heroin overdose crisis, the State of Colorado saw opioid deaths  reduced while its population exploded. It has long been stated that cannabis is a “gateway” drug, which  leads users to experiment with other drugs, leading up to the most  deadly, such as heroin. But the researchers in the study published in  the American Journal of Public Health found that the availability of safe and legal cannabis actually reduced opiate deaths: 

“Colorado’s legalization of recreational cannabis sales  and use resulted in a 0.7 deaths per month…reduction in opioid-related  deaths. This reduction represents a reversal of the upward trend in opioid-related deaths in Colorado.”

The researchers concluded, “Legalization of cannabis in Colorado was associated with short-term reductions in opioid-related deaths.” It’s not just that study either. There were other studies showing that deaths from opioids plummet in states with legal cannabis, and that 80 percent of cannabis users give up prescription pills. 

A Feb. 2017 study confirmed that opioid dependence and overdoses dropped significantly in medical cannabis states. In January 2017, the National Academies of Science  published an exhaustive review of the scientific literature and found  that one of the most promising areas in medical cannabis is for the  treatment of chronic pain. As TFTP reported last year, a new experimental study showed exactly how cannabis works to treat actual opioid addiction – by actually blocking the opioid reward in the brain. 

“This study sought to determine whether the cannabis  constituent cannabidiol attenuates the development of morphine reward in  the conditioned place preference paradigm. Separate groups of mice  received either saline or morphine in combination with one of four doses  of cannabidiol using three sets of drug/no-drug conditioning trials.  After drug-place conditioning, morphine mice displayed robust place  preference that was attenuated by 10 mg/kg cannabidiol. Further, when  administered alone, this dose of cannabidiol was void of rewarding and  aversive properties. The finding that cannabidiol blocks opioid reward  suggests that this compound may be useful in addiction treatment  settings.”

Those who continue denying the evidence, while continuing to lock  people in cages for a plant, will ultimately be judged by history. They  will not be the heroes they claim to be now, however, they will be  remembered as the ones responsible for mass incarceration, fostering the  police state, and dealing a near-death blow to freedom.