Rachel
Blevins is a Texas-based journalist who aspires to break the
left/right paradigm in media and politics by pursuing truth and
questioning existing narratives.
The pharmaceutical and
alcohol industries, both powerful influences in Washington, have
long lobbied against cannabis legalization in order to protect their
profits.
The recent study
(Cannabis
as a Substitute for Opioid-Based Pain Medication - Patient
Self-Report)
is lending credibility to the idea that medical
cannabis can be used as a natural alternative to prescription pain
medications, with nearly 100 percent of respondents saying they
believe cannabis is helping them decrease their use of prescription opioids to treat the pain.
The study, which was conducted by
HelloMD, one of the largest
medical cannabis communities in the nation, and University of
California Berkley, surveyed nearly 3,000 patients who use both
opioid and non-opioid based pain medication.
The
results of the study concluded that,
97 percent of respondents
"strongly agreed/agreed" that
they could decrease use of their opioid medications when using
cannabis
92 percent
of respondents said that they "strongly agreed/agreed"
that they prefer cannabis to treat
their medical condition
81 percent of
respondents said they "strongly
agreed/agreed" that using cannabis alone was more effective
than taking cannabis with opioids
Use of cannabis as a
substitute/in conjunction
with opioid-based
pain medication
(PRNewsfoto/HelloMD)
While cannabis is
only
legalized for medicinal use in 26 states and the District of
Columbia, 93 percent of
respondents said they "strongly
agreed/agreed" that they would use cannabis as a substitute for
their current prescription medication if it was available.
Dr. Perry
Solomon, Chief Medical Officer of HelloMD, referenced a recent
publication from the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering &
Medicine on "The Health Effect of Cannabis and Cannabinoids," and
noted that this study serves as a way to support the theory that
cannabis is the opposite of a gateway drug.
"The latest publication from the
National Academy of Sciences clearly refuted the 'gateway drug'
theory that using marijuana can lead to opioid addiction,
instead finding evidence of cannabis having multiple curative
benefits," Dr. Solomon
said.
"Our study further substantiates
this. Hopefully this will awaken the public, medical
professionals and legislatures to the fact that cannabis is a
safe, non-addictive product, available to help fight the opioid
epidemic."
Amanda Reiman,
a professor at UC Berkley who helped lead the study, said the
treatment of pain has become a "politicized
business" in the United States that has resulted in "the
rapidly rising rate of opioid related overdoses and dependence."
"Cannabis has been used throughout
the world for thousands of years to treat pain and other
physical and mental health conditions,"
Reiman said.
"Patients have been telling us for
decades that this practice is producing better outcomes than the
use of opioid based medications.
It's past time for the medical
profession to get over their reefer madness and start working
with the medical cannabis movement and industry to slow down the
destruction being caused by the over prescribing and overuse of
opioids."
As we reported,
despite the fact that cannabis has been proven to help with a number
of things from
killing cancer cells to
treating rare and fatal conditions, it is still classified among
the deadliest drugs that are supposed to have no medicinal value in
the United States.
While studies such
as the latest one from HelloMD and UC Berkley serve as a reminder
that for many patients, cannabis is the ideal alternative to opioid
medications, there is still a clear reason why cannabis has yet to
be legalized in the U.S.
If medical cannabis was legalized in
all 50 states, it would take at least
$4.5 billion away from the stranglehold that has been
established by Big Pharma...
