More than 2.5 million Americans are addicted to opioid drugs (heroin and prescription painkillers), and opioid overdoses killed more than 50,000 people in 2016. Some medical experts and addiction specialists say marijuana could combat this crisis, citing evidence that cannabis can help addicts wean themselves off opioids. But others say there isn’t enough scientific research to support that claim. Many recovery experts oppose addicts using any intoxicant, and say cannabis just replaces one drug addiction with another. What do you think?
Researchers say there are several ways medical marijuana could combat the opioid crisis. Giving people with chronic pain medical marijuana instead of dangerously addictive prescription drugs could prevent many people from becoming addicted to opioids in the first place.
But marijuana research in the U.S. has been hampered by the federal government’s classification of the drug as a Schedule I substance, on par with LSD and heroin. Advocates say the real reason there aren’t studies showing definitive evidence that cannabis can help people recover from opioid addiction is because we’re really not allowed to study it. With deaths from synthetic opioids up 73 percent in just the last year, many say it’s time for the addiction community to adjust its stance on pot.
The politicization of medical cannabis and decades of misinformation about the drug contribute to hardened and inaccurate stereotypes about how medical marijuana can be used.
credit:silive.com
