# painkiller deaths drop 25% in states with medical marijuana



## burnin1 (Jun 15, 2015)

From naturalnews.com


*Pharmaceutical painkiller deaths drop 25% in states with medical marijuana according to study*

Ethan A. Huff, staff writer







(NaturalNews) Groundbreaking research published in the respected journal _JAMA Internal Medicine_ has revealed new benefits to the denouement of marijuana prohibition throughout the U.S. It turns out that states where medical cannabis use is no longer a criminal offense are reporting substantially fewer deaths associated with pharmaceutical painkiller use, suggesting that more people in legalized states are turning to the safe cannabis herb for pain relief rather than Big Pharma's death pills.

The study, which compares the number of pharmaceutical-related deaths in the 13 states where medical marijuana was legal prior to 2010 to states where medical marijuana is still prohibited, reveals that legal cannabis states have a 25 percent lower rate of opioid mortality. Factored out, this equates to about 1,729 fewer painkiller deaths in 2010 alone in states where medical patients have access to the cannabis herb as a pharmaceutical alternative.

While opioid-related deaths still increased across the board among all U.S. states during the time period studied, those states with legal cannabis saw a substantially smaller increase, signifying a major public health benefit to "freeing the weed." Rather than having to take deadly opioid drugs like Percocet or OxyContin for chronic pain, medical marijuana users can take advantage of top-shelf cannabis strains that provide better pain relief with no harmful side effects.

The study, led by researchers from both the University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins University, also found that as many as 60 percent of all deaths resulting from opioid analgesic overdoses occur in patients who take them as directed with legitimate prescriptions. This illustrates the inherent dangers of these drugs - dangers that are not present with cannabis use.

"Results reveal that on average, the 13 states allowing the use of medical marijuana had a 24.8 percent lower annual opioid overdose mortality rate after the laws were enacted than states without the laws, indicating that the alternative treatment may be safer for patients suffering from chronic pain related to cancer and other conditions," report the researchers.

*Pharmaceuticals: the real "gateway" drug killing Americans*

As far as marijuana's designation by some as a "gateway" drug that eventually leads to the use of harder drugs - although it's important to note here that cannabis isn't actually a drug; it's an herb - the data suggests the opposite: pharmaceuticals are the real gateway drugs that lead people to use harder drugs like heroin.

This was definitely the case for the late actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who revealed prior to his death that he had slipped back into his heroin habit after more than two decades of being clean. His gateway drug wasn't cannabis; it was the very same prescription painkillers that are handed out to millions of people who suffer from chronic pain.

"There's been a threefold increase in the prescription of strong painkillers since 1999, and the drugs now kill more people than car crashes," writes Olga Khazan for _The Atlantic_. "The pills are highly addictive, and when combined with alcohol or other substances, they can be lethal."

Americans who continue to cling to outmoded propaganda about the supposed dangers of cannabis need to face the facts. The real substances of concern in this country are Big Pharma poisons, many of which are derived from plants like cannabis but altered for patent and profit purposes, rendering many of them dangerous.

"Prescription drug abuse and deaths due to overdose have emerged as national public health crises," says Colleen L. Barry, an associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health and senior author of the study.

"As our awareness of the addiction and overdose risks associated with use of opioid painkillers such as Oxycontin and Vicodin grows, individuals with chronic pain and their medical providers may be opting to treat pain entirely or in part with medical marijuana, in states where this is legal."

*Sources:*

http://www.theatlantic.com

http://www.uphs.upenn.edu 

http://hub.jhu.edu

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/049671_m...iption_painkillers_opioids.html#ixzz3d7UdP2J1


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## zem (Jun 15, 2015)

awesome! nothing is more scientifically conclusive than statistics, it is not a lab rat trial, it is an actual calculation of the effect on a population. this must be all over the news


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## yooper420 (Jun 15, 2015)

Finally some of the good news concerning cannabis is hitting the main stream media. These are the stories that need to get out to the major outlets. These are the stories that the populace need to read. It will happen, but it is up to us to make it happen.


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## Rosebud (Jun 15, 2015)

Yes!


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## kaotik (Jun 15, 2015)

zem said:


> awesome! nothing is more scientifically conclusive than statistics, it is not a lab rat trial, it is an actual calculation of the effect on a population. this must be all over the news



one of the headlines on my local news this morning: "doctors warn of new 'dabbing' ingestion of marijuana"


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## zem (Jun 17, 2015)

kaotik said:


> one of the headlines on my local news this morning: "doctors warn of new 'dabbing' ingestion of marijuana"



yeah i saw that coming so i began my hopeless suicide attempts by dabbing, it never worked lol


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## WeedHopper (Jun 17, 2015)

They have known this for yrs what pain pills are doing. Hell Soccer Moms are turning to Heron because of Pain Killers. ITS ALL ABOUT THE MONEY,,period.


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## yarddog (Jun 17, 2015)

WeedHopper said:


> They have known this for yrs what pain pills are doing. Hell Soccer Moms are turning to Heron because of Pain Killers. ITS ALL ABOUT THE MONEY,,period.


That can't be it, or the government would make those bad pills illegal!!!   
Just kidding, I've seen it myself. They put some serious stuff in some of these little innocent pills.


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## WeedHopper (Jun 17, 2015)

I was on the Basterds after i got shot. I hate those freaken pills. They jacked my System all to hell. And after i stopped taking them i was a mess for a couple weeks.,,,but felt like a new man.


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## tcbud (Jun 17, 2015)

This is some positive research.  I must say though, I have chronic pain and MJ does not cut through as the Pharma pain killers do.  I take the least amount when I absolutely have to.  I spent three years taking them every day and do not want to do that again.  I admit it was not a huge amount daily, but without them, I would not have been able to function.  When I got my hip replaced, as soon as I was healed, I was off them.  Now the other hip is getting to the point I am compelled to take them occasionally and the future holds taking them more until the hip gets to the point I can not walk.  MJ is not the be all end all for pain killing in my opinion.  It can surely help as in the cases of the above article and in the cases of muscle relaxation and appetite stimulation.  I am so happy less deaths are happening because of the Medical MJ laws.  I am for flat out legalization across the nation myself, on the federal level.

The above are my opinions, gained from my own experience with pain.


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## WeedHopper (Jun 17, 2015)

Agreed,,,sometimes they are absolutely necessary.


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## David_willis (Jun 18, 2015)

Now everybody got the fact that marijuana is much less toxic than opiates like Percocet or morphine, and that it is basically impossible to overdose with marijuana...


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## zem (Jun 19, 2015)

tcbud said:


> This is some positive research.  I must say though, I have chronic pain and MJ does not cut through as the Pharma pain killers do.  I take the least amount when I absolutely have to.  I spent three years taking them every day and do not want to do that again.  I admit it was not a huge amount daily, but without them, I would not have been able to function.  When I got my hip replaced, as soon as I was healed, I was off them.  Now the other hip is getting to the point I am compelled to take them occasionally and the future holds taking them more until the hip gets to the point I can not walk.  MJ is not the be all end all for pain killing in my opinion.  It can surely help as in the cases of the above article and in the cases of muscle relaxation and appetite stimulation.  I am so happy less deaths are happening because of the Medical MJ laws.  I am for flat out legalization across the nation myself, on the federal level.
> 
> The above are my opinions, gained from my own experience with pain.


many types of physical pains and illnesses cannot be healed with MJ, it is not the magic drug that cures everything, however, many types of mental illnesses can be treated with simple marijuana instead of complex chemicals but those chemicals are prescribed daily and causing people either to die instantly, or to die slowly because of them. 
i had this old time friend, since he was a kid, he was brilliant, only thing he was so hyper active and he was diagnosed with something related to hyperactivity and was put on meds early on. I can recall very well how those meds failed miserably in treating his disorder, as he always suffered from it when he was on them, and higher doses and changes in types of drugs were constantly being prescribed to him. as an adolescent he began smoking pot, and he loved it lol i mean he loved it more than anything, and soon he became the wake n bake, and then he sometimes forgot to take the meds but he felt much better. luckily his doc was a man of conscience, he acknowledged that if smoking alone was treating him, then he should cut the meds and so he did. more amazingly, after many years of smoking heavily, one day in his 30's he quit weed for a long period like 7 months, but his old time mental illness never surfaced back, he was healed yay! if he had stayed on meds, he would have been hooked for a lifetime


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