Prescription
Painkiller Deaths Fall in Medical Marijuana States
September 10, 2014
Story at-a-glance
In states where medical marijuana is legal, overdose deaths
from opioids like morphine, oxycodone, and heroin decreased
by an average of 20 percent after one year, 25 percent after
two years and up to 33 percent by years five and six
While prescription painkillers were responsible for 16,600
deaths in 2010, one study found “little, if any effect of
marijuana use on… mortality in men and… women”
There is a wealth of research linking marijuana with pain
relief; in one study, just three puffs of marijuana a day
for five days helped those with chronic nerve pain to
relieve pain and sleep better
Marijuana is classified as a Schedule 1 controlled substance
and labeled as a drug with a "high potential for abuse" and
"no accepted medical use," which clearly is not an accurate
description
Oxycodone, fentanyl, and meperidine (Demerol), which are
among the most commonly abused opioids and leading causes of
opioid overdose deaths, are Schedule II drugs, meaning they
should technically be less dangerous than marijuana, which
is not the case
By Dr. Mercola
A new study found that deaths from opioid overdoses have fallen
sharply in the 23 US states where medical marijuana is now legal.
Coincidence? Not likely.
For those with chronic pain, medical marijuana can be life
changing, allowing a safer, natural form of treatment than the
conventionally recommended pain-relieving drugs called opioids.
There is a wealth of research linking marijuana with pain relief.
In one study, just three puffs of marijuana a day for five days
helped those with chronic nerve pain to relieve pain and sleep
better.1
Meanwhile, deaths from prescription opioid overdoses are
skyrocketing with little sign of stopping… except in areas where
people in pain have access to marijuana instead.
Medical Marijuana States See Significant Drop in Opioid Deaths
In states where medical marijuana is legal, overdose deaths from
opioids like morphine, oxycodone, and heroin decreased by an average
of 20 percent after one year, 25 percent after two years and up to
33 percent by years five and six.2
As the researchers explained:3
"Medical cannabis laws are associated with significantly
lower state-level opioid overdose mortality rates. Opioid
analgesic overdose mortality continues to rise in the United
States, driven by increases in prescribing for chronic pain.
Because chronic pain is a major indication for medical
cannabis, laws that establish access to medical cannabis may
change overdose mortality related to opioid analgesics in states
that have enacted them…"
According to 2010 data, there were enough narcotic painkillers
being prescribed in the US to medicate every single adult, around
the clock, for a month.4
By 2012, a whopping 259 million prescriptions for opioids and other
narcotic painkillers were written in the US,
5 which equates to 82.5 prescriptions for every 100
Americans. And those narcotics are responsible for 46 deaths each
and every day...
While critics of medical marijuana (which, by the way, are in the
minority, as 85-95 percent of Americans are in
favor of medical cannabis, and 58-59 percent are in favor of
legalizing marijuana) point out its risks, they pale in comparison
to those of opioids. While some do become addicted, or at least
dependent, on marijuana, it is far less addictive than prescription
opioids.
Many people find themselves addicted to painkillers before they
even realize what's happened, often after taking the drugs to
recover from surgery or treat chronic back, or other, pain.
The drugs work by binding to receptors in your brain to decrease
the perception of pain. But they also create a temporary feeling of
euphoria, followed by dysphoria, which can easily lead to physical
dependence and addiction.
This may drive some people to take larger doses in order to
regain the euphoric effect, or escape the unhappiness caused by
withdrawal. Others find they need to continue taking the drugs not
only to reduce withdrawal symptoms but to simply feel normal.
Large doses of the painkillers can cause sedation and slowed
breathing to the point that breathing stops altogether, resulting in
death.
Marijuana is also said to be a "gateway" drug for more dangerous
drugs like heroin, which is ironic since opioids – not marijuana –
are chemically similar to heroin, and virtually indistinguishable as
far as your brain is concerned. And, prescription painkillers – not
marijuana – have recently been tagged as
gateway drugs to heroin…
Why Was Marijuana Declared a Schedule 1 Substance in the First
Place?
Marijuana was a popular botanical medicine in the 19th and early
20th centuries, common in US pharmacies of the time. By the
mid-1930s, cannabis was regulated as a drug in every state.
In 1970, the Controlled Substance Act was enacted and changed its
classification to a Schedule 1 controlled substance. This act
labeled cannabis as a drug with a "high potential for abuse" and "no
accepted medical use," which clearly is not an accurate description.
Other Schedule 1 drugs include heroin, LSD, Ecstasy,
methaqualone, and peyote. In 1973, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)
was formed to enforce the newly created drug schedules, and the
fight against marijuana use began.
Even in states where medical marijuana use is legal, such as
California, the DEA has raided medical marijuana suppliers and even
arrested patients, because on a federal level, possessing or
distributing marijuana is still considered a criminal offense.
Oxycodone, fentanyl, and meperidine (Demerol), which are among
the most commonly abused opioids and leading causes of opioid
overdose deaths, are Schedule II drugs, meaning they should
technically be less dangerous than marijuana, a notion that
is easily dismissed.
While prescription painkillers were responsible for 16,600 deaths
in 2010, one study found "little, if any effect of marijuana use on…
mortality in men and… women."6
Meanwhile, until recently certain opioid prescription drugs such as
Vicodin were classified as Schedule III substances, which
are defined as "drugs with a moderate to low potential for physical
and psychological dependence."
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) only recently
recommended tighter controls on painkiller prescriptions, and has
announced its intention to reclassify hydrocodone-containing
painkillers from Schedule III to Schedule II drugs. The
reclassification will affect how hydrocodone-containing drugs can be
prescribed and refilled.
Doctors will only be allowed to prescribe a 90-day supply of the
drug per prescription, and they will no longer be permitted to phone
in refills. Rather, the patient has to bring the prescription with
them to the pharmacy. The new regulations are expected to take
effect sometime this year.
Ironically enough, while talking about the need for stricter
controls and less addictive painkillers, the FDA recently approved
the first drug containing pure hydrocodone for the US
market, called Zohydro ER (Zogenix). All other
hydrocodone-containing painkillers on the market are mixed with
other non-addictive ingredients.
Marijuana Treatment Is Likely Far Safer Than Heroin/Opioid-Based
Drugs
There's no doubt that marijuana needs to be rescheduled, and Dr.
Allan Frankel, a board-certified internist in California who has
treated patients with medical cannabis for the past seven years,
actually thinks marijuana should be de-scheduled altogether, as a
plant really does not belong on any schedule of a
controlled substance.
The federal government, meanwhile, wants to get rid of all
medical use of marijuana, which of course begs the question:
Why? According to Dr. Frankel, the answer is simple. "They want
it. This is a huge market," he says. And yes, medical cannabis is
clearly competition to the pharmaceutical industry, as the cannabis
plant can take the place of a wide variety of synthetic drugs,
especially for mood and anxiety disorders. The last thing they want
is a therapy that's going to take away from their bottom line.
Certain forms of cannabis are very potent medicine, with few or
no psychoactive effects, courtesy of high amounts (about 10-20
percent) of cannabidiol (CBD), critical levels of medicinal
terpenes, and flavonoids, as well as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in
varying ratios for various diseases (the higher the THC, the more
pronounced its psychoactive effects). In his medical practice, Dr.
Frankel treats a wide variety of patients with medical cannabis,
which has become his specialty.
Despite the many claims of cannabis performing miracles, he's
reluctant to think of it as a cure for anything. Occasionally,
however, patients will experience very dramatic results. For
example, he has seen tumors virtually disappear in some patients
using no other therapy except taking 40 to 60 milligrams of
cannabinoids a day. The most common thing he sees in cancer
patients, however, are tumors shrinking, or a metastasis
disappearing. Sometimes tumors will shrink or vanish, only to
reemerge in other areas, months later, and then shrink or vanish
again... Other common ailments being treated with cannabis include:
Mood disorders
Pain disorders
Degenerative neurological disorders such as dystonia
Multiple sclerosis
Parkinson's disease
PTSD
Seizure Disorders
Focus of Marijuana Debate Should Be on Developing Dose-Consistent
Medicine
Dr. Frankel is very focused on trying to develop
accurate dose-consistent medicine. The Patient Access Centers he
consults with create a diverse collection of dose-consistent
oral-buccal sprays. He also believes it's very important to open up
and start talking about dosing—what works, what doesn't. It is his
belief that some patients, in large part due to lack of education
about the medicine, may be taking 10, or even 100 times, higher
dosage than is really needed to treat their ailment. Unfortunately,
many doctors in this still highly controversial field are afraid to
recommend dosages, for fear of the repercussions.
"There's this false notion (I think I can very safely say
it's false) that doctors cannot recommend dosage because of this
federal [law against] aiding and abetting with cannabis. It's
not true. It's just not true," he says. "There are no
[cannabis] medications that we dose by body weight. We now have
about 120 kids with seizure disorder, and if you look at the
surveys, across the board, the average dose is 37 milligrams [of
whole-plant CBD] per day, and there's no relationship with body
size."
As far as what is known, when marijuana is inhaled, smoked, or
vaporized, its effects are rapid and short lasting. Orally, it's the
most unpredictable and delayed. When ingesting it, it can take up to
two hours to take effect, but if dosed appropriately, you can
achieve once-a-day dosing with an edible medicine. When smoked, as
little as 10 mg of CBD acts as a major appetite suppressor. CBD is
also an excellent painkiller, particularly for tooth pain when the
cannabis oil is applied sublingually or directly onto the tooth.
Cannabis oil can also help heal sunburn overnight. CBD is also very
effective for anxiety disorders.
Just a couple of milligrams of whole-plant CBD can effectively
subdue anxiety without causing any kind of mental deficiency or
high. In fact, to determine how much THC in an oral dose would be
required to get high, they made liquid edibles with 5mg, 10mg, and
20mg of THC. The lowest dose, 5mg, did not produce a high. The upper
two—10 and 20 mg—did. Taking 50-100 mg of oral THC could get you
into serious trouble. Paranoia is the most common side effect.
Overdosing can also produce nausea and vomiting.
Beware of Synthetic Marijuana
As recently reported by Forbes, "the demand for a 'legal
high' has been so great in recent history that it's set the stage
for the synthetic market to take off."7
Unfortunately, the synthetic version of marijuana is nothing like
its natural counterpart, and aside from offering no medicinal
properties can be deadly. Whereas a person using marijuana tends to
be "interactive, mellow, and funny," people using synthetic
marijuana tend to be "angry, sweaty, and agitated."
With synthetic marijuana, there is no end to the potentially
deadly combinations of laboratory-fabricated chemicals. Various
versions are being imported, mostly from Asia, under the guise of
potpourri, herbal incense, and even "plant food." The rate at which
poisonings are escalating argues in favor of the
legalization of marijuana. Unlike natural marijuana, synthetic
marijuana can cause a number of severe symptoms, including:
Hallucination
Tremor
Seizure
Tachycardia
Chest pain
Cardiac problems
Stroke
Kidney problems
Acute psychosis
Brain damage
Death
Hypokalemia
According to a Time Magazine feature, synthetic
marijuana is now the second most popular drug among teens and young
adults, behind pot itself.8
Most people don't realize how dangerous synthetic marijuana can be.
The synthetic powder is mixed in a lab and shipped to the US, where
retailers spray it onto a leaf—often an herb or a spice—that can be
smoked, just like pot. It binds to cannabis receptors in your body
up to 1,000 times more strongly than real marijuana, as well as
producing gripping effects on serotonin and other receptors in your
brain. You can't overdose on real pot, but you CAN overdose on
synthetic versions—and it doesn't take very much.
Earlier this year, more than 100 people were treated in Louisiana
emergency rooms after smoking synthetic cannabis products, many
suffering life-threatening reactions—so many that the state of
Louisiana recently banned the sale and use of eight of them.9
Colorado has experienced a similar escalation in ER visits.10
There are several reasons why synthetic marijuana is far more
dangerous than the natural plant, which were recently summed up by
Forbes:11
It's much more efficient at binding and acting in your
brain, so it takes much less to produce maximal, sometimes
life-threatening, effects
It's capable of going to lots of different areas in your
brain, which is why it can cause so many different effects, from
memory problems to seizures, cardiac, respiratory and
gastrointestinal effects, and psychosis
Your body doesn't know how to deactivate synthetic
marijuana, allowing its effects to persist
It lacks cannabidiol, which is present in natural marijuana
and helps to blunt some of THC's adverse effects
It's produced in underground labs, so there's no way to know
what you're actually getting
Are You in Pain? Weighing Your Options for Relief
If you're in pain, especially if it's severe, I realize that you
may be desperate for relief. Prescription painkillers do have their
place in medicine, especially for short-term relief of severe pain
(such as after surgery or serious injury). In certain cases, such
drugs can be a great benefit when used cautiously and correctly with
appropriate medical supervision. However, it's also quite clear that
these drugs are being overprescribed, and can easily lead you into
addiction and other, more illicit, drug use.
I strongly suspect that the overreliance on them as a first
line of defense for pain is a major part of this
problem. So if you are struggling with severe or chronic pain, my
first suggestion would be to see a pain specialist who is familiar
with alternative treatments and the underlying causes of pain.
Ideally, it is best to find a knowledgeable practitioner who can
help you attack the pain from multiple angles, giving you both
relief and healing. As mentioned, CBD in marijuana is an
excellent painkiller and has been used successfully to treat a
variety of pain disorders. If your pain is severe enough, it might
even be worth moving to one of the many states where medical
cannabis is legal, as it can be a real life changer.
In states where medicinal marijuana is legal, such as California,
Washington, or Colorado, you can join a collective, which is a legal
entity consisting of a group of patients that can grow and share
cannabis medicines with each other. By signing up as a member, you
gain the right to grow and share your medicine. I do, however, still
recommend working with a health care practitioner who can guide you
on the most effective dosage and form of use.
That being said, even with this natural plant, there are
potential downsides that need to be addressed (and particularly if
you are thinking of smoking it for recreational purposes). Marijuana
use can be addicting, and no doubt families have been
broken up and jobs lost over its use, just as they have been with
opioid addiction. In the short-term, marijuana use can cause trouble
with your ability to think clearly and may impair short-term memory.
Marijuana also leads to motor skill impairment and affects
alertness, coordination, and reaction time, which is why it should
never be used prior to driving. There is also some evidence that
marijuana use can exacerbate psychotic symptoms in those with
schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders. Finally, if you are in
pain that is bearable, please try these
19 non-drug alternatives for the treatment of painfirst,
before resorting to prescription painkillers of any kind. These
options may even be used in addition to such drugs, and may allow
you to at least reduce your dosage.
From September 7th -13th we launch the fourth
Mercury-Free Dentistry
Week. We set aside an entire week dedicated to ending the use of
dental amalgam -- a primitive, pre-Civil War, pollutant that leads
to cracked teeth -- for three reasons:
The new Minamata Convention on Mercury is the game-changer
for dental amalgam. Each nation that signs this comprehensive
treaty against mercury pollution – now numbering 100, including
the United States – commits itself to scaling down dental
mercury without delay.
Consumers for Dental Choice, who spearheads the campaign
against amalgam, brings the Minamata Convention home.
Commissioning a Zogby poll, they issued a scathing indictment of
the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for covering up
amalgam's mercury from American parents and consumers – and for
putting the US government out of compliance with the pledge it
made at Minamata.
Your financial support for Consumers for Dental Choice is
now needed. Working with talented environmental, consumer, and
health leaders, Consumers for Dental Choice is launching phase
out campaigns in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Resources to Help You Find a Biological Dentist
The following organizations can help you to find a mercury-free,
biological dentist:
Together, Let's Help Charlie Brown and Consumers for Dental Choice
Get to the Finish Line
This is the week we can get Consumers for Dental Choice the
funding it deserves. I have found few NGOs as effective, and none as
efficient, as Consumers for Dental Choice. Its small team has led
the charge on six continents -- including ours!
So I am stepping up with the challenge. For the fourth year in a
row, I will match the funds you give. In 2012 the match was up to
$50,000 -- and you did it! In 2013, I upped the ante to $75,000 --
and you did it again! This year, I believe a $100,000 match is the
right thing to do. Please give, and all dollars received up to
$100,000 will be matched by Natural Health Research Foundation,
which I founded.
Copyright 1997- 2014 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.