Over the past few years, there has been widespread debate and discussion over the uses of marijuana, both for medicinal and recreational use.
The debate has been fueled by the recent increase in deaths that have been attributed to opiate pain medications.
Giving the matter a political impetus, Sen. Elizabeth Warren wrote a letter to Dr. Thomas Friedan, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, requesting the CDC to conduct research on the efficacy of medical marijuana and also to check whether this could reduce deaths due to opiate pain killer overdoses.
The CDC published shocking data, revealing that the U.S. was facing "an epidemic of drug overdose (poisoning) deaths. Since 2000, the rate of deaths from drug overdoses has increased 137%, including a 200% increase in the rate of overdose deaths involving opioids (opioid pain relievers and heroin)."
In fact, a study by the Journal of the American Medical Association has already pointed out the benefits of medical marijuana. The study concluded that "use of marijuana for chronic pain, neuropathic pain, and spasticity due to multiple sclerosis is supported by high-quality evidence. These trials had positive results, suggesting that marijuana or cannabinoids may be efficacious for these indications."
This has been further validated by a new study by Dr. Simon Haroutounian of the Washington University School of Medicine. The objective of the study "was to determine the long-term effect of medicinal cannabis treatment on pain and functional outcomes in subjects with treatment-resistant chronic pain."
The study concluded that "the treatment of chronic pain with medicinal cannabis resulted in improved pain and functional outcomes, and significant reduction in opioid use. The results suggest long-term benefit of cannabis treatment in this group of patients, but the study's non-controlled nature should be considered when extrapolating the results."
Meanwhile, the state of Florida has revised and passed a medical marijuana bill, HB 307, to "include expanding access of medical marijuana to terminally ill patients near their end, as well as allowing the specified patients to use all forms of the drug, including the smokeable form."
