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Tuesday, August 26th, 2014

In States With Medical Marijuana, Painkiller Deaths Drop by 25%

Author:     DOUGLAS MAIN
Source:     Newsweek
Publication Date:     8/25/14 at 6:02 PM
 Link: In States With Medical Marijuana, Painkiller Deaths Drop by 25%
Stephan:   As far as the research can discern no one has ever died of overuse of marijuana. Meanwhile people die every day from overuse of prescription pain medications -- 46 people a day to be precise. Now we have actual data, not the usual nonsensical polemics of the Prohibitionists, comparing the use of marijuana and prescription opiates. I think it is verging on the criminal not to make marijuana available to those in chronic pain. As you can see in this report, those who have a vested interest in opiates and addiction don't agree.
A jar of medical marijuana is displayed at the California Heritage Market in Los Angeles. David McNew / REUTERS

A jar of medical marijuana is displayed at the California Heritage Market in Los Angeles. David McNew / REUTERS

America has a major problem with prescription pain medications like Vicodin and OxyContin. Overdose deaths from these pharmaceutical opioids have approximately tripled since 1991, and every day 46 people die of such overdoses in the United States.

However, in the 13 states that passed laws allowing for the use of medical marijuana between 1999 and 2010, 25 percent fewer people die from opioid overdoses annually.

‘The difference is quite striking,” said study co-author Colleen Barry, a health policy researcher at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. The shift showed up quite quickly and become visible the year after medical marijuana was accepted in each state, she told Newsweek.

In the study, published today August 25 in JAMA Internal Medicine, the researchers hypothesize that in states where medical marijuana can be prescribed, patients may use pot to treat […]

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