Friday, March 31, 2017

Legalized Marijuana Could Help Curb the Opioid Epidemic, Study Finds/ Reuters, NBC

Finally some good news!  Legalizing pot may have large, unpredicted benefits, according to NBC and this Reuters article:
In states that legalized medical marijuana, U.S. hospitals failed to see a predicted influx of pot smokers, but in an unexpected twist, they treated far fewer opioid users, a new study shows. 
Hospitalization rates for opioid painkiller dependence and abuse dropped on average 23 percent in states after marijuana was permitted for medicinal purposes, the analysis found. Hospitalization rates for opioid overdoses dropped 13 percent on average. 
At the same time, fears that legalization of medical marijuana would lead to an uptick in cannabis-related hospitalizations proved unfounded, according to the report in Drug and Alcohol Dependence...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I have been reading absolutely everything you write on Covid, I was reading through some of these older posts tonight. Very interesting. Had to comment on the post regarding marijuana.

I work at a college. There has been a huge uptick in the use of marijuana in college students since the laws have been relaxed. There has also been a huge increase in mental health problems, especially anxiety and depression in students who use this drug. Marijuana might seem to help students in the beginning, but soon it exacerbates their symptoms; it's also very addictive. Fast-forward to Covid and the smoking and vaping of this drug puts young people at risk for lung complications. Local paramedics report an increase of "scromiting," simultaneous screaming and vomiting due to overuse of marijuana. Lovely.

College students need their brains in tip-top shape to do well academically. Pot interferes with the brain's ability to take in information, store it, and retrieve that information for a test. Not really the drug you want to take, if you want to graduate.