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Posted on 07/24/2016 1:08:30 PM PDT by Wolfie
One striking chart shows why pharma companies are fighting legal marijuana
There's a body of research showing that painkiller abuse and overdose are lower in states with medical marijuana laws. These studies have generally assumed that when medical marijuana is available, pain patients are increasingly choosing pot over powerful and deadly prescription narcotics. But that's always been just an assumption.
Now a new study, released in the journal Health Affairs, validates these findings by providing clear evidence of a missing link in the causal chain running from medical marijuana to falling overdoses. Ashley and W. David Bradford, a daughter-father pair of researchers at the University of Georgia, scoured the database of all prescription drugs paid for under Medicare Part D from 2010 to 2013.
They found that, in the 17 states with a medical-marijuana law in place by 2013, prescriptions for painkillers and other classes of drugs fell sharply compared with states that did not have a medical-marijuana law. The drops were quite significant: In medical-marijuana states, the average doctor prescribed 265 fewer doses of antidepressants each year, 486 fewer doses of seizure medication, 541 fewer anti-nausea doses and 562 fewer doses of anti-anxiety medication.
But most strikingly, the typical physician in a medical-marijuana state prescribed 1,826 fewer doses of painkillers in a given year.
These conditions are among those for which medical marijuana is most often approved under state laws. So as a sanity check, the Bradfords ran a similar analysis on drug categories that pot typically is not recommended for — blood thinners, anti-viral drugs and antibiotics. And on those drugs, they found no changes in prescribing patterns after the passage of marijuana laws.
"This provides strong evidence that the observed shifts in prescribing patterns were in fact due to the passage of the medical marijuana laws," they write.
In a news release, lead author Ashley Bradford wrote, "The results suggest people are really using marijuana as medicine and not just using it for recreational purposes."
One interesting wrinkle in the data is glaucoma, for which there was a small increase in demand for traditional drugs in medical-marijuana states. It's routinely listed as an approved condition under medical-marijuana laws, and studies have shown that marijuana provides some degree of temporary relief for its symptoms.
The Bradfords hypothesize that the short duration of the glaucoma relief provided by marijuana — roughly an hour or so — may actually stimulate more demand in traditional glaucoma medications. Glaucoma patients may experience some short-term relief from marijuana, which may prompt them to seek other, robust treatment options from their doctors.
The tanking numbers for painkiller prescriptions in medical marijuana states are likely to cause some concern among pharmaceutical companies. These companies have long been at the forefront of opposition to marijuana reform, funding research by anti-pot academics and funneling dollars to groups, such as the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, that oppose marijuana legalization.
Pharmaceutical companies have also lobbied federal agencies directly to prevent the liberalization of marijuana laws. In one case, recently uncovered by the office of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), the Department of Health and Human Services recommended that naturally derived THC, the main psychoactive component of marijuana, be moved from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3 of the Controlled Substances Act — a less restrictive category that would acknowledge the drug's medical use and make it easier to research and prescribe. Several months after HHS submitted its recommendation, at least one drug company that manufactures a synthetic version of THC — which would presumably have to compete with any natural derivatives — wrote to the Drug Enforcement Administration to express opposition to rescheduling natural THC, citing "the abuse potential in terms of the need to grow and cultivate substantial crops of marijuana in the United States."
The DEA ultimately rejected the HHS recommendation without explanation.
In what may be the most concerning finding for the pharmaceutical industry, the Bradfords took their analysis a step further by estimating the cost savings to Medicare from the decreased prescribing. They found that about $165 million was saved in the 17 medical marijuana states in 2013. In a back-of-the-envelope calculation, the estimated annual Medicare prescription savings would be nearly half a billion dollars if all 50 states were to implement similar programs.
"That amount would have represented just under 0.5 percent of all Medicare Part D spending in 2013," they calculate.
Cost-savings alone are not a sufficient justification for implementing a medical-marijuana program. The bottom line is better health, and the Bradfords' research shows promising evidence that medical-marijuana users are finding plant-based relief for conditions that otherwise would have required a pill to treat.
"Our findings and existing clinical literature imply that patients respond to medical marijuana legislation as if there are clinical benefits to the drug, which adds to the growing body of evidence suggesting that the Schedule 1 status of marijuana is outdated," the study concludes.
One limitation of the study is that it only looks at Medicare Part D spending, which applies only to seniors. Previous studies have shown that seniors are among the most reluctant medical-marijuana users, so the net effect of medical marijuana for all prescription patients may be even greater.
The Bradfords will next look at whether similar patterns hold for Medicaid.
Tylenol is dangerous.
Every year, overdoses of medicines containing acetaminophen send more than 78,000 people to emergency rooms. One third of those emergencies happened by accident, according to a Consumer Products Safety Commission study. An estimated 150 people die each year from accidental acetaminophen overdoses, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s more than the number who die from intentional overdoses of acetaminophen to commit suicide.
Acetaminophen is the active ingredient in one of the best-selling over-the-counter medicines in the U.S., Tylenol. (In many other countries it’s called paracetamol, and is part of the brand medicine Panadol.) It is also frequently combined with other drugs in many over-the-counter and prescription medications.
Taken correctly, acetaminophen safely reduces pain from headaches, body aches, muscle aches and menstrual cramps, and helps bring down fever. But if a patient takes two or more medicines containing acetaminophen (including over-the-counter medicines) it’s possible to get a dangerous amount by mistake. Too much acetaminophen can lead to liver failure and even death.
https://news.aetna.com/2016/03/common-dangerous-acetaminophen-overdose/
Vaporize or edibles.
Educate yourself so you can participate in an intelligent conversation.
Your rants damage your position.
Most generic outpatient morphine derivatives are NOT particularly expensive.
It would depend partly on the variety — indica or sativa type.
Well said.
“Prescribing fewer doses since people are not Doctor shopping to keep their addiction going.”
So pot helps opioid addicts control their addictive behavior?
There are no addictive qualities in pot.
Maybe you don’t. But some people do.
I don’t know about pot helping opiod addiction, but I saw an interesting program on NatGeo in which a former opiate addict was saying that a particular hallucinogen from Africa did.
I cannot recall if it came from a root or a tree or a mushroom, but it apparently causes an unpleasant and even dangerous trip that somehow shuts off opiate withdrawal in addicts, even in heroin addicts.
This guy would administer this drug in controlled situations to addicts in Canada where the drug is not illegal, but was not able to do it here in America where it is illegal.
Apparently use of this hallucinogen is not without risk either.
My attitude on opiates is stay away from them unless you have absolutely no other choice but to use them in order to manage severe pain.
Don’t want to get addicted to opiates.
Dozens of herbs have been smoked as healing agents over the centuries. There is no faster method of introducing chemicals into the brain via the bloodstream.
I’ve taken opiates for pain. I never had a problem. Imho, it depends on the person, not the drug.
Destroy your stomach lining and kidneys instead. And it doesn't have the same effect.
Trading one addiction for another.
I have taken opiates too, both for pain and to abuse them in order to get high.
I also did not become addicted to them, however I am aware of those who did.
The most opiates I have taken would be one Loricet, or similar type medication, at a time with a large meal so I didn’t get sick. I would mix that with Xanax and Soma and then smoke some weed on top of that. It produced a powerful high. I did get addicted to the Xanax though.
The person that I got these pills from told me about others that he sold to who were very addicted to opiates.
He had one guy who would come over and buy 20 Loricets and put them all in his mouth at the same time and just chew them up right then and there no liquids, no food, no nothing.
And not die from that. And sit there and shake his head yes at how good they made him feel.
There is a person with a high tolerance for opiates, and no doubt someone who would experience opiate withdrawal if they did not continue this behavior.
In order to get addicted to pills, you have to abuse the dosage and the rate over a long period of time and then run out.
It is at that time you will find out that you developed a true addiction.
“Most generic outpatient morphine derivatives are NOT particularly expensive.”
Especially when you get them free!
I had to take oxycodone for four weeks. The prescriptions ended, and that was that.
I’ve also taken percoset and demerol. Same thing.
Plus opiates usually constipate you, mj does not.
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