| Description |
"Every day, more than 115 people in the United States die after overdosing on opioids" (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2018). Use and abuse of prescription opioids has become a national health crisis that many health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Institutes of Health (NIH), are trying to combat. Opioid prescription rates and related overdoses have increased since the 1990s when pharmaceutical companies developed and promoted the non-addictive natures of multiple new synthetic opioids (Beauchamp, Winstanley, Ryan, & Lyons, 2014). They are often prescribed as first and second line treatments for all types of pain without offering alternatives or discussing addictive properties and adverse side effects. Treatment with medical marijuana may present a good alternative to opioid pain management that is clinically safer and has fewer harmful side effects. Despite data showing it to be beneficial for treating and managing multiple types of pain, there are several barriers preventing providers from recommending it as treatment. Legality issues make it difficult to carry out large-scale studies and develop protocols for treatments with marijuana. People often associate the legalization of marijuana with negative effects on American society as a whole. By addressing these barriers, medical marijuana can be a useful tool in pain management and decreasing the opioid epidemic (Vyas, LeBaron, & Gilson, 2017). |
