Illinois is actively adopting medical marijuana pot pills to reduce the opioid crisis. Could the state model be a potential model for the rest of the country?

When we face opioids as the most significant health crisis this state has had, are you going to tell me that legalising more drugs is the answer?

This was the appointment offered to the New York Times by the governor of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu, last fall when asked if cannabis could be a viable option to combat the opioid epidemic that currently ravages the United States.

While Governor Sununu’s analysis is discouraging for cannabis advocates who see marijuana as a safe alternative to prescription pain relievers, his words reflect a broader consensus that refuses to accept the medicinal value of cannabis by relegating it to the insidious category — and stigmatised of drugs.

 

Some may legitimately distinguish between the concept of drugs as medicine and narcotics as more harmful substances that offer pleasure (often fleeting) but not recognisable health benefits. However, until this distinction is universally maintained in the minds of citizens and the press, the comment of people like Governor Sununu represents a powerful obstacle on the road to the widespread acceptance of cannabis as medicine.

So no one wonders if opioid abuse represents a domestic crisis, you need to turn to numbers.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In the US, 11.4 million people misused prescription opioids in 2017. In that same year, more than 130 people a day died from opioid-related drug overdoses. That’s 47,600 lives lost in 2017 from opioid overdoses, and 2018 data does not indicate that things are improving.

Fortunately, not all state leaders have chosen to combine opioids and cannabis as two sides of the same illegal currency.

Last October, New York state officials decided to add the opioid use disorder to the list of conditions that qualify doctors to prescribe medical marijuana. In Illinois, state senator Don Harmon decided to take action by sponsoring the Opioid Alternatives Act last May.

The bill, which Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner enacted in late August, allows state doctors to prescribe medical marijuana to any patient who qualifies for an opioid prescription. In addition, it also removes some of the barriers of the medical cannabis program in Illinois, such as criminal background checks and fingerprints, to ensure faster and less damaging access to safe pain relief.

Speaking to the Chicago Tribune, Dr Nirav Shah, Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, acknowledged that initiatives such as the Opioid Alternatives Act “frankly simply make sense.” The available science on the subject seems to confirm Shah’s conclusion. One of the most widely cited studies on the subject is a 2017 report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine.

The authors of that report offered several key findings, including the conclusion that there is “conclusive or substantial evidence” that cannabis or cannabinoids are effective in treating chronic pain in adults. Since the number of deaths confirmed by a cannabis overdose remains at zero (despite some completely inaccurate statements to the contrary), it seems logical to consider cannabis as a widely preferable alternative to the prescription of pain relievers.

In February, US senators raised the issue of cannabis in response to the opioid crisis during a hearing that doctors were called to declare about the state of the latter as a full-blown health epidemic. Several doctors were cautiously optimistic about the role that cannabis could play as an alternative to opioids, while others regretted that the federal state of marijuana would severely hamper research efforts and, therefore, limit conclusive evidence on the Medical effectiveness plant.

Last month he also saw Illinois implement the Opioid Alternative Law. According to Dan Linn, Executive Director of the Illinois chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), the first results have been promising.

The OAPP has been a success so far,” Linn said in an email interview. “Patients can get immediate access once they send a complete application to the [Illinois Department of Public Health] and more patients can qualify for medical cannabis than ever before in IL.

Although he points out that there have been some problems with the education of doctors about the existence of the program, as well as its logistical details, what he has significantly seen encourages him.

In general,” says Linn, “the program seems to be very useful so far since its launch.

A feature of the Chicago Tribune published to coincide with the launch of the program put a face to the problem by profiling Tashena Altman, 31. Altman suffered from sickle cell anaemia and told the newspaper that he had previously relied on cannabis purchased in the illicit market to help stop consuming the many opioids that his doctors prescribed.

Mother of two children, including a child with substantial disabilities, Altman is one of 22.9 percent of patients who choose to discontinue opioid treatments due to adverse side effects. Before the enactment of the Opioid Alternatives Act, she was forced to obtain her cannabis from unregulated vendors, which means she rarely knew the true strain or origin of her marijuana.

“I will know what I am getting now,” said Altman al Tribune, a rather heartbreaking benchmark for victory when one realises that a change in federal law will give all American citizens the same peace of mind.

Currently, several bills go through Congress that, if passed, would end the federal cannabis ban. Meanwhile, and given the uncertainty of national politics at this time, other states where the opioid crisis has hit hard should ask themselves why they are not following the footsteps of Illinois.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, New Hampshire has the second-highest rate of opioid-related overdose deaths in the country. In 2013, the state legalised medical marijuana. In 2017, possession of small amounts of cannabis was decriminalised. Given this trajectory towards the acceptance of cannabis, why is Governor Sununu so reluctant to accept the possibility that marijuana is the path that leads him out of a health crisis?

Expert discord is probably an important factor.

In an article published earlier this year in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Keith Humphreys, PhD, and Richard Saitz, MD, MPH, argue that there is insufficient evidence to suggest that cannabis can be used as an alternative to synthetic opioids such as methadone and buprenorphine, which are often prescribed to those who wish to end the dependencies of prescription pain relievers and heroin.

“For the opioid addiction crisis,” they write, “clearly effective medications such as methadone and buprenorphine are prescribed insufficiently. Without convincing evidence of the efficacy of cannabis for this indication, it would be irresponsible for the medication to exacerbate this problem. By encouraging patients with opioid addiction to stop taking these medications and instead rely on unproven cannabis treatment. ”

In another study published earlier this year, Lafayette College researchers Susan Averett and Emily Smith found “little evidence” that medical marijuana laws correlate with reduced opioid mortality rates. However, they did find that such deaths can be reduced in areas where there is a legal cannabis dispensary.

As a counterpoint, a 2017 study from the University of New Mexico published in PLOS One found that “more than 80 percent of respondents significantly reduced their use of opioids with the help of cannabis.” In addition, in 2018, researchers from the University of California at San Diego concluded that if all states of the USA. UU. would have legalised medical cannabis by 2014, “the annual Medicaid spending on opioid prescriptions would be reduced by $ 17.8 million.”

In general, a series of studies on the subject often point to the lack of research or proven metrics as a reason to be cautious when it comes to programs like the one in Illinois. Unfortunately, such research is extremely difficult, if not completely impossible, to be carried out.

While cannabis remains illegal at the federal level, the funds needed to undertake substantial and conclusive studies are unlikely to materialise. There is hope that Canada’s recent decision to legalize cannabis across the country may ultimately prove invaluable as a source of comprehensive and definitive research on medical applications of marijuana, but the fact is that 191 million Opioid prescriptions for American patients in 2017 With so many lives at risk, there is simply no time to wait.

“Other states would benefit from having a program where medical cannabis can be used as an alternative to opioids,” agrees Dan Linn of NORML.

Since there is already an overwhelming amount of conviction that exposes the dangers of opioids, it seems illogical to rule out the viability of cannabis simply because we don’t have all the facts. When you get to the point where the approved option carries the risk of deep addiction or death, what should be lost when trying anything else?

That is why Altman was willing to risk violating the law, and why Illinois should be applauded for risking the service of its citizens. If the evidence is the guiding factor, what are 700,000 opioid deaths in the United States between 1999 and 2017, are not the only numbers needed to realise that we no longer have the luxury of ruling out any solution that can help.

Ultimately, the “unknowns” that public figures like Governor Sununu continue to employ as men in the bag in their arguments against cannabis pale in comparison to the difficult fact that opioids claim American lives in record numbers. No one suggests that marijuana can only end this dark chapter, but if it has the potential to help positively in the battle against opioids, what is the harm.