93% of Cannabis Patients prefer the treatment over Opioids for managing pain

in marijuana •  7 years ago 

A new study recently investigated what preferences patients had for pain relief. We all know the amazing health benefits of Medicinal Marijuana, and the numbers certainly don't lie about what people would rather have. Compared to old medicine (addictive opioids and such), almost everyone would choose cannabis for long-term effects and it being the healthier option.

"Out of the 2,810 participants who were currently using cannabis, 828 had used opioids in the last 6 months to manage their pain.

Of that group, "97 percent of the sample 'strongly agreed/agreed' that they are able to decrease the amount of opioids they consume when they also use cannabis. In addition, 89 percent 'strongly agreed/agreed' that taking opioids produces unwanted side effects such as constipation and nausea," the researchers wrote."

Up above you can see the results of basically patients saying they'd prefer to use cannabis over opioids if given a chance to.

Just wanted to remind you guys about the effects and benefits:

"The researchers also found that "81 percent 'strongly agreed/agreed' that taking cannabis by itself was more effective at treating their condition than taking cannabis with opioids"."

With tens of thousands dying from opioids/opiates each year, and Marijuana killing ZERO... the choice is obvious. But now the issue of legality remains, Marijuana is still Schedule 1 after all. That means that it basically has no health benefits and is on the same level as Heroin, or so the government and the DEA are saying.

What do you think of this? Will Marijuana drop down to Schedule 4 or at least Schedule 3 or 2 anytime soon? Which state do you think is the next to legalize? And if you are on any meds right now, would you rather MMJ?


LINKS
http://www.sciencealert.com/93-of-patients-prefer-cannabis-over-opioids-for-managing-their-pain-according-to-new-study


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Sorry kiddos for the slowing down of posts recently, my time got really limited (and tomorrow will be a busy day as well). I'm excited to get back to posting soon ;) hope you're all doing well!

upvoted! i wish to give $10 upvote but my max vote only $0.03

lol thank you :) here's profit for you

I live in Georgia and I have MS, a covered medical category for medical marijuana in most states that allow it. Georgia legalized medical marijuana...BUT...I could obtain a medical card for possession of medical marijuana. Georgia has not set up any legislation approving dispensing or otherwise obtaining marijuana scripts.

I live very close to the border of Florida. If I filled a script at one of their dispensories (if this were an option), it would be a felony if I were to be stopped crossing the state line. Here's to hoping Georgia get's it together soon.

I wish the results of this study were accurate, but sadly there's a lot of issues with how it was set up. First of all, the people interviewed came from a list of medical marijuana patients. As we all kind of know, a lot of medical marijuana patients (especially in California, which has very lax regulations) don't really "need" cannabis for their conditions, and many have only applied for a rec because they like to smoke cannabis. And for a lot of those patients, they simply put down "chronic pain" as their reason despite not technically having severe enough chronic pain to get opioid painkillers. The study didn't discriminate against these users, so it's not very surprising that a bunch of cannabis fanatics supported cannabis over opioids. Leaving aside the question of how many of them have even tried opioids before, it's not clear what level of "chronic pain" they even have. From the way I've heard it described, opioid analgesics are the only drugs that can really treat sharp, acute pains successfully. In that sense, this study seemed biased from the start.

That said, cannabis still has plenty of benefits. Opioids are definitely over-prescribed in the US, and a lot of those prescriptions could be replaced with a safer, less addictive alternative (such as THC). This study definitely tells some story, just maybe not what it's intended to say.

Very true and I can speak from personal experience, well I should say second hand personal experience. My girlfriend had breast cancer. Here in our state you need to be stage 4 for a Dr. to even consider giving it to you and even then none really want to go out on a limb and do it.

She was going through chemo and radiation for a couple years, during that time had a couple major knee surgeries as well, totally unrelated to the cancer but pain none the less.

Not only did weed do more to control the pain than opiates, opiates are also incredibly addictive, mess up your stomach, constipate you, and honestly all the other garbage pharmaceuticals they gave her all had a side effect so they give you one medication to control nausea, but then have to give you 5 others to control the side effects the nausea medication gives you.

I'm glad to see slowly but surely the medical marijuana legitimization taking effect.

How is your girlfriend now? And which state are you guys from if I may ask?

Hey @avilsd , thanks for asking. SHe's doing great she's in remission. She still has to take tomoxofin which is basically like a lower dose chemo in a pill so still things are not 100% being on a shitty medication like that but green definately does help with that as well but honestly can't complain we are very fortunate.

Her knee is healing up, the cancer is gone for now so things are great.

Were in Illinois by teh way.

It's been obvious for years that big pharma has a big part in keeping marijuana illegal. I think they only have a few years left before we see a schedule change and perhaps country wide medical legalisation.

Cheers bro

Big Pharma will get involved eventually into it, and when they do.. that's a lot of money suddenly flowing in.

Why is the federal government still against it?

I'm glad to hear people are benefiting from the cannabis plant. Even if it only helps pain, that is a lot for someone.

Some people/families need it for their epileptic children, and that's what has me most excited. When everything gets legalized, or at least decriminalized, it's going to be a very interesting time. We'll look back at the post and be happy of how far we've come!

I really feel that cannabis has the potential to solve the opioid epidemic if only the plant was legalized. It is such a shame that the US Government considers cannabis a schedule 1 drug, with no medical benefits. Tell that to MS and Cancer patients whose only relief comes from the cannabis plant.

Cannabis will become a trillion dollar industry. No doubt about it, it'll go nationwide and then eventually global scale. It's just going to take decades.. if not longer, but still. One day it'll be different ;)

I don't get why you'd post that here.. low effort

I found a post on steemit yesterday of a guy the had to use opiods for neck and back then he hd to get lumbar puncture and the doctors were making him choose between opiods or cannabis, he already had a high tolerance to opiods but he went cold turkey and choose cannabis.

Source: https://steemit.com/marijuana/@psyonicphoenix/cannabis-it-totally-saved-my-life

Marihuanna medicinal

hey avilsd, i came over from ur youtube channel, totally agree with this article, opioids kill thousands and thousands every year while no one dies from weed. Yet weed is still illegal and the patients actually find it works better. The only people who have a disadvantage in those patients switching to weed is Big Pharma, but screw them honestly, greedy murderers. Love you stuff AVI keep it up, I'm new to steemit so some upvotes and follows would be great if you dont mind. thanks

thanks for sharing!

And thank you for coming over :)

Thank's for your information about marijuana. I'm from indonesia. Please follow and vote me @indazu!!!

I'm not like the others on this platform. In order for me to actually care about upvoting your content, I'd have to see at least some effort from you to convince me as to why I should even visit your profile. I'm not trying to be mean, I'm just being straightforward. No bullshit. Your comment alone is low effort. You have to work on your marketing..

meep

I strongly agree with your opinion, many of the steemians who casually just tell us to follow or vote but do not care about its conten. I may have been affected by that, I'm sorry @avilsd!!

Marijuana over any pharma. I have a herniated disc and have excoriating pain and wouldn't touch no pain pills if my life depended on it! =)

Living here in Colorado, where MMJ is available both medically and recreationally, I have noticed a huge trend in people moving from narcotics to marijuana. I feel like it's a very interesting avenue to try because of fewer side effects and better long-term pain control. Not to mention, the lack of addiction that we see with traditional pain management.

And the amount of money will continue to flow through, encouraging more and more to join and also create dispensaries/ set up businesses that ultimately help the communities. Colorado's a great example of what happens when Tax dollars from MMJ go to good use :)

Most definitely. A lot of the money is funneled into our school system, and as a mother I love that! You don't see big pharma contributing that way, and yet they make Sooooooo much money. I'm hoping legal MMJ will become federally legal soon, because it really is a better alternative and a win-win situation for everyone.

The old men in DC are getting payouts from opioids. We buy from people who want to kill us. Why not switch to better drug that we can produce ourselves

Great info, thanks for posting re-blogging.

i have a friend that chose to use medical marijuana over opiates and he experienced much better results (along with small does of opiates when necessary).

Eyy I'm glad to hear that :) hopefully he's doing much better now and one day won't need any medicines for his pain

I started using CBD oil a couple of months ago, and it has definitely helped me decrease the amount of meds I use for juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (which I've had since I was a teenager). It's good stuff.

It's expensive as hell, but I'm glad it helped you :) I used to work for a CBD company, I remember I got some free samples and it was dope.. but like the rates were insane. But then again, if insurance covers it then it's all good :) but compared to regular cannabis, it's like 4-5x the price.

Yeah, it's pretty expensive, but one bottle lasted a long time. I didn't need to take much for it to make a difference.

To medicate, is to rejuvinate.

Marijuana makes you happy, it fixes up any chronic pain, there's good money to be made and its in constant demand. What more can one want? ;)

I LOVE CANNABIS!!! <3

Well made post my friend. It is always good to see that people are starting to recognize the value in this wonderful plant. I am a very strong proponent as cannabis has given much to me as a medicine in replacing big pharma.

Peace,
The Last Sage

Thank you mate <3 Marijuana has an incredible amount of benefits which far outweigh what the others have to compete against. There are consequences with everything out there, but MMJ has proven time and time again that it's the most safe. I'd rather give my kids that (if they had some problems) than any pills, FUCK THAT

Terrific post...as always. You're absolutely right no one dies from marijuana usage. In fact there have been many times but I myself wasn't feeling that good and smoke me some good cannabis and feel better 5 minutes later

Thank you man :) the only people who died from marijuana are the ones who would've died doing something stupid anyways, like jumping off cliffs or fighting animals or driving fast speeds while on substances.. that sorta shit #darwin