Many states in the U.S have legalized the use of marijuana for the medical treatment of patients. The medical specialists have unraveled a shocking fact that after legalization of the medicinal drug, the medical staffs have treated lesser amount of opioid users in contrast to their previous belief wherein they expected an increase in the number of drug addicts due to overuse of opioid drug.
Out of total 27 states in the US alone, 9 states have legalized the use of medical marijuana for the treatment of deadly and painful diseases like multiple sclerosis. Between the period 1997 and 2014, researchers and scholars from California Universities who were dealing with this subject analyzed that hospitalization rates due to overdose of painkillers and drug addiction dropped tremendously in the states that offered medical marijuana.
About 23 percent of the decline in hospitalization was observed by the staff due to opioid abuse after marijuana was legalized. And an impressive rate of 13 percent further dropped in hospitalizing the patients suffering due to drug overdose.
The initial resistance to legalizing medical marijuana by medical professionals proved to be futile as the study suggested that use of the herb for medical purpose will ultimately heal the patients and not victimize them.
As suggested by Yuyan Shi, a public health professor, “Medical marijuana laws may have reduced hospitalizations related to opioid pain relievers.” He was further quoted as saying that as per the study plenty of evidence was collected, which provided vital information and potential benefits of legalizing the medicinal herb marijuana everywhere, which would help curb opioid abuse and addiction.
In the year 2014, a medical journal named JAMA Internal Medicine analyzed further that due to the prescription of legal medical marijuana, the study found 25 percent decrease in the number of deaths that majorly happened due to opioid overdose because of illegal usage. When the herb is prescribed medically and the intake doesn’t happen in much quantity, the medicine is given via pills and hence the level of the drug intake could be easily monitored and controlled by medical professionals across hospitals that deal with patients suffering from deadly diseases and drug addiction.
These reports are strikingly similar to another study that was released by Health Affairs journal in the year 2016. As per the study, the doctors who were working in states where prescribing medical marijuana was legal were found to be prescribing lesser amount of the painkiller for patients in a year.
Although it can be proclaimed that the medicinal use is safe for patients, somehow the study reports are an eye opener for most of us and certainly these reports will lead to an informed decision taken by the medical professionals in states where the herb use is yet to be legalized.
