Opioid overdose is currently the most common cause of accidental death in Canada and the U.S. The opioid crisis is having a devastating effect on communities across Canada, taking its toll on opioid users as well as their friends and families.
In 2016, 2,816 Canadians died from opioid-related causes, and that number will likely surpass 3,000 in 2017. People across the nation are seeing their loved ones die for reasons that could have been avoided.
The opioid crisis is Canada’s worst public health crisis since the emergence of HIV in the 1980s. The epidemic is dangerously pervasive, affecting Canadians of all ages and income brackets. The Government of Canada has taken several steps to address the crisis, but many doctors and public health
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Medical cannabis is a better alternative to opioids for several reasons:
A Safer Option
Medical cannabis is far less harmful than prescription opioids in terms of risk of dependence and overdose.
Many people worry that treating pain with cannabis instead of opioids will just create a new form of addiction. But is this true?
While cannabis still has its own risks, it’s overall a much safer option to treat chronic pain. Plus, when patients take the correct strain and dose, it doesn’t get them high. Cannabidiol (CBD) is one of the non-psychoactive elements of cannabis that balances out THC—the psychoactive component. Many strains are meant to help relieve pain as well as improve mental clarity so patients can go about their daily lives. Compared to recreational users, patients need miniscule amounts of medical cannabis to obtain relief.
The risks of cannabis use include dry mouth, hunger, high moods, and sleepiness. These possible side effects don’t affect everyone, and they’re not severe or life threatening. Cannabis doesn’t present the same risks as opioids since the section of the brain that controls the respiratory function doesn’t have cannabinoid receptors. In fact, many studies show cannabis is less harmful than tobacco and alcohol. Since there’s no risk of overdose, there’s no mortality issue when it comes to medical
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Medical cannabis is currently only considered as a third- or fourth-line treatment option. Introducing medical cannabis from the beginning could have huge benefits. If doctors recommend medical cannabis prior to opioids, patients can avoid using these high-risk drugs altogether.
How else can medical cannabis alleviate the epidemic? If patients are already using opioids but are worried about increasing their dosage, they can begin using medical cannabis as an adjunct treatment to maintain a lower opioid dose.
If a patient is already addicted to opioids and is seeking treatment through opioid replacement therapy like methadone or suboxone, medical cannabis can also be used to increase the replacement treatment’s success rate. This is the period when patients are most vulnerable to overdose—if the therapy fails, they’ll likely go to the illicit drug market.
In both these cases, medical cannabis can help reduce opioid cravings. The CBD in medical cannabis interacts with the brain’s serotonin system, which plays a role in addiction. CBD can thus reduce the risk of opioid dependence and overdose, as well as diminish withdrawal
On the typical day, over 90 people will die at the hand of opioid abuse in America alone (National). In fact, as of 2014, nearly 2 million Americans were dependent and abusing opioids. The Opioid Crisis has affected America and its citizens in various ways, including health policy, health care, and the life in populous areas. Due to the mass dependence and mortality, the crisis has become an issue that must be resolved in all aspects.
Bruce K. Alexander’s essay “Reframing Canada’s ‘Drug Problem’” is about shifting the focus from intervention to prevention. Alexander explains that in Canada there have been three major waves of drug intervention: “Criminal prosecution and intensive anti-drug” (225), “medicinal and psychological treatment” (225), and the ‘“harm reduction’ techniques” (225) being the most resent. The “’harm reduction’” (225) consisted of: clean injectable heroin, clean needles, methadone, and housing for addicts. Although each of the methods is devoted and knowledgeable, they have done little to decrease the deaths or suppress the unhappiness. While clean heroin did work well few addicts quit using and many found
The documentary states that over 27,000 deaths a year are due to overdose from heroin and other opioids. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 2015 prescription pain relievers account for 20,101 overdose deaths, and 12,990 overdose deaths are related to heroin (Rudd et al., 2010-2015). The documentary’s investigation gives the history of how the heroin epidemic started, with a great focus on the hospice movement. We are presented with the idea that once someone is addicted to painkillers, the difficulty in obtaining the drug over a long period of time becomes too expensive and too difficult. This often leads people to use heroin. This idea is true as a 2014 survey found that 94% of respondents who were being treated for opioid addiction said they chose to use heroin because prescription opioids were “more expensive and harder to obtain (Cicero et al., 2014).” Four in five heroin users actually started out using prescription painkillers (Johns, 2013). This correlation between heroin and prescription painkiller use supports the idea presented in the documentary that “prescription opiates are heroin prep school.”
Medical marijuana is becoming increasingly popular with patient with chronic pain, cancer, HIV patients, and patients with epilepsy. Patients who use medical marijuana are able to use many different forms of
Opioid’s chemical composition consist of many highly addictive substances which cause the human body to become quickly tolerant. Many opioid users become addictive to the substance because the doctors have been over prescribing. “In the United States, there were 14,800 annual prescribed opioid (PO) deaths in 2008” with the US having less restrictions (Fischer, Benedikt, et al 178). The United States have implemented more regulations so that “high levels of PO-related harms been associated with highly potent oxycodone formulas” will decrease (Fischer, Benedikt, et al 178). With the regulations, it does not change the fact that opioids are is destructive. The regulations assistance by lessening the probability of patients becoming addictive to opioid. There are numerous generations that are effected and harmed by the detrimental effects of opioids on opioid-dependent patients.
There are at least two active chemicals in marijuana that have medicinal benefits. One chemical is cannabidiol (CBD), which appears to impact the brain without a high. The second chemical is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which has pain relieving and other properties.
The article “Medical Cannabis: A primer for nurses” by Maria Pettinato on page 40 of “Nursing 2017 Volume 47, Number 8” has a lot of great information. It goes over how medical cannabis will be used in the nursing field in the future. It starts with going over the negatives effects opioids have on patients. It goes over how opioids are prescribed liked candy even with all the negative effect. With the worst one being death. Cannabis has the same benefits of opioids and none of the negative effects. Which is insane for thinking that cannabis is the illegal drug.
In the United States, opioid addiction rates have majorly increased . Between 2000-2015 more than half a million individuals have died from Opioid overdose, and nearly 5 million people have an opioid dependence which has become a serious problem. The Center for Disease control reports that there are 91 deaths daily due to opioid abuse. Taking opioids for long periods of time and in
Medical marijuana is referred to parts of herb cannabis that is used as a form of medicine or herbal therapy. These parts contain the compounds that produce the mild altering effect that recreational users seek when smoking or ingesting the plant. Researches have shown that it is able to provide chronic pain relief. Marijuana has been used as a folk or traditional remedy for a variety of health conditions for many of years. Medical marijuana is a management tool that can reduce patient’s pain and improve quality of life, without the same serious side effects associated with use of pharmaceutical pain relievers.
Surprisingly, there actually does seem to be evidence to suggest that marijuana is an effective way to treat opioid addiction. In a study titled “Impact of cannabis use during stabilization on methadone maintenance treatment,” Thomas Jefferson University scientists studied how well marijuana helped reduce the symptoms of opiate
Attention getter: As quoted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, an average of three Oregonians dies every week from prescription opioid overdose, and many more develop opioid use disorder.
The debate on medical marijuana has been a controversial subject, mainly because people have an abundance of opinions and very little scientific research to back up either side of the debate. The most important question here is “will medical marijuana be used for medical purposes or will it be used inappropriately?” Unlike a person who uses marijuana for medicine or entertainment, some people use marijuana as a means of income. Honestly, marijuana sales are a very profitable business, but the problem is that there are still a numerous number of people who sell marijuana illegally. Usually with illegal sales of marijuana, also comes other illegal activity.
The rate of death due to prescription drug abuse in the U.S. has escalated 313 percent over the past decade. According to the Congressional Quarterly Transcription’s article "Rep. Joe Pitt Holds a Hearing on Prescription Drug Abuse," opioid prescription drugs were involved in 16,650 overdose-caused deaths in 2010, accounting for more deaths than from overdoses of heroin and cocaine. Prescribed drugs or painkillers sometimes "condemn a patient to lifelong addiction," according to Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This problem not only affects the lives of those who overdose but it affects the communities as well due to the convenience of being able to find these items in drug stores and such. Not to mention the fact that the doctors who prescribe these opioids often tend to misuse them as well. Abusing these prescribed drugs can “destroy dreams and abort great destinies," and end the possibility of the abuser to have a positive impact in the community.
In reference to Drug Enforcement Administration, deaths arising from an overdose of prescriprion medications and heroine have arrive atepidemic levels. For instance, in 2015, there were more than 50,000 deaths in America related to drug overdoses. About two-thirds (33,000) came from opioids.
The recent opioid crisis shows the dangers of this solution very plainly. As a result, many opioid users are looking for a safer alternative. They want to say goodbye to opioid use, but they need another way to manage their symptoms.