Why Marijuana Instead Of Pills

[The Digital Nomad]

Fast facts:

 

According to Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske's report this April:

 

Americans take 80% of all the prescription painkillers - in the world.

 

17 state in USA now report that deaths from prescription pain pills exceed automobile fatalities in their state.

 

There are more overdoses from prescription painkillers than there were deaths from 1980's crack epidemic, or 1970's black tar heroin epidemic.

 

 

--

other

 

Medical use of marijuana is recognized by the American Medical Association, and now - The National Institute of Cancer - cancer.gov

The US Government's National Institute of Health for the first time recognized marijuana's therapeutic abilities for helping cancer patients.

 

 

thanks to August 2011 HighTimes

 

DN

[The Digital Nomad]

http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/news/testimony10/4142010_dom_policy.pdf

 

thats the link to the full report.

 

It also adds - of the 10 drugs most abused by 12th graders - 7 were prescription pills.

 

It just kills the big pharm and failed healthcare in the USA, time for change!

 

-DN

[thatoneartist]

one big one that my doc said when he was in front of the judge under oath...when asked by the prosecuting attorney why not marijuana pills....the cost of a bottle is about $900 x weekly that adds up! (the judges eyes lit up and he shook his head and agreed)

 

all pills are expensive. this gives us the chance to grow our meds ourselves, or whoever you make your caregiver growing it for you should give you a great deal since you gave them the opportunity to have 12 more plants

[The Digital Nomad]

and Savitex the spray is rumored to be about the same price, $1k for two weeks doses.

 

People need to wake up, and allow poor people to chose what helps them, and what they can afford.

 

-DN

[+washtenaut]

Those prescription pain meds are much more dangerous to our society than medical marijuana but that argument is a hard sell to the general public. People are quick to point out that due to medical marijuana laws there will now be greater availability of marijuana to children. They almost always overlook the fact that there will be far less demand for prescription medicines by these medical marijuana users. That means there will less legitimately prescribed pills falling into the hands of the children.

 

I sent the following letter to the Michigan House and Senate members. Feel free to use all or any part of the email and send it off to your representatives. This is an attempt to educate and possibly gain an ally. I think this was given as a choice in the last email-o-matic push.

 

 

 

Dear Senator/Representative xxxxx,

 

I have heard opponents of medical marijuana claim that if it were to become more widely accepted, more teenagers would have access to it. While this may be true, I think that these opponents fail to realize that increased use of medical marijuana actually means that patients will have less need for the more dangerous prescription drugs. Overall there will be fewer pain pills prescribed and thus fewer available to teens.

 

Let’s assume that a certain percentage of all medications in our society are going to somehow fall into the wrong hands. Maybe an inquisitive child discovers the medication or perhaps a curious teen may raid the family medicine cabinet. We should all try to be sure that our medications are out of reach but mistakes are made and some drugs inevitably find their way to children and teenagers.

 

Would you be more concerned if your 4 year old discovered several joints or if they discovered a bottle of oxycontin? If your teen decided to experiment with ‘getting high’, would you rather they smoke marijuana or would you rather they experiment with the prescription vicodin from the medicine cabinet?

 

How then is our society better protecting the children by favoring prescription pain medications over medical marijuana?

 

I appreciate your time and consideration in this matter.

 

Sincerely,

[Dr._Do-Little]

this one is easy enough...

 

 

how many people have died from prescription pills, and how many people have died from marijuana? along with MANY other differences

[lawyercaregiver]

I borrowed the phrase from a doctor but in my dissertation I call this "the REVERSE-Gateway Hypothesis (i.e. that cannabis use permits a reduction in the use of other drugs that are more likely to be abused).

 

But of course we can't have that.

 

This research on using marijuana to ease withdrawal of opium and alcohol addiction dates back to the 1800's!!

[purklize]

Pain pills are definitely being widely abused, but I do want to say that they're probably underprescribed, if anything. Doctors are intimidated by the DEA by threats of arrest and incarceration, patients have to sign "pain contracts" in order to receive regular prescriptions, and speaking from personal experience, I was unable to get a doctor to give me prescriptions for a type of headache known for driving people to suicide. Also, a young friend of mine was crippled by a drunk driver when she was on the sidewalk - her spine was majorly screwed up and she was in extreme pain - took her over six months to get a pain prescription.

 

Of course, our good friend MJ is much safer and really should be our first line treatment for pain.