Legal Cannabis Saves Lives: Research States

October 17,2017

The American Journal of Public Health recently issued a new research which stated that legal cannabis is the reason many lives have been saved in Colorado. Cannabis, since the legalization in this state, has caused a considerable decrease in deaths related to opioid. These deaths in Colorado were on a rise prior to 2014 when cannabis was legalized.

According to the researchers, there is a clear association between opioid-related mortality and the consumption of adult-use cannabis. The data that was used for the research was collected over a period of fifteen years, from 2000 to 2015. The researcher revealed that during this period, the only time there was a decrease in the total number of deaths related to opioid was when cannabis was legalized. Authors of the research—Melvin D. Livingston, Chris Delcher, Tracey E. Barnett, and Alexander C. Wagenaar stated in the publication that within a period of two years after the legalization of recreational cannabis sale and use in Colorado, opioid-related deaths reduced by 6 percent.

They pointed out that the sales of recreational cannabis began back in 2014, which did not put a lot of data at the disposal of researchers to work with. However, there were several other studies that declared how MMJ laws were associated with opioid overdose mortality rates in the US.

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Prior to 2010, there were only three states that had medical marijuana legalized. The stats from back then show that these three were the only states where opioid-related deaths were significantly low. The mean mortality rate in these states was 24.8% as opposed to states that did not allow access to cannabis.

A secondary analysis was conducted to ensure this, and the findings were pretty much the same. Many other researchers in the same area of study have come down to a similar conclusion. More recent researches like the one published in the American Journal of Public Health also illustrates that adult-use marijuana also plays a part in the decrease of prescription opioid overdoses. In other words, it is no surprise that legal cannabis, may it be medicinal or recreational, has been and still is saving lives in Colorado.

While the researches and the statistics point one way, Jeff Sessions points to another. His “brilliant” conclusion was that legalizing weed will increase the deaths related to opioid. In fact, the cannabis Jeff Sessions hates so much has never been linked to any deaths from overdosing. If anything, cannabis helps you enjoy a sound sleep even if you’re facing severe anxiety.

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While there certainly isn’t much need for more research to prove how beneficial cannabis is, more of it is being conducted every day. With the results, it is fair to say that cannabis is the perfect weapon to fight against opioid. As for the authors of the recent research study, they hope that their work will be replicated.

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