New research from the University of British Columbia and the British Columbia Center on Substance Use suggests that daily cannabis use may be an effective alternative to opioids for people suffering from chronic pain.
Researchers interviewed more than 1.100 people with chronic pain and found that those who used cannabis on a daily basis are half as likely to use illegal opioids. The dangers of opioids and their addictiveness are becoming increasingly clear. More and more deaths are reported in Canada and America from opioid overdose.
However, the study does not show that all study participants used opioids to relieve pain. Previous research suggests that illegally obtained opioids are widely used to treat chronic pain.
Cannabis as a medicine
“We have studies of medical cannabis patients in California and the United States showing that many patients can reduce opioid use by using cannabis,” says research scientist Michael John Milloy at the British Columbia Center on Substance Use. "This new research is really progress, as this is data from individuals comparing cannabis users with non-users." However, switching to cannabis as a medicine is far from easy, because safe medicinal cannabis is by no means always and everywhere accessible to everyone.
While the legalization of cannabis - medical and recreational - in Canada and parts of America makes it easier, it is sometimes not accessible to everyone due to government regulations and strict quality requirements. Opioids cannot be completely avoided. There will always be people who do not want to use medicinal cannabis or who do not have the desired effect of medicinal cannabis.
theglobeandmail.com (Source, And)