Cannabis Controls Patients’ Pain While Improving Gastrointestinal And Pulmonary Function, Anesthesiologist Discusses Alternative To Opioids
Do you know what killed 106,000 people in the United States in just one year?
In 2021, that many people died from drug-involved overdoses including illegal drugs and prescription opioids (over 75%), according to data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The worst part about these statistics is the fact that the number of overdose deaths in 2021 was over six times the number in 1999. In just one year alone, from 2020 to 2021 the number of drug overdose deaths increased by more than 16%.
How did this happen? What led to such a serious crisis in the United States? Are there any alternatives to opioid pain medicine that can help curb these devastating rates?
While the answer to the first question is complex with various experts in the field agreeing that a multi-system failure of regulation, including over-prescribing, big pharma power and politics played an important part, the answer to the second one might be a bit simpler. Over the past several years, there have been studies showing medical marijuana’s potential in various pain treatments, while also revealing it can help curb opioid use.
For example, the largest-ever Canadian-supported study published in January viewed 90 randomized controlled trials involving 22,028 participants. The research concluded that marijuana provided similar pain relief benefits as opioids but without negative consequences.
See Also: Cannabis Can Help Reduce Unregulated Opioid Use And Manage Cravings, Study Finds
Benzinga wanted to learn more about cannabis as an alternative to opioids and other medical marijuana benefits, so we reached out to Robin Fowler M.D., a board-certified anesthesiologist with a fellowship in pain management from Emory University in Atlanta. Fowler is also a founder of Botanical Sciences, a physician–owned medical marijuana dispensary where a team of physicians prescribe cannabis over traditional opioids for pain management.
“After treating pain patients in an outpatient surgery setting for 10 years, I was ready to explore new ways to help my …