Do we really want to prevent pain sufferers from choosing a medicinal alternative that’s definitively known to be far less taxing on their bodies than their current opioid meds? As in even when cannabis isn’t the right answer for every patient, there’s little to nothing to be lost in trying this gentler remedy.
There are multiple reasons to substitute far less harmful cannabis for opioids – or for a major chunk of opioids, as in helping patients to lessen their doses – where patients get effective relief or supplemental relief from its use…
Most of the focus in the news is on the dependency aspects of opioid use and on the unintended overdoses that are related to that use which make it a daily life or death crisis for so many.
But these are not the only important dimensions to the story. For many patients, the suffering is not at a crisis pitch – rather they’re living through a debilitating slow motion slog through pain and life-shortening side effects that may go on for many years – and based on what we know about cannabis and pain relief, often unnecessarily in non-legal cannabis states.
So another huge factor in the opioid story is the whole set of highly deleterious physical and psychological side effects – both long and short term – of opioid use (even when being used only as prescribed) which are graphically outlined in this interactive article.
As you’ll see, virtually all of our major organs and bodily functions are negatively to severely negatively impacted by long-term and intensive opioid use. (One of which is INCREASED SENSITIVITY to pain!)
It is simple scientific fact that long-term cannabis use has been found to have NONE of these negative health impacts.
It also isn’t well-known – or not nearly as well-known as it ought to be – that opioids have NEVER been found to be effective for LONG-term pain relief. As in when a patient suffers an extreme trauma, opioids are the powerful pain-blocking/dulling agents of choice for short-term relief.
They continue to be used long beyond that, not because they’re effective, but because they’re the only choices patients in many states still have.
Thus it is for long-term use that cannabis is such a promising tool to lessen the consequences of long-term pain reliever use.
Let’s give pain patients another choice, Utah….! <3 ********** Our hearts go out to all of you for whom this is first or even secondhand knowledge, e.g., your loved ones' stories as well, and we encourage you to share your stories below in our forum so that people who haven't been in your shoes can try to understand what you've gone and are going through. #MMJ #UTpol #Opioids #ProtectPatients #TRUCE
See full article – The Effects of Opiates on the Body
