To start off, I wanted to say that
this article really caught my eye. I was looking for something that had to do
with the therapeutic roles of medical marijuana in psychology, but ended up stumbling upon this
article, Fewer Pain Pill Overdoses In
States With Legal Medical Marijuana, published on September 26, 2014. Matt
Furner, a writer at the Huffington Post, published this story to surface the
indirect correlation between the decrease in the number of pain pill overdoses
and the states with legal medical marijuana. By indirect, I mean the number of
pain pill overdoses just so happen to be 25 percent lower in the states where
medical marijuana is legal. Furner used the research of a study posted in the
latest issue of JAMA Internal Medicine. The researchers who published the study
are from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Philadelphia
Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Their study aimed to show that overdoses on opioid
painkillers, such as OxyContin, Percocet and Vicodin, have dropped since the
legalization of medical marijuana, specifically for pain relief. It has been
scientifically proven that medical marijuana can in fact help with the
reduction of pain. Although that statement was distinctly stated in the
article, Furner made it clear that the correlation between the two factors
remains unclear. With that being said, Furner closes his article with this
statement made by Dr. Marcus Bachhuber:
"On an individual level, I
think many medical providers now struggle in figuring out what conditions
medical marijuana could be used for, who would benefit from it, how effective
it is, and who might have side effects; some doctors would even say there is no
scientifically proven, valid, medical use of marijuana. There is definitely a
need for more studies to help guide us in clinical practice."
He uses
this proclamation to describe the foreground for possible policies of safety regarding
narcotic prescription. Overall, this article was very well written and the
point Matt Furner is trying to make is clear. He backs up his statements with
information provided by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).
Furner uses this evidence to support his article, proving to have validity
within his journalism.
Image Courtesy of: http://www.denalihealthcaremi.com/benefits-using-medical-marijuana-pain-management/
The thing
about this article is that it generalizes the properties of medical marijuana.
The evidence was clear and very well justified, but there was something
missing. Furner failed to acknowledge that medical marijuana has been proven to
serve other medicinal purposes, as well as leaving the reader with an open
statement made by Dr. Bachhuber. This
is a formulated opinion of whether or not marijuana is useful in medicine.
However, it is clear that there will be further investigation of the relation
of such decrease in opioid overdoses and legalization of medical marijuana. I
agree with the purpose of this article, I just feel that there should be more
scientific evidence proving that marijuana does in fact have properties that
can be useful in medicine.
Resource:
This is quite the interesting article. Although it may not be a direct effect of legalizing medical marijuana it should definitely be noted as a possible indirect effect. The only thing that has me thinking is what other changes in the past few months or years could have also sparked this decrease in pain pill overdoses. I liked that you also pointed out a few issues with his research and lack of some scientific evidence but I think this is a good start to looking into the effects of marijuana as a substitute for traditional pain relief.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the article. It was very informative, especially so for people that maybe are not familiar with the news that medical marijuana is good for pain. I like that there is no definite conclusion in saying that medical marijuana is an answer to pain relief because as much research as possible should be made for that claim is ever said. As Melina said, I'm also curious to know what has happened to cause the lowered number of overdoses. Maybe people are just giving up on them, or maybe they can't afford them, but that would be something to look into. I also agree with you Cortnie in that there does seem to be something missing from article. If someone were to read with no background in science or just no background in something like this in general, they could be lead to believe that most of this is fact and with the way that it's presented, I wouldn't blame them.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the article you had found. What I found most interesting, and I guess it's not that surprising, is the indirect effect of legalizing medical marijuana on decreasing the number of pain pill overdoses. I also like the quote you decided to include. I do understand why many medical providers are hesitant with the concept of legalizing medical marijuana but, considering scarce scientific evidence of its usefulness, we cannot let instant social stigmas outweigh possible medical benefits.
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