Opioid Prescriptions Drop When Medical Marijuana Is Available

I guess we have a better idea of why the government has never spent any money studying the health effects of marijuana. It's not just the usual conservative opposition to anything that would make the "hippies" happy, it probably has more to do with opposition from the pharmaceutical industry whose products would be impacted by the use of medical marijuana. A recent study looked at the drop in prescriptions for certain drug categories under Medicare Part D in states that had enacted medical marijuana laws.  The chart below summarizes the findings:

That adds up to over 4,500 fewer prescriptions and saved Medicare Part D $165 million. The study suggests that Medicare would save over $500 million if all 50 states participated in a medical marijuana program.

The study clearly shows that medical marijuana works and is being used responsibly to treat a real medical situations as opposed to just an additional recreational use. But more importantly, the reduced number of opioid prescriptions will reduce dependency and overdoses on those powerful narcotics. And that is why Big Pharma has been fighting marijuana all along the way. They rely on dependency to keep generating those profits. And those overdoses are just collateral damage to them. Under a doctor's care, marijuana is cheaper and just as, or perhaps more, effective than narcotics with fewer of the negative risks. We could have learned this years ago but we now know why we didn't.