Recently, Dr Sanjay Gupta, neurosurgeon and CN reporter, wrote a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions regarding the benefits of Medical Marijuana. Dr. Gupta stated that Medical Marijuana is the “cure” for the country’s opioid crisis! That is a very strong statement to say there is a “cure” for a – opioid overdoses that are killing some 45,000 Americans per year!
Can Medical Marijuana really do what is claimed? There are several reasons why this makes sense; firstly, Medical Marijuana relieves the body of pain! Research confirms that this is true and as a Medical Marijuana certifying doctor, I have seen this first hand! It has been near miraculous to see patient after patient come in on much less or no narcotic pain killers. My patients start using the Medical Marijuana and are able to safely wean off of their pain medication! More than once I have said to myself that we should have done this decades ago! A patient that I had come in with ten years of debilitating nerve pain who came back two weeks later with no pain! The woman who came in with headache pain on a scale of ‘10/10” and it was so bad that she couldn’t open her eyes; and she shows up 4 weeks later with no headache at all! Headache was completely gone! My patients have very few, if any, side effects from the Medical Marijuana. It is so easy to use and a doctor’s dream because I do not have to deal with all the side effects of current pain medications.
The next benefit of Medical Marijuana that can help with the opioid crisis is that it has anti-inflammatory properties! Medical Marijuana can actually act like Advil or Aleve at easing the pain associated with inflammation. It is much safer than the conventional prescription or non- prescription anti-inflammatories as well. It does not cause stomach issues and doesn’t wear on the kidneys or the liver like convention anti-inflammatories. In my office, I routinely ask my Medical Marijuana patients what side effects they are having and most patients say that they have no side effects. There is an occasional response of “munchies” or dry mouth but rarely. Medical Marijuana is truly a side effect free alternative to the much more harsh and harmful pain medications!
Lastly, Medical Marijuana preserves brain function and form! The opioids are brain numbing and mind destroying medicines. They provide pain relief by sedating the brain and sedating pain sensation. Opioids may require increasing and increasing doses due to tolerance. The dose that works today for pain may need to be increased by 150% after some time. More and more of the brain numbing effect! Opioid overdose is actually caused because the breathing center of the brain is so numbed and sedated that the brain stops telling the body to breathe and have and cause an overdose death! Like we said, Medical Marijuana does not numb the brain, does not stop breathing, and there are no reported overdose death from the use of Medical Marijuana in the history of mankind!
After two years as a Medical Marijuana certifying doctor and 300 patients on the Medical Marijuana registry, I wholeheartedly agree with Dr Gupta. Medical Marijuana is a “cure” for the opioid crisis! Working towards a nation that is pain free and opioid free one Medical Marijuana patient at a time!
