The United States is an absolute cesspool full of prescription drug abusers. Everyday tons of new people get addicted to painkillers and ruin their lives in the process. It’s not uncommon for your neighbor to lose a member of their family to a drug overdose. One of the worst things to ever happen to America is the drug OxyContin. It’s unbelievable that this drug is produced/prescribed. It is basically heroin in the form of a pill.
This is why medical marijuana is a big help. It is used in place of these deadly drugs. It still isn’t healthy to have a marijuana addiction, but it’s better than an OxyContin addiction.
Since 1991, the death toll from prescription painkillers has tripled in the United States leading to 46 deaths per day. In the states that allow the use of medical marijuana the number of deaths is 25% fewer.
Colleen Barry, a health policy researcher at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, has given her opinion on these findings. She thinks there is something positive here. Her point is that marijuana is far less toxic than these chemical drugs. A weed overdose is impossible while an opiate overdose is highly possible.
There are also medical people on the other side of the fence. Dr. Andrew Kolodny, Chief Medical Officer at Phoenix House, thinks marijuana has nothing to do with the reduction in deaths. His belief is that the overall progression of these states to better treat addiction is the answer. He also states that marijuana isn’t prescribed by doctors to treat pain.
The flaw in his argument is when people acquire medical marijuana; they don’t go to the family doctor. They go to the “weed doctor” and pay for a yearly prescription. When they use medical marijuana to treat pain, it is their own decision. Dr. Kolodny has obviously never taken a trip to California.
Pharmaceutical companies are doing some work of their own in an attempt to decrease the overdose rate. Apparently, they think whatever drug they produce won’t hit the black market the moment it’s released. Egalet Corporation is one company that is attempting to make more powerful painkillers that cannot possibly be taken in large amounts at once. Good luck with that! That literally sounds like the worst idea in the history of mankind.
Egalet Corporation also claims to have a “unique technology” to stop addiction before it starts. Sounds like another drug for people to get addicted to!
Robert Radie, the president and CEO of Egalet Corporation, claims people don’t intentionally misuse their drugs. Yes of course, when people chop up OxyContin to snort it, they have absolutely no idea what they are doing. How does that unintelligent of a comment get made by a CEO? They claim to implement techniques to guard against snorting and injecting, but it doesn’t seem to work at all. Everyone in America has seen someone snort a pill unless they never came out of the house.
Egalet Corporation has filed three new drugs with the FDA for approval including: SPRIX, OXAYDO, and ARYMO. You’d think they’d figure out to never start a drug with “OXY.” They mine as well have said, “Here is a new painkiller for you to abuse. Have fun!”
It’s a much better idea to further study the effect marijuana has on pain killer addiction. Regardless, it is trading one evil for another, but marijuana is FAR less evil. The pharmaceutical companies are frightened by marijuana since people can grow their own. This affects their bottom line. Let’s face it; all they care about is the bottom line. They live in mansions while people die in the streets every day because of their drugs. The number of deaths due to drug overdose doesn’t include the number of gang wars because of their product. Drugs like OxyContin are sold for a pretty penny on the streets. The stuff is much more valuable by weight than marijuana.
Big changes could arrive for the 2016 election. 20 states have reportedly made initiatives to legalize marijuana. Once they realize how profitable it is, the government will someday regulate it the same way they do tobacco. Grow your own while you can! That freedom won’t last forever.
