Weekly Cannabis Roundup July 30
by Lo
Can we all continue to talk about how rapidly and positively New York’s medical marijuana program is growing? The program is continually boosting and now New York’s Department of Health added opioid addiction to the program’s list of qualifying conditions.
Even though marijuana was and still is falsely accused of being a “gateway drug” for harder drugs such as opioid-based painkillers and heroin, the public has really changed their perception significantly these last few years. This opinion has changed so much that renowned doctors are speaking out for cannabis and it’s benefits.
Dr. Mehmet Oz or simply Dr. Oz said during an interview on Fox News last year that cannabis does more than just helping people wean their addiction to opioids. In his opinion, cannabis could serve people as an “exit drug.” Oz said that “People think it’s a gateway drug to narcotics. It may be the exit drug to get us out of the narcotic epidemic.”
Some U.S. states have already started slowly adopting this new line of thinking, what has been resulting in a trickle-down effect on lawmakers.
According to the New York Daily News in early June, The Assembly approved a bill that would allow medical cannabis to be used by patients to treat opioid addiction. The assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell (D-Manhattan) who introduced the matter said that “This is a very serious problem in our society and this treatment works incredibly well, the treatment experts should have this in their toolbox.”
O’Donnell and the other supporters of the bill believe that cannabis as a natural medically-proven solution is able to help many of the side effects related to opioid withdrawal and are also less risky than other opioid-based treatments like Vivitrol.
After it passed through The Assembly, the Senate had until June 20th to decide whether they would accept the bill or not. Fortunately, the good news is that New Yorkers who have an opioid prescription can opt for using marijuana instead. New York officials expect the program to grow even more now, and consequently get more patients off of prescription opioids.
The opioid death rate in New York in 2016 was 15.1 per 100,000 people, a number almost twice as high as the national rate. The state’s DOH is adopting these changes on the New York’s medical marijuana program specifically to combat the rapid growth of deaths by opioid overdose.
State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker told reporters that anyone with an opioid prescription would be able to choose marijuana as an alternative medicine. “So that means if an individual is taking prescription opioids, they could take medical marijuana as part of the program that we are pushing forward to hopefully come off prescription opioids as well,” said Zucker.
In case you are wondering if it works, several studies have shown that marijuana can work effectively as an analgesic for treating chronic pain, without the side effects of opioids. In fact, New York’s medical marijuana program already has chronic pain in their list of qualifying conditions.
New York’s medical cannabis program has struggled to grow since inception. The program which started with a small list of qualifying conditions has expanded and so has the number of registered patients and practitioners. With almost 59,000 patients, the state still has less than a dozen dispensaries opened. Zucker said that the bill “is another way to move the program forward.”
When going to the dispensary, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the products and strains to choose from. There’s a ton of different strains on the shelf thanks to marketing strategies and innovative cannabis breeding. With so much information out there, it’s hard to know what to purchase when starting this journey. Let’s look at…
As cannabis legalization is progressing around the world, many cannabis users are looking at whether or not growing their own plants at home is right for them. Some questions to consider before growing marijuana inside your home include the following: Do I have the space? Can I replicate the right environment for cultivation? Can I…
Mindfulness—a meditative act that can open the door to inner peace and new perspectives—goes hand-in-hand with cannabis. Practiced by some 500 million people around the world, mindfulness, when mastered correctly, can aid you in achieving overall wellness and mental clarity. Since cannabis serves as a natural tool for introspection, reflection, and relaxation, the trichome-encrusted green…
It seems like every day, news outlets have a new report about a child accidentally consuming cannabis edibles. Widespread legalization may have contributed to an increase in these incidents and it’s certainly not helping cannabis destigmatization. If cannabis consumers get a bad rap in general, being a parent that consumes cannabis is even more magnified….
The US Senate has proposed a bill that could potentially legalize cannabis on the federal level. Researchers have discovered the exact origins of the cannabis plant thanks to genetic sequencing. And the US Surgeon General supports keeping cannabis offenders out of jail. Video Transcript: Senate lawmakers propose legislation that would federally legalize cannabis And a…
The world of cannabis is filled with terminology that can become very confusing, especially for those new to the scene. In this…
Did you know? Washington State, one of the states with the longest-running recreational cannabis marketplaces in the United States, still has policies…
A new study hypothesized that “frequent and dependent cannabis use in youth would be associated with Intelligence Quotient (IQ) decline”. However, one…
