News of Demi Lovato's overdose spread quickly and shocked fans nationwide on July 24. Lovato, who celebrated six years of sobriety in March, seemingly revealed last month she had relapsed. In the ballad "Sober" Lovato sang, "Mama, I'm so sorry I'm not sober anymore." The singer reportedly struggled with an addiction to cocaine and oxycodone. Lovato allegedly refused to tell police and first responders what drugs had caused her overdose, according to The Blast, LAPD officers collected an "item of evidence" related to illegal drugs that are not typically associated with heroin, the website claimed.
The opioid crisis is worsening. Although opioid use is an effective treatment for chronic pain, it can also be very addicting. Over 42 thousand Americans died of an opioid overdose in 2016, and government and public health officials are scrambling to find effective ways to reverse this frightening trend. Because of this, many people have been turning to cannabis as a safer, less addicting method for treating their chronic pain. There is an increasing amount of evidence to show that cannabis can be used just as effectively as opioids to treat chronic pain patients. According to a University of Michigan study published in 2016, cannabis use reduced the use of opioids in chronic pain patients by 64 percent. The study also found that marijuana use improved the patient's quality of life and decreased the side effects from other medications.
Living in Oklahoma there has been much debate over the recent state question 788 passing. Oklahomans voted in favor of legalizing medicinal marijuana with 56.8% approving the measure. Medical marijuana is legal in some form in 30 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Nine states and Washington, DC allow for recreational sales. Federal law says marijuana is illegal, but a majority of states and the District of Columbia have passed laws legalizing or decriminalizing its use for medical reasons.
Scientists have successfully balanced the chemicals found naturally in the cannabis plant to maximize pain relief while minimizing and even eliminating the intoxicating effects. Under the proposed legislation, physicians could prescribe marijuana for treatment of pain from injuries or surgery. Marijuana has also been found effective in helping end addictions to opioids or cheaper alternatives like heroin and fentanyl. And, as one physician points out, with marijuana use, "it's impossible to die of an overdose." Tetrahydrocannabinol is a very safe drug. Laboratory animals (rats, mice, dogs, monkeys) can tolerate doses of up to 1,000 mg/kg (milligrams per kilogram). This would be equivalent to a 70 kg person swallowing 70 grams of the drug—about 5 thousand times more than is required to produce a high. Despite the widespread illicit use of cannabis there are very few if any instances of people dying from an overdose.
The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine says theres good evidence that cannabis is effective at treating pain for some conditions. Doctors decided to see whether people who can get easy access to medical marijuana are less likely to get prescription opioids. The answer, they report in JAMA Internal Medicine, is yes. They found a 14 percent reduction in opioid prescriptions in states that allow easy access to medical marijuana. They estimate that these dispensary programs reduced the number of opioid prescriptions by 3.7 million daily doses. States that allowed homegrown marijuana for medical use saw an estimated 1.8 million fewer pills dispensed per day. To put that in perspective, from 2010 to 2015 Medicare recipients received an average of 23 million daily doses of opioids, the researchers say.
So if the U.S. can jump on board with legalization of marijuana it could have the potential to reduce opioid addiction as well as opioid prescribing.