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Big Pharma Not Happy: 80% Of Cannabis Users Give Up Prescription Drugs


Norby

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http://topthings2know.com/big-pharma-not-happy-80-of-cannabis-users-give-up-prescription-drugs/

 

 

Big Pharma must be getting seriously worried by the results of a recent survey conducted by the Centre for Addictions Research of BC

The pharmaceutical (along with the alcohol) industry is a powerful influences in Washington and has long been lobbying against cannabis legalization in order to protect their profits.

Natural Blaze reports:

However, the tide has turned as decriminalization of medical and recreational cannabis sweeps the nation and the continent. With legalization, more and more people are discovering how this plant can provide a safe alternative to the dangerous effects of prescription pills.

The survey of 473 adult therapeutic cannabis users found that 87% of respondents gave up prescription medications, alcohol, or other drugs in favor of cannabis. Adults under 40 were likely to give up all three of these for medical cannabis.

The most startling revelation, and one that will have Big Pharma running to their crony lawmakers, is that 80% of respondents reported substituting cannabis for prescription drugs.

In addition, 52% said they substituted cannabis for alcohol and 32% said they substituted it for illicit substances. These results indicate a very promising trend of people moving away from dangerously addictive and deadly substances in favor of a miracle plant that has never caused an overdose death.

 

The finding that cannabis was substituted for all three classes of substances suggests that the medical use of cannabis may play a harm reduction role in the context of use of these substances, and may have implications for abstinence-based substance use treatment approaches. Further research should seek to differentiate between biomedical substitution for prescription pharmaceuticals and psychoactive drug substitution, and to elucidate the mechanisms behind both.

As The Free Thought Project has reported before, the U.S. is in the midst of a painkiller epidemic, with overdose deaths skyrocketing as Big Pharma has secured its grip on government and mainstream medicine. Opioid painkillers and heroin have driven overdose deaths to the point where they are now the leading cause of fatal injuries in the U.S. Alcohol is also killing Americans at a rate not seen in 35 years.

The results of this survey confirm that cannabis is the answer to all of these problems.

Americans for Safe Access has a comprehensive breakdown of conditions that cannabis can treat, and comparisons to prescription pills.

Chronic Pain
Arthritis
Gastrointestinal Disorders
Movement Disorders
Multiple Sclerosis

We are just beginning to confirm the benefits of cannabis on other conditions such as anxiety which is normally treated with pills such as Xanax, insomnia which is normally treated with pills such as Ambien, and antidepressants which are treated with pills such as Zoloft. All of these prescription drugs can cause debilitating addiction or severe side-effects.

Although the war on drugs put a stop to medical cannabis research for decades, in recent years we have seen a surge in studies being performed, as prohibition crumbles and the Schedule 1 classification of “no medical benefit” is exposed as a farce.

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20 meds gone with 5 patients.  Most from my ms/fibromyalgia patient.  Xanax, vicodin, colonapin and I can't pronounce the others.  I guess spell, here. None were kicked off any medds, all chose not to use.

The Crohns forum I'm on alone has people list 5-7 meds at the bottom of their posts that didn't work and MJ is at the end with a successful tag next to it.  The stats are probably taking into account anyone who dropped 1 pharma med for MJ.  Not that 80% of the meds taken by MJ patients were dropped.  My MS/fibro patient quit 15 meds but stilll takes 1.  My pain patientss probably still take aspirin. So if you count over the counter most of my patients didn't stop ALL pharmas. 

This was a Canadian study.  I'm not sure how they deal with pain management up there and if they kick as many opiate patients out.

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Looking at the death reduction statistics and decreased use of pharmaceuticals, you have to consider all the options.

 

1/  Cannabis itself is safer than narcotics and even NSAID like motrin.  The assumption is that it is a vol change from oxycontin to safer cannabis.  This is the option we all like to believe and based on the feedback I've gotten from patients I believe this is a significant component to the reduction in deaths.

 

2/  Physicians ROUTINELY give patients a choice between cannabis and controlled substances for their pain, one or the other no discussion.  This reduces the iatrogenic deaths due to prescribed narcotics and benzos in combination with narcotics.  This too is a significant component of the reduction and has nothing to do with the safety of cannabis, but the refusal of doctors to prescribe controlled substances to medical cannabis patients.

 

3/  By reducing the use of narcotics in pain control, there is simply less narcotic in the community subject to diversion.  Physicians routinely give 4-8 norco a day to chronic pain patients (probably because that is the only pain med they are familiar with- God forbid they use methadone or another long acting narcotic) and the shear effort of taking all those meds becomes too much, leading to large stocks of norco in the medicine cabinet.  Patients are hesitant to 'rock the boat' and request less medicine for fear they won't have enough, and physicians simply don't follow up and click 'refill' at every visit.  Using cannabis as an excuse to cut people off of narcotics dries up this source of norco floating around.

 

4/  For patients looking for an altered sense of reality cannabis availability and low cost are attractive alternative to narcotics and even alcohol.  Not only is it a direct safer alternative to alcohol and other drugs, the combination of cannabis and narcotics/benzos is clearly safer than the combination of alcohol and narcotics/benzos.

 

5/  The end result is a lower death rate due to a combination of substitution, decreased supply, less lethal interactions and safer recreational alternatives.

 

Our experience with cannabis and chronic pain management is that folks using cannabis can achieve the same or better pain control on 1/3 to 1/4 the amount of narcotics as those not using cannabis.  But the overwhelming fear of consequences from the medical boards and law enforcement make physicians very hesitant to use cannabis to reduce the overall prescription rate of norco and other narcotics.  

 

Clearly this is a very real fear given what I am personally going through now.

 

Dr. Bob

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Not half, no way. We hear about that some here and there, but also hear the opposite much more often, that the doctor knows and is OK with it, even if he won't recommend.

 

I agree with your disbelief of 'not half, no way'.  The experience of a medical practice like mine shows the true number to be closer to 95%.  It is very rare we find a physician treating pain to allow a patient to use both.  In fact, that is the reason we went into pain management, to give them an alternative source of pain control in addition to cannabis.

 

Dr. Bob

Edited by Dr. Bob
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20 meds gone with 5 patients.  Most from my ms/fibromyalgia patient.  Xanax, vicodin, colonapin and I can't pronounce the others.  I guess spell, here. None were kicked off any medds, all chose not to use.

The Crohns forum I'm on alone has people list 5-7 meds at the bottom of their posts that didn't work and MJ is at the end with a successful tag next to it.  The stats are probably taking into account anyone who dropped 1 pharma med for MJ.  Not that 80% of the meds taken by MJ patients were dropped.  My MS/fibro patient quit 15 meds but stilll takes 1.  My pain patientss probably still take aspirin. So if you count over the counter most of my patients didn't stop ALL pharmas. 

This was a Canadian study.  I'm not sure how they deal with pain management up there and if they kick as many opiate patients out.

This is the kind of info I come to this site for. Really interested in the effectiveness for long term narcotic or heavy alcohol use. Instead of a gateway drug we need to promote it as an exit drug. I deal with heavy narcotic users everyday but have little time to talk about cannabis. 

 I have a doctor near the pharmacy that did write a lot of pain meds and would recommend cannabis but he had the fear of God instilled in him by the state. Now he is writting NO CANNABIS and is testing for it. He bragged about dropping 100 Norco patients.

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This is the kind of info I come to this site for. Really interested in the effectiveness for long term narcotic or heavy alcohol use. Instead of a gateway drug we need to promote it as an exit drug. I deal with heavy narcotic users everyday but have little time to talk about cannabis. 

 I have a doctor near the pharmacy that did write a lot of pain meds and would recommend cannabis but he had the fear of God instilled in him by the state. Now he is writting NO CANNABIS and is testing for it. He bragged about dropping 100 Norco patients.

 

 

That is a typical story.

 

Based on my understanding of the use of cannabis and pain control, we could reduce the use of norco and other narcotics in this state by 50%.  And that is a VERY conservative estimate.  Physicians need to look at all options for their pain patients.  The state does not consider medical marijuana as an alternative to narcotics because it is 'just another controlled substance'.  

 

Dr. Bob

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IMO Cannabis is definitely an exit drug for alcohol abuse, not so much for pain killers. With alcohol it makes them sick, with painkillers you have to teach them to substitute. So it's a little more difficult with pain killers. Sometimes it comes down to the affordability of the two substances. If they can get pain killers cheap and cannabis is expensive then they often resort to what they can afford. 

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In my opinion and experience, this is totally wrong. But whatever you want to think is fine. I do know there is a market need for pain clinics that serve medical marihuana patients, but the need is not nearly as great as you indicate. I have no doubt that 95% of your clinic patients have had a negative experience regarding opiate prescriptions, but it is a self-selecting group because you have marketed directly to them.

 

I'll let the patients rely on their own experience then.  I am reporting what my data shows.

 

Dr. Bob

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This is the kind of info I come to this site for. Really interested in the effectiveness for long term narcotic or heavy alcohol use. Instead of a gateway drug we need to promote it as an exit drug. I deal with heavy narcotic users everyday but have little time to talk about cannabis. 

 I have a doctor near the pharmacy that did write a lot of pain meds and would recommend cannabis but he had the fear of God instilled in him by the state. Now he is writting NO CANNABIS and is testing for it. He bragged about dropping 100 Norco patients.

Right On ! pills kill in my experience. I've seen it from both sides of the counter in the industry.

 

I'd like to know your opinion concerning older proven drugs like valium being over looked by so many physicians as an option but jump to Rx an alprazolam or the newer/like. New narcos vs old narcos too? I understand the financial edge of course but am interested in the possible ill health effects caused by patents.

I've witnessed the old timers taking the usual suspects after finally seeing a doc for the first time....all new brand/gen names, as they decline further into dis-ease compared to the old timers who've been taking the same old rx's for decades and able to control issues, and live without this rapid decline of side(undesired) effect caused dis-ease. Maybe that's just my experience, who knows, but you might. thanks

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If you liked pain killers then it's hard to substitute in cannabis. If you disliked pain killers it's easy to substitute in cannabis. I think it has a lot to do with choice. 

Yes, this is what I am looking for. 

 

Yes, I believe that is exactly what I said.

Yes, it is very important to define terms and populations. We are not a homogeneous group.

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Thinking the Major Point here is CANNABIS is Safer than Alcohol, opiates, aderol, cigarettes,etc. 

 

So much safer it has been used to transition folk off these poisons for decades.

 

Good Cannabis IS Good Medicine

Yes, this would be my statement of problem. Thanks for including cigarettes. I have wondered about that but to suggest someone smoke cannabis instead of cigarettes, will draw ridicule, anywhere but on this fourm

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