Although opioids exhibit impressive analgesic effects against both chronic and acute pain, the increased prescription rate of this class of drugs has been accompanied by an increase in opioid-related mortality. Legislators believe that the passage of cannabis access laws will play a significant role in addressing the ongoing opioid crisis, which claimed 70,000 deaths in the United States in 2017.
Substituting cannabis for opioids
After an extensive literature review in 2017, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine deemed cannabis to be effective in the treatment of chronic pain in adults. This conclusion, which has been largely supported by various clinical studies, considers the moderate side effects linked to the long-term use of cannabis as compared to the more extreme side effects associated with opioid use.
