Marie J. Hayed, PhD, and Mark S. Brown, MD have published an article in JAMA Internal Medicine that notes as Medical Marijuana prescriptions increase in a given community, so too do opioid-related deaths decrease. (Opioids are pain killers such as Oxycodone, Oxycontin, Vicodin, Percocet and Dilauded).
From the UofC, Berkeley Wellness Letter, Feb 2015:
…the 13 states which medical marijuana laws between 2000 and 2010 had a 25% lower opioid-related death rate, on average, than states where marijuana was illegal. The longer the laws were in effect, the greater the reduction. The researchers estimated that in 2010 there were about 1,700 fewer opioid-related deaths than would be have been expected if medical marijuana had not been available.
An important statistic as so many physicians are nervous about choosing the proper medications for patients, and an important tool in the ongoing battle to combat pain killer abuse.
While Allevio does not prescribe medical marijuana (or manage pharmaceuticals for patients generally), the Apollo Applied Research program for Medical Marijuana is the program we tend to refer to. The program is ethics-approved and does not charge patients for prescriptions.