conditions to get medical marijuana Archives - Minnesota Physical Medicine Blog

Last month we discussed the new study published in JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association) showing that drug overdose deaths due to opioids declined in 13 states that legalized medical marijuana. The study just looked at death rates overall due to opioids and noted that they happened to decline up to 30% in states that legalized medical marijuana. Today, I expand on the findings.

This study is great, sensational news, but in reality, it is a leap of faith that these two subjects are truly correlated. Opioid overdose and deaths are a very complex issue. The overdose of opioids is linked to many things, especially recreational use. The death rate from overdose is related to many factors, including whether the overdose was accidental or on purpose, such as a suicide. Furthermore, the access to treatment for overdose is important, especially whether first responders can recognize it and provide drug reversal rapidly and then get a person to a hospital for support. So, if you are using opioids to get high, it does not matter if marijuana for medical use is legal since they are not using it.

Medical marijuana is used for a variety of problems, including nausea related to cancer, seizures, and glaucoma. None of those conditions have much to do with opioids and drug overdoses. So if marijuana is legal for glaucoma or treating seizures, why would death rate due to narcotic overdose change? Rationally, it would not.

Unfortunately, this is just another example of a study finding a nice statistic that has no true correlation to the data. This study did not specifically look at factors that are related to opioid overdose death. If the study actually looked at reasons related to opioid overdoses, treatments, and deaths, there may be some validity. Rewarding medical marijuana with this lofty success is poor research and data interpretation. A prestigious journal, JAMA, should do much better at critically analyzing research and publishing articles. This is an amazingly poor job of data analysis and conclusions with an over simplification of causes of opioid related deaths.

Minnesota has taken a conservative approach to the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Only a little quality research has been done with regards to the use of marijuana for pain. Most of these studies have been done for patients with cancer or eye problems, and current research is focused on seizures.

The reason why marijuana research is moving slowly is because there are all over 100 compounds that may be an active in cannabis. Most medical professionals would like to know both the positive and negative aspects of any intervention. Since there is no significant marijuana research available, it is hard for medical professionals to recommend the use of this compound.

Marijuana in Minnesota

Minnesota’s new marijuana laws allow the use of marijuana for only limited medical diagnoses. At this time, chronic pain is not included in the list of treatment recommendations. Chronic pain is extremely complex, and has multiple causes in most people. A single compound like marijuana is unlikely to be helpful and every person. Determining which group of patients would be helped by such a compound will be difficult due to the variety of conditions that cause pain.

Most physicians in Minnesota will not be prescribing medical marijuana. If you have chronic pain, do not expect a physician to write you a prescription for marijuana, especially since it isn’t approved for recreational use in Minnesota or even nationally. Furthermore, the drug enforcement administration (DEA) can stop a physician from being able to prescribe any medications if they prescribe to known drug abusers. The use of marijuana is not considered a legal medication, and physicians can lose their license if they prescribe to a patient who abuses marijuana.

Alleviating Symptoms

Pain symptoms in some patients may seem to improve with the use of marijuana. There are many compounds in marijuana that may help control a variety of symptoms including anxiety and pain. Most physicians who are prescribing control medications such as narcotics will do a urine drug screen to determine whether street drugs are being used by the patient. Most physicians have a zero tolerance rule for the use of street drugs since they could lose their license if they prescribe to an abuser. If you use marijuana, do not expect to be prescribed narcotic medication. Most pain physicians will work with you to control your symptoms with other treatments that are very effective in managing your problems.

In the distant future, when we know which compounds in marijuana are effective, we may be able to develop more comprehensive treatment plans for patients with chronic pain. Until that time, hopefully the change in laws will promote good research with regards to the active compounds that will be effective in managing pain. More tools to treat pain will always be helpful. Unfortunately, research takes time and these new compounds may take up to 10 years or longer to develop.