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Tag: medical marijuana programs

  • Legal Cannabis Doesn’t Reduce Opioid Deaths

    Legal Cannabis Doesn’t Reduce Opioid Deaths

    States with medical cannabis programs actually have 23% more opioid overdose deaths than states without medical cannabis, a new study found.

    Since the 2014 release of a study that suggested that states with medical marijuana programs had fewer opioid overdose deaths, proponents of legalized cannabis have argued that it can help save lives amid the opioid crisis. 

    A new, broader study released this week, however, has found that states with medical cannabis programs actually have 23% more opioid overdose deaths than states without medical cannabis. The new results called into concern efforts to paint marijuana legalization as a solution to opioid abuse. 

    “It’s become such a pervasive idea. It would be amazing if it was this simple, but the evidence is telling us now that it’s not,” lead author Chelsea Shover told STAT News. 

    The original study looked at the years 1999 through 2010. During that time, 13 states had medical marijuana programs, and the study found that those states had opioid overdose rates that were 25% lower than states without medical cannabis. 

    When Shover’s team replicated that study, they found the same results in that time period. However, they then expanded the study, looking at years through 2017. During that time, many more states implemented medical cannabis programs, and a handful introduced legalized recreational cannabis.

    During that time period, the researchers found that states with legal medical cannabis actually had higher overdose rates. 

    “Not only did findings from the original analysis not hold over the longer period, but the association between state medical cannabis laws and opioid overdose mortality reversed direction from−21% to +23% and remained positive after accounting for recreational cannabis laws,” study authors wrote. 

    The authors of the new study concluded that the apparent connection between legalized cannabis and opioid overdose deaths was “spurious,” or false.  

    “We find it unlikely that medical cannabis—used by about 2.5% of the U.S. population—has exerted large conflicting effects on opioid overdose mortality,” study authors wrote. 

    Shover emphasized this point. “This isn’t to say that cannabis was saving lives 10 years ago and it’s killing people today,” she said. “We’re saying these two things are probably not causally related.”

    Because opioids and medical marijuana are both commonly used to treat pain, the theory went that people with access to cannabis for pain relief were less likely to get hooked on addictive opioids. Today, states including Illinois allow people to substitute medical marijuana for conditions that they otherwise would be given opioids for. This is based on the assumption that cannabis is safer—and less addictive—than opioids. 

    Neuroscientist Yasmin Hurd, who directs the Addiction Institute at Mount Sinai in New York, said that further large-scale research is needed to examine the link—if any—between access to cannabis and opioid overdoses. 

    “In a time of an epidemic, we have to think differently,” she said. “We have to be more bold in pushing forward clinical trials on a much faster timeline than we have in the past.”

    Although she agreed that cannabis is less dangerous than opioids, she said that marijuana policy should not be pushed forward as a harm reduction strategy for opioids. 

    She said, “Is cannabis less of a mortality risk than opioids? Absolutely. Hands down. But there’s really no research that says cannabis use per se decreases opioid overdose. You can’t make your medical cannabis laws based on that [hypothesis].”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • New Law Allows Washington Students To Use Medical Marijuana On Campus

    New Law Allows Washington Students To Use Medical Marijuana On Campus

    Prior to the passing of the new law, students would have to leave campus and miss school to take their medication.

    The recent signing of a bill will allow students in the state of Washington to use medicinal marijuana at schools. 

    According to High Times, the signing of Ducky’s Bill by Gov. Jay Inslee will allow the use of medicinal marijuana in public schools, with a few provisions: it must be given in liquid form and can only be given by a parent of the student.  

    Previously, Inslee told K5 News that the goal of this bill is to keep students in school for more time rather than face losing that time because of having to be given their medication.

    “Currently children who need medical marijuana… have to leave school. They’re missing valuable time,” he said. 

    According to High Times, the bill is named after 9-year-old River “Ducky” Barclay of Aberdeen, Washington. Barclay suffers from a genetic disorder referred to as Batten disease. 

    Because of this, she suffers from seizures. However, when the girl was in second grade, her parents found that the use of cannabis oil decreased her seizure activity and also lead to her being more focused during her classes. 

    As a result, Barclay and her father, John, began advocating for the use of such medications on school property. Her father was present at the bill signing, but reportedly said his daughter was too sick to be present. 

    According to her father, Ducky can no longer speak and is now blind. She is not expected to live past the age of 14. However, John says, she seemed to understand when he told her the bill had been passed. 

    “All I could say was, ‘I have the good news.’ She reacted very happily to it,” he said.

    According to Washington state Rep. Brian Blake, who sponsored the bill, Ducky’s story has been inspiring. 

    “Like Ducky, there are other children in our state who struggle with seizures or other disorders and I am convinced that these bills will make their lives better,” Blake told KXRO. “It doesn’t have to be this way. We can help these kids so they can have the same opportunity to learn and enjoy school as any other Washington student.”

    For Ducky’s father, the chance to see the lives of other students improve due to his daughter’s action is meaningful.

    “It’s humbling and overwhelming,” he said.

    Similar bills have been passed in other states, the High Times reports, including New Jersey and Colorado.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Are Courts Now Ruling In Favor Of Legal Weed-Using Employees?

    Are Courts Now Ruling In Favor Of Legal Weed-Using Employees?

    A recent case may change the legal precedent for employees who use marijuana.

    Courts around the country are beginning to rule against employers who terminate people for using cannabis in states where medical or recreational use is legal, reversing years of courts siding with employers on the issue. 

    Last month a federal judge ruled in favor of Katelin Noffsinger, who sued a Connecticut nursing home that rescinded her job offer when she tested positive for THC. Noffsinger had told the nursing home that she used medical cannabis pills at night to control her PTSD.

    Still, when she tested positive for cannabis the nursing home said that she could not work for them, saying it could jeopardize federal funding that the home received. 

    This is the first time that a federal judge has ruled in favor of someone using medical marijuana, according to TIME. In previous cases judges have ruled that employers can terminate or not hire a person who uses cannabis because the drug remains illegal under federal law.

    “This decision reflects the rapidly changing cultural and legal status of cannabis, and affirms that employers should not be able to discriminate against those who use marijuana responsibly while off the job, in compliance with the laws of their state,” Paul Armentano, deputy director of NORML, a pro-marijuana group, told TIME. 

    Previously, case law indicated that judges were likely to side with employers, but the Noffsinger case could change the precedent. 

    “This is a very significant case that throws the issue in doubt for many of these federal contractors,” said Fiona Ong, an employment attorney with the Baltimore firm of Shawe Rosenthal. “It’s certainly interesting and may be indicative of where the courts are going with this.”

    Thirty-one states have medical marijuana programs. However, only nine states—including Connecticut—have made it illegal to discriminate against someone based on their use of medical marijuana.

    Still, cannabis use is a grey area in employment. Some states prohibit employers from discriminating against someone for using outside work hours, but this gets complicated in states where cannabis use is legal, while it remains prohibited on the federal level. 

    “What is cannabis if it’s lawful on the state but not the federal level?” William Bogot, co-chair of the cannabis law practice at Fox Rothschild, told CityLab in 2016.

    U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Meyer, who ruled in the Noffsinger case, pointed out that the federal Drug Free Workplace Act, which dictates drug-testing policies, does not require drug testing and does not prohibit federal contractors from employing people who use legal medical marijuana outside of work. Some employers have stopped testing for THC. 

    Recently, state judges in Rhode Island and Massachusetts also ruled in favor of people who were denied employment because of their cannabis use, prompting the American Bar Association to call the cases “an emerging trend in employment litigation.”

    View the original article at thefix.com