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SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

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The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

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Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Medical Marijuana May Reduce Opioid Abuse

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Monday, November 14, 2016   

CHARLESTON, W. Va. – Medical marijuana may reduce opioid painkiller use and abuse, three separate studies suggest.

Tara Holmes studied the issue this summer for the West Virginia Center On Budget and Policy. She said one of the studies that noted the clear benefits of medical marijuana was the 2015 National Bureau of Economic Research report.

"Providing broader access to medical marijuana may have the potential benefit of reducing abuse of highly-addictive painkillers,” Holmes concluded.

Separate research found fewer overdoses, and that older patients took fewer opioid painkillers in states that have approved medical marijuana use, she said. The West Virginia Legislature discussed legalizing cannabis for medical use last year, but some expressed concern that the move could increase abuse of what has sometimes been described as a "gateway drug."

Several neighboring states are now in the process of implementing medical marijuana laws. West Virginia's Legislature seems likely to consider the issue again in the next session, in part because marijuana could be a source of badly-needed revenue. And according to Holmes, a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found a significant health benefit.

"The 2014 study done by JAMA suggests that statewide legalization of marijuana is linked with lower state-level opioid overdoses,” she said.

Medical Marijuana patients often take a pharmaceutical grade extraction – and defenders say that shouldn't be confused with the joints that might be sold by a street dealer.

In fact, Holmes said a third study looked at the prescription habits of Medicare Part D patients. She said even though all were over 65, they took fewer opioid painkillers when medical marijuana was available; healthier, she said, and cheaper.

"They would choose that over an opioid-based painkiller. Also, on the flip side of that, the state wouldn't be paying for these prescription drugs, and these people wouldn't be paying for it out-of-pocket."

West Virginia has a high rate of both chronic pain and opioid prescriptions. The state also has more than twice the national average rate of overdose deaths.

More information on Holmes's finding is available here.


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