Study: Legalizing Medical Marijuana Leads to Fewer Prescription Drug Overdose Deaths A study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine found that states that had legalized medical marijuana had seen a 25 percent drop in deaths related to prescription drug overdoses. According to ABC News, the researchers conducting the study found that because “legalizing medical marijuana makes it more available to chronic pain patients, it provides a potentially less lethal alternative to pain control on a long-term basis.” Over the course of the study, the states studied were the ones that allowed access to medical marijuana. The Washington Post reported that those states “had 1,729 fewer overdose deaths in 2010 than would be predicted by trends in states without such laws.” Dr. Marcus Bachhuber, a physician and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, and the lead author of the study, told ABC News that while he did expect to see changes among the states that legalized medical marijuana, he found it “surprising that the difference is so big.” Read More:
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 15:00:00 +0000
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