Today on Science Friday(NPR) (AUDIO-Do We Need Pot To Fight The Opioid Epidemic?
Studies suggest cracking down on legalized marijuana will only make things worse.-)
As Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently wrote in a letter to Congress, the U.S. is “in the midst of an historic drug epidemic.” Indeed, the rapid rise in opioid and heroin use has caused a nearly six-fold increase in overdose deaths since 2002.
In his letter, which was released this week, Sessions expressed his opposition to an amendment protecting medical marijuana providers. Marijuana, he has said, isn’t the way to combat opiate abuse. “I am astonished to hear people suggest that we can solve our heroin crisis by legalizing marijuana—so people can trade one life-wrecking dependency for another that’s only slightly less awful,” he said in a speech in front of federal, state, and local law enforcement in March.
The handful of states that have so far legalized cannabis in one form or another have long been at odds with federal law. But in 2013, under former President Barack Obama, the Department of Justice made the decision to defer to state governments that had developed strict laws and regulations for marijuana use. In 2014, Congress followed up with an amendment to the federal budget that would prohibit the DOJ from using any money to interfere with the legal use of medical marijuana at the state level. Now Sessions is looking to change course on state marijuana rules by blocking the passage of the new amendment.
Where opiate addiction is concerned, however, Sessions’ worries about cannabis seem unwarranted. In a recent article, Scientific American reporter Dina Fine Maron wrote that studies suggest medical marijuana use actually lowers the rate of prescription opioid use, and therefore addiction. Maron joins David Bradford, a professor of public policy at the University of Georgia, to discuss what science says about marijuana legalization and prescription opioid use outcomes.
Studies suggest cracking down on legalized marijuana will only make things worse.-)
As Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently wrote in a letter to Congress, the U.S. is “in the midst of an historic drug epidemic.” Indeed, the rapid rise in opioid and heroin use has caused a nearly six-fold increase in overdose deaths since 2002.
In his letter, which was released this week, Sessions expressed his opposition to an amendment protecting medical marijuana providers. Marijuana, he has said, isn’t the way to combat opiate abuse. “I am astonished to hear people suggest that we can solve our heroin crisis by legalizing marijuana—so people can trade one life-wrecking dependency for another that’s only slightly less awful,” he said in a speech in front of federal, state, and local law enforcement in March.
The handful of states that have so far legalized cannabis in one form or another have long been at odds with federal law. But in 2013, under former President Barack Obama, the Department of Justice made the decision to defer to state governments that had developed strict laws and regulations for marijuana use. In 2014, Congress followed up with an amendment to the federal budget that would prohibit the DOJ from using any money to interfere with the legal use of medical marijuana at the state level. Now Sessions is looking to change course on state marijuana rules by blocking the passage of the new amendment.
Where opiate addiction is concerned, however, Sessions’ worries about cannabis seem unwarranted. In a recent article, Scientific American reporter Dina Fine Maron wrote that studies suggest medical marijuana use actually lowers the rate of prescription opioid use, and therefore addiction. Maron joins David Bradford, a professor of public policy at the University of Georgia, to discuss what science says about marijuana legalization and prescription opioid use outcomes.
