Cannabis and the Opioid Crisis

A study, in fact, in 2015 shows that among people that were in treatment for opioid use disorder, 30% had initiated opioid use with heroin. [...]there has been a tremendous transition in this country from prescription opioids to heroin use. [...]increases in overdose deaths associated with cocaine and methamphetamine may also be related to adulteration with fentanyl. There is no doubt that there are many patients suffering from pain, and we do not have a lot of options to treat it, especially chronic pain. [...]the cannabinoid system has a lot of promise regarding analgesic potential and alternative medication approaches. [...]it would also be helpful for researchers to be able to obtain and analyze samples of what people are purchasing from dispensaries or growing themselves to determine positive or negative health outcomes of real-world products.