With more than 46 people dying every day from a prescription opioid overdose, it’s fair to say that our country is in the midst of an extreme opioid epidemic. This ever-rising issue has led many government officials, healthcare professionals, and pain sufferers to consider alternative pain relief options such as medical marijuana.

Unlike prescription pills, marijuana is less addictive and highly unlikely to cause an overdose. It’s a safer, more viable, and all-around healthier choice when compared to opioids. Read now to learn more about how cannabis can be the opioid-cure that America so desperately needs.

Marijuana is an Effective Pain Reliever

It is widely known that pot has many therapeutic effects. From headaches, seizures, joint aches, and chronic pain, sufferers turn to cannabidiol, or CBD, the chemical found in marijuana, to relieve pain without getting high.

Marijuana is Less Addictive  

Many factors can be attributed as to why America has become so addicted to opiates. For one, opiates have gotten stronger over the years creating more dependency. Two, doctors continue to regularly recommend and refill prescription pills as the solution for pain sufferers, creating a monopoly. Lastly, pharmaceutical companies heavily advertise their pills, creating consumer demand for “designer drugs”. All of these factors,  combined with the fact that opioids create physical dependency in the user, play important roles in America’s unprecedented opioid addiction.

To note though, heavy marijuana use “can lead to the development of problem use, known as a marijuana use disorder… often associated with dependence—in which a person feels withdrawal symptoms when not taking the drug.” – National Institute of Drug Abuse. While it is a much less addictive option compared to opioids, it also bears warning to use responsibly.

Marijuana Cannot Cause Death

Per ZenMd, “As of 2017, there have been no known overdoses of medical marijuana. In addition, it is much more likely for individuals to become addicted to heroin or cocaine based on opioid use than marijuana use as opioids are derived from the same source as harder illegal drugs.” Again, you have much higher chances of developing an addiction to opioids. Addiction can lead to overdosing, and overdosing can lead to death. Marijuana is the safer choice time and time again.

Marijuana is Better in the Long Run

CBD users can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that marijuana has few long-term side effects. While with opioids, long-term use of prescription pills have been found to lead to decreased brain function, liver damage, hormonal dysfunction, and an overall weakening of the immune system.

Marijuana Helps with Nausea

Aspirin, antibiotics, birth control pills, ibuprofen, blood pressure drugs, and SO. MANY. MORE. are all medications citing nausea as a known side effect. Doctors routinely prescribe these and other similar types of pills, and when people complain of the pill-induced nausea, they prescribe additional opioids to counteract the side effect. This is a cycle of insanity.

Unlike pills, marijuana actually relieves nausea and vomiting. Cancer patients across the world have turned to cannabis to combat the nauseating side effects of chemotherapy, over and over again.