Thanks, Senator Warren

http://www.thecannabist.co/

Can pot help with the opioid crisis? This U.S. senator wants to know more

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is urging the CDC to look into marijuana as a possible antidote to painkiller deaths

My comment:

I thank Senator Warren for bringing up this issue. Hopefully, it will save the lives of some pain patients — at least, in the long run. Maybe she can also make a request to Medicare, asking it to cover medical cannabis. Too bad these actions weren’t taken before the CDC and FDA decided to join PFROP and the anti-opioid advocacy crowd, and BEFORE doctors began refusing to treat pain patients, forcing many into cold-turkey detoxes and suicide.

When more people die from suicide than from opioid-related causes, which is the epidemic?

It’s obvious that Senator Warren doesn’t understand what it means to suffer from chronic pain. Patients need equal and affordable access to ALL treatment options, not just the ones that politicians think we should have. Restricting access to one drug, while showing favoritism to another, is not really how medical science is supposed to work. After all, tens of millions of pain patients benefit from taking opioids, yet it’s only thousands who suffer from drug abuse and addiction.

The failed drug war has taught us that when restrictions are placed on one drug, it just results in the increase of more dangerous drugs. (For example, cannabis and Spice. And, of course, opioids and illegal heroin.)

We all know that drugs don’t cause addiction — it’s not that simple. And when you discriminate against one drug, you discriminate against all of them.