Marijuana and Opioids

Mark Pew is a blogger, public speaker and advocate for the constrained use of opioids in workers’ comp cases. He works for Preferred Medical and tweets prolifically under the handle @RxProfessor. He recently posted a thoughtful essay in which he concluded that the momentum for medical marijuana is connected with the opioid epidemic.

If anyone thinks that the momentum in medical marijuana legalization is not tied to the opioid epidemic, they’ve not been paying attention.

I’ve been engaged in addressing the inappropriate over-prescribing of opioids since 2003. Next week will be the start of my fifth year studying, talking and writing about medical marijuana. So I have a unique perspective borne from years of observation. Early on in that process I believed there was a connection between opioids and marijuana because of conversations I had and stories I read. This was the argument I heard repeatedly from proponents…

Read the whole thing.

The debate over medical marijuana and opioids in workers’ comp (and in our private lives) is not going to end soon. The financial and human costs of improper prescribing habits are enormous.