One New Marijuana Chart Destroys Pharma

The Pharmaceutical companies have lobbied hard against the marijuana industry. They fund legislation that looks to keep marijuana as illegal. An article in The Guardian from 4-months ago shows the deceitful lengths pharma will go when attempting to thwart marijuana’s evolution as a legal, holistic solution for people’s medical needs.

In August, the pharmaceutical company Insys Therapeutics also cited concerns for child safety when, with a $500,000 contribution, it became the largest donor to Arizona’s anti-legalization drive. But their stated concerns have raised a few eyebrows across the state. Insys manufactures Subsys, a prescription painkiller derived from fentanyl, the synthetic opioid that is up to 100 times more powerful than morphine.

Now, new evidence has surfaced showing that painkiller addiction is lower in states that have legal marijuana. The assumption is that people with pain are opting to give marijuna a try. A further assumption might assume that the marijuana is working for many who try it. The new study, released in the journal Health Affairs, suggest that this is the case. The study was accomplished at the University of Georgia by scouring the database of all prescription drugs paid for under Medicare Part D from 2010 to 2013. They found that in the 17 states with legal medical marijuana, painkiller prescriptions decreased dramatically.

More astounding, in medical marijuana states, doctors prescribed 1,826 fewer painkiller prescriptions per year.

To validate the study’s findings, similar scans were performed on blood thinners, anti-viral drugs and antibiotics. And those showed no differences between medical marijuana states and non-medical marijuana states.

“This provides strong evidence that the observed shifts in prescribing patterns were in fact due to the passage of the medical marijuana laws,” they write.

Pharmaceutical companies can’t be thrilled about this trend. And something tells me they will turn up the heat on propaganda shortly.