The Department of Health in the state of New York will now offer patients medical marijuana as an opioid alternative. Anyone with a prescription of opioid drugs is able to purchase medical marijuana instead. Medical cannabis was legalized in the state back in 2014.
Between the years 2013 and 2016, an investigation found a 135 percent rise in opioid-related deaths. In 2016, the opioid death rate in the state of New York was two percent higher than the national average.
The New York Health Department has finally decided to step in and is making major changes to its medical marijuana program. Last Monday, the New York State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker announced that anyone with a prescription for opioids would be eligible to use marijuana instead.
Zucker told news reporters:
"We feel this is another way to move the program forward, particularly because there are individuals who are in chronic pain … We feel adding individuals who are on prescription opioids and having them part of the medical marijuana program will help them."
Medical Marijuana as an Opioid Alternative
Multiple studies have shown that medical cannabis is an effective form of treatment for chronic pain. Medicinal cannabis is shown to have far less dangerous side effects and addictive properties compared to opioids.
The Health Department thinks that using medical marijuana as an opioid alternative will reduce the number of individuals addicted to Fentanyl, OxyContin, and Vicodin.
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The Medical Cannabis program has struggled to grow since its start back in 2014. In 2016 when the chronic pain was added to the qualifying conditions to receive medicinal cannabis, everything turned around.
To date, New York has 1,688 licensed physicians that can give out medical marijuana and around 60,000 registered patients across the state. However, there are less than two dozen dispensaries across the entire state. Hopefully, with the new law passed, many more dispensaries will begin to pop up. Especially now that cannabis will be nationally legal in just a few months in neighboring Canada.
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