Pubdate: Sat, 14 Nov 2015
Source: Alaska Dispatch News (AK)
Copyright: 2015 Alaska Dispatch Publishing
Contact:  http://www.adn.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/18
Note: Anchorage Daily News until July '14
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v15/n643/a01.html

JAMA SHOWS LEGAL MARIJUANA LOWERS OPIOID, ALCOHOL ABUSE

Regarding Mike Dingman's op-ed (ADN, Nov. 11), Alaska needs to get 
legal marijuana sales up and running. Research published in the 
Journal of the American Medical Association shows states with open 
medical marijuana access have a 25 percent lower opioid overdose 
death rate than marijuana prohibition states. This research finding 
has huge implications for states like Alaska that are grappling with 
prescription narcotic and heroin overdose deaths.

California physicians documented the substitution effect long before 
the JAMA research. Legal marijuana access is correlated with a 
reduction in alcohol and opioid abuse. Marijuana is incapable of 
causing an overdose death. Not even aspirin can make the same claim, 
much less alcohol or opioids. The phrase "if it saves one life" has 
been used to justify all manner of drug war abuses. Legal marijuana 
access has the potential to save thousands of lives.

- - Robert Sharpe, MPA

Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, D.C.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom