Cannabis or Prescription Drugs?

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Cannabis is now legal for medical consumption in 29 states, This is huge! This means there is a lot of places for someone to legally purchase this instead of buying prescription drugs. You can use medicinal marijuana for an assortment of different illnesses, as well as after any surgeries. You may think medical cannabis is not for you due to what you may have heard or the way cannabis is still perceived. Researchers found that over 60% of patients reported using medical cannabis as a substitute for their prescription pills. Before you banish the idea of the idea of medical cannabis, you may want to consider these ideas on why patients should try cannabis over prescription pills.









1) Avoiding overdoses and addictions.

With the way things are going with most pain medication so many people are becoming addicted to their prescriptions and with the addiction it can cause you to take more then you should which can result in overdosing. In Canada alone, there is around 100,000 people each year overdosing from opioid-related deaths. States that have legalized medical cannabis have seen a decrease in overdoses by around 20- 30% and the numbers keep decreasing. That is because of the obvious choice of switching over to cannabis. Now when taking these prescription drugs it may not even be you who overdoses, If you have your medication lying around or in open sight you have a risk of someone getting their hands on them, like your friends, guests or even worse your kids. Now in the hands of someone who has no idea what this may do to their body and having no idea how much their body can even tolerate, will end in something tragic. The consumer could get very sick, have an allergic reaction, end up in the hospital, or worse overdose. When thinking about cannabis please keep in mind that there has never been any recorded deaths, now that is something to catch your interests. Cannabis is thought of to be a great solution to the on-going opioid epidemic. Many of prescription patients used cannabis to help them get off of the heavier drugs like pain killers.





2) Decrease in pain

Without doubt the most important attribute of an analgesic drug is to relieve pain, and medical cannabis surpasses expectations in this regard. A great thing to know when thinking about cannabis is the decrease in pain it will provide you with. CBD, also know as Cannabidiol is one of the many active ingredients in Cannabis. The more familiar chemical in cannabis is THC- tetrahydrocannabinol, which is the psychoactive substance in cannabis. Now CBD in accurate rations can counteract the unwanted negative effects of THC. When using a cannabis strain that is higher in CBD than THC, the unwanted paranoia and euphoric results are much less. At the same time, it helps tremendously with benefiting the pain and nausea you are dealing with.





3) Reduced side effects.

When comparing the side effects of medical cannabis to prescription pills there are hardly any harmful side effects from cannabis, now prescription pills can have thousand side effects anywhere from constipation, hair loss, sight, even death, and those are just a few of them. When thinking about making the change from prescription pills to cannabis you may want to consider finding the right strain for your needs, just like a prescription pill you will need to find a certain one for your issues, may it be pain, insomnia, anxiety and/or depression. Now the side effects of cannabis can vary from person to person just like prescription pills but should only cause you to become drowsy, possibly dizziness and becoming anxious, but if used properly with the right strain and dosage should not cause any side effects other than helping comfort your needs. Over all cannabis is the best option when looking into the side effects since it has hardly any to none depending on the person and how it is being used. Studies shown that medical cannabis could also manage symptoms better than most prescription pills.





4) Who is a good candidate for medical cannabis?

When wondering if you would be the right fit for medical cannabis you should firstly speak to your doctor or a medical despensary about the prescription pills you are currently taking and what illnesses you have. As stated by the most up to date recommendations by medical associations a physician must provide documentation that the patient has a serious medical condition and have reason to believe that cannabis is an appropriate alternative to prescription pills. If you have AIDS, anorexia, arthritis, cachexia, chronic pain, glaucoma, seizures, migraines, cancer, muscle spasms, multiple sclerosis or other chronic and persistent pain then you are a great candidate for medical cannabis. A study found that consumers suffering from more than 25 different health issues with symptoms from depression to migraines reported a reduction from symptoms by cutting the reduction almost in half just by consuming cannabis instead of their prescription pills. Patients using cannabis to treat depression and anxiety symptoms reported more relief than consumers using for pain symptoms. These have all been based off of consuming cannabis in many various forms, like topicals, sprays and concentrates.









If you suffer from insomnia this may be a great alternative than your prescription drugs also, there has been studies done and prove that it helps almost 50% more than your prescribed medication. With studies done it shows that the majority of prescription drug users are over the age of 55, with that being said they may be taking anywhere from 2-5 different prescriptions a day. Most of these people would be a good candidate for medical cannabis as it would probably cut there intake of pills or remove them all completely from there life. Now because many prescription drugs have so many negative side effects, medical cannabis as been gaining a popular growth, especially with older patients with health conditions. A good candidate for medical cannabis is anyone with any medical condition that causes a patient significant disability or pain, with it being mental or physical pain. Make sure you follow up with your doctor after you start consumption of your cannabis treatment to monitor how it works with you. Treat it the same as you would with your prescription pills and understand every patient is unique and not every thing will work the same for everyone.





In conclusion, the results from this study provide a ton of information on why medicinal cannabis is such a great alternative to prescription drugs. It shows a significant decrease in opioid related deaths, decreased spending on opioids and traffic fatalities. It proves that THC has medical benefits in particular formulations. There are pill forms of treatments used to help for the patients undergoing chemotherapy for nausea. This study also prove that using cannabis will result in a less opioid dependent world which will result in fewer public health harms. Now using cannabis as a medicine can pose a bit of a threat to your health if you are smoking it, though no where near as much as a cigarette. Nevertheless, it side effects are very minimal and there are many ways of ingesting cannabis so smoking does not have to be an issue. Overall patients with access to medical marijuana stated having fewer side effects and a increased improvement of their daily life, also a decreased use of opioids. Improved relief of pain and better living condition when choosing medical cannabis over prescription drugs.