I have long been an advocate of legalizing marijuana. The evidence of this being a harmful drug are lacking and the incarceration rates relevant to it are completely out of line.

But here is the main emphasis I would like to make. Marijuana (Cannabis) would be a safe alternative to opioid pain treatment. And in this current crisis, we owe it to everyone on chronic pain therapy to have it available to them.

Maybe complete legalization is too far for some, but a much more open and simple process of medical marijuana must be allowed. The expensive bureaucracy that we are creating is just unnecessary.

Regulate it heavily. Make marijuana availability equivalent to the restrictions on alcohol or tobacco. But we need to cease the criminality farce.

Law enforcement has not been on board legalization efforts. And I understand that to some extent. Forcing weed underground with all of the criminal elements involved give police and investigators all sorts of headaches. And I assume that they cannot fathom changing that overnight.

But we can and we must. Because too many people have no other alternatives than opioids for pain.

Marijuana is not going to be a panacea of change here. It won’t help everybody but in terms of medicine, it will do no harm. The evidence of what little study we are allowed to do on marijuana is very encouraging and for a country in an addiction crisis – what do we really have to lose?

New studies are giving us even better information….

A November 2017 study comparing opioids and cannabis had a very positive correlation. The conclusion:

The clinically and statistically significant evidence of an association between MCP enrollment and opioid prescription cessation and reductions and improved quality of life warrants further investigations on cannabis as a potential alternative to prescription opioids for treating chronic pain.

Another study had further positive results….

34 percent reported having used opioid pain medication in the previous six months. A majority of patients reported that cannabis was just as effective or more effective than opioids — but without undesirable side effects. Of the patients reporting having used opioids, 97 percent reported having been able to reduce or eliminate opioids. And, 81 percent reported using cannabis alone was more effective opioids.

Legalizing marijuana is becoming a necessity. And all the handwringing about its “dangers” are close to fantasy in actuality.

We do not have a friendly Justice Department in this regard. In fact, Jeff Sessions is the worst possible place holder for real progress on this issue. But the public needs to override all of that.

Chronic pain victims need your help.