Marijuana, When Paired With Other Powerful, Quasi-Legal Drugs, Really Works on Pain, California Study Says

• You are stupid. Pharmacology does not work like 2nd grade math. One drug is not equal to another, which is why drugs are not quantified as 1 or 2, or 3 or 4. .

• You are stupid. Pharmacology does not work like 2nd grade math. One drug is not equal to another, which is why drugs are not quantified as 1 or 2, or 3 or 4. Talk about horribly flawed logic; Drugs cannot be considered equal, and therefore cannot be given a number value like you attempted to. Cannabis and opiates cannot be quantified and represented as 1+1. They are completely different substances with different properties and functions. Your analogy, if you want to call it that, is very poorly constructed, and it would make more sense to say "morphine and oxycodone is the same as 1+1" because they are the same class and type of drug. If you want to quantify the drugs in terms of harm done to the patient or user by giving cannabis a lower number for harm, and an opiate drug a higher number for harm, then it could make sense to give the drugs a number value. Cannabis would be something like 1, for least amount of harm, and opiates would be somewhere around a 9, from a scale of 1-10. Cannabis has never been the cause of death to any human being, while dozens of people die everyday in the US from opiate drug abuse (most die from poly drug intoxication, not just the abuse of opiate based drugs). Since you are not a doctor or pharmocologist, no one has any reason to believe what you are saying about how adding cannabis to a pain patients treatment is bad. Your logic, that "more" is bad, is very simplistic; so much so that its simplicity voids any truth to the theory. In this case, more cannabis and less opium is not bad....it is actually good. The toxicity of cannabis is nearly nonexistent, while opium based medicine is extremely toxic and can be very dangerous, specifically when mixed with other drugs (not cannabis) or alcohol. If a patient can reduce the amount of the highly toxic and dangerous drug by using cannabis in conjunction to treat their pain, then they would be much better off in terms of health than if they just used increased amounts of the opiates. That was actually the purpose of this study; to determine, even if preliminarily, whether using cannabis in conjunction with opiate pain relieving drugs offers any benefit to the patient. You apparently dismissed the findings of this study for your own biases opinions on the matter. I suppose you yourself put it best....the scientists and doctors are the geniuses, not you.

• Talk about horribly flawed logic; Drugs cannot be considered equal, and therefore cannot be given a number value like you attempted to. Cannabis and opiates cannot be quantified and represented as 1+1. They are completely different substances with different properties and functions. Your analogy, if you want to call it that, is very poorly constructed, and it would make more sense to say "morphine and oxycodone is the same as 1+1" because they are the same class and type of drug. If you want to quantify the drugs in terms of harm done to the patient or user by giving cannabis a lower number for harm, and an opiate drug a higher number for harm, then it could make sense to give the drugs a number value. Cannabis would be something like 1, for least amount of harm, and opiates would be somewhere around a 9, from a scale of 1-10. Cannabis has never been the cause of death to any human being, while dozens of people die everyday in the US from opiate drug abuse (most die from poly drug intoxication, not just the abuse of opiate based drugs). Since you are not a doctor or pharmocologist, no one has any reason to believe what you are saying about how adding cannabis to a pain patients treatment is bad. Your logic, that "more" is bad, is very simplistic; so much so that its simplicity voids any truth to the theory. In this case, more cannabis and less opium is not bad....it is actually good. The toxicity of cannabis is nearly nonexistent, while opium based medicine is extremely toxic and can be very dangerous, specifically when mixed with other drugs (not cannabis) or alcohol. If a patient can reduce the amount of the highly toxic and dangerous drug by using cannabis in conjunction to treat their pain, then they would be much better off in terms of health than if they just used increased amounts of the opiates. That was actually the purpose of this study; to determine, even if preliminarily, whether using cannabis in conjunction with opiate pain relieving drugs offers any benefit to the patient. You apparently dismissed the findings of this study for your own biases opinions on the matter. I suppose you yourself put it best....the scientists and doctors are the geniuses, not you.

• Talk about horribly flawed logic; Drugs cannot be considered equal, and therefore cannot be given a number value like you attempted to. Cannabis and opiates cannot be quantified and represented as 1+1. They are completely different substances with different properties and functions. Your analogy, if you want to call it that, is very poorly constructed, and it would make more sense to say "morphine and oxycodone is the same as 1+1" because they are the same class and type of drug. If you want to quantify the drugs in terms of harm done to the patient or user by giving cannabis a lower number for harm, and an opiate drug a higher number for harm, then it could make sense to give the drugs a number value. Cannabis would be something like 1, for least amount of harm, and opiates would be somewhere around a 9, from a scale of 1-10. Cannabis has never been the cause of death to any human being, while dozens of people die everyday in the US from opiate drug abuse (most die from poly drug intoxication, not just the abuse of opiate based drugs). Since you are not a doctor or pharmocologist, no one has any reason to believe what you are saying about how adding cannabis to a pain patients treatment is bad. Your logic, that "more" is bad, is very simplistic; so much so that its simplicity voids any truth to the theory. In this case, more cannabis and less opium is not bad....it is actually good. The toxicity of cannabis is nearly nonexistent, while opium based medicine is extremely toxic and can be very dangerous, specifically when mixed with other drugs (not cannabis) or alcohol. If a patient can reduce the amount of the highly toxic and dangerous drug by using cannabis in conjunction to treat their pain, then they would be much better off in terms of health than if they just used increased amounts of the opiates. That was actually the purpose of this study; to determine, even if preliminarily, whether using cannabis in conjunction with opiate pain relieving drugs offers any benefit to the patient. You apparently dismissed the findings of this study for your own biases opinions on the matter. I suppose you yourself put it best....the scientists and doctors are the geniuses, not you.

• Also, the DEA knows very well that cannabis has medical properties and value, regardless of what they tell the American public. The US federal government owns the only patent for cannabinoids, and the patent itself names these natural occurring chemical compounds as antioxidants and neuroprotectants. They also allow  certain people to do research with imported medical cannabis from Canada (through Kenex) and from Amsterdam (through Hortafarm and GW pharma). It is quite clear that their hypocrisy on the issue of medical marijuana is a concerted effort to allow certain groups of extremely wealthy people harness near complete control of the cannabis and future industrial hemp industry. Prohibition is just a tool for the wealthiest of capitalists to manipulate markets and industries in their favor while waging a war against the citizens of this nation and others; it always has been, and always will be.

• Hey author and LA weekly editors...NONE of the opiate or opiod drugs used in the study mentioned above are "quasi legal," they are all very much legal in every state of this union. In truth, there is no such thing as a "quasi legal" opiate or opiod based medication. All other opiates are very much illegal, not quasi legal. These drugs are only "illegal" when someone without a proper prescription possess or uses them. Any half intelligent person knows this information, and you should change the title of this article because it is false. The only actual "quasi legal" drug in this country is medical marijuana, which sits in a grey legal area between state and federal laws. There is also research being done on hallucinogens like LSD or psilocybin from certain types of mushrooms for the treatment of special conditions like cluster headaches, which could potentially make those drugs "quasi legal" if or when they are prescribed to patients. Just FYI.

• As a person consistently in chronic pain, a combination of the two is very very effective for me, however, in general 300+ days a year solely cannabis works for me.  Before I started medicating with Cannabis I was taking about 90-120 percocet 10/650 a month.  Now I take about 30-50 10/325 percocet a year.

• Prescription painkillers are legal, not quasi-legal. No federal or state law forbids the prescription of any drug not listed in Schedule I of the Controlled Subtances Act. Marijuana is quasi-legal, prohibited by federal law but readily available in retail shops to anyone with a physician's recommendation.

• im pretty sure everyone grows for cannabinoids and THC......just to tune you in.

• The point is, the use of marijuana, which is one of the most benign therapeutically active substances known to man, can reduce the need for opiates.  Unlike marijuana, opiates are toxic, addictive, and have a host of negative side effects.  Marijuana potentiates the effects of opiates, thereby requiring smaller and/or less frequent doses.

• i know this stuff for a fact. i don't understand why they won't legalize this stuff!   i suffer every day with terrible back pain because i can't get it until i can find the right doctor. my pain doctor and family doctor don't disapprove of it, they are just too afraid to get involved of the unknown. instead they give me morphine and other heavy drugs that mess up my stomach so much that instead of taking them, i suffer in pain. on those rare occasions i give in and take one, my stomach suffers for it. i'm all for legalizing it.

• And what researchers are saying here, essentially, is that 1+1 but minus a little, like .5, of one of those factors, but it's still multiple drugs vs. just one drug, which I then concluded to be "more." But again, you're the genius.

• Sorry Harry. I was adding 1 (marijuana) + 1 (opiates) and coming up with 2. You're right, I'm stupid.

• After trying various combinations of Oxycodone with other Dr perscribd drugs such as Lyrica/oxycodone I have found that the following combination has worked perfectly for my nerve pain caused from a back operation I had a few years ago and its all legal here in So Cal. I currently have been using this combo for over a year without having to up the Oxycodone dosage to maintain the desired pain level reduction. one 10 Mg oxycodone (pure no Acetaminophen to avoid liver damage) 2 puffs of indica type meds once or sometimes twice a day depending of pain level that day. Both are as legal to use in california , the Oxycodone is perscribed from primary care Dr and the MMJ recommendation from cannameds service in So cal. For people who have never used cannabis please start out slowly ...like with one puff. It is pretty harmless but can cause you to get anxious or scared a little sometimes depending on the variety/dosage.. just eat a snack and drink some OJ to bring you down a little if you find yourself in that place and remember it WILL go away.

• I don't think your powers of comprehension are as infallible as you think, example: "Mmm. Yes. Genius (Writes this down: More drugs = more relief. Must tell stoner friends)." The information presented suggest LESS DRUGS = More Relief - by supplementing opiates with cannabis, LESS opiates were used by the patients. Less opiates means less chance of addiction and easier withdrawal, which is very good for patients and doctors. Snarky stoner comment was really not necessary  and did not add anything to the conversation since this was about efficacy of medical use, not recreational use of drugs. If its hip to be stupid, you are down with it.

• It's all about the cannabinoids. Here in Denver we grow for cannabinoids and not just THC.

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