Kimmie Larios
Sociology 318
Dr. Rowland
September 25, 2017
Annotated Bibliography
Hsu, Jeremy. 2016. “Can Medical Cannabis Break the Painkiller Epidemic?” Scientific American 315(3):10–12. Author Jeremy Hsu addresses the opioid epidemic in the United States, citing some of the many health and social costs that are associated with the abuse of these prescription drugs. More specifically, in this journal article, he refers to a study conducted back in 1999, which spans over the course of eleven years, which revealed that states which allowed the use of medical marijuana, had an average of nearly 25% fewer opioid overdose deaths. A research team, led by Marcus Bachhuber, assistant professor of medicine at the Montefiore Medical Center in New …show more content…
2015. “Is Cannabis Use Associated With Less Opioid Use Among People Who Inject Drugs?”
Drug and Alcohol Dependence 153:236–42. In this paper, eight researchers from California and Colorado sought to learn whether or not there is a statistical association between cannabis use and the frequency of nonmedical opioid use. They targeted a large cross-sectional sample group of “street-recruited” people in California who inject drugs (237). Subjects that participated in this study came from different socio-demographic and socio-economic groups. Age, ethnicity, and other variables that may have had an impact on the results were accounted for and corrected in their analysis.
Their findings are very useful for my research paper, as they discovered that “people who use cannabis used opioids less frequently” and that “it is also feasible that cannabis is being used by street-recruited people who inject drugs to self-treat pain” (240). More specifically, participants might be deliberately or unintentionally self-medicating with cannabis to reduce psychological distress, cravings, or withdrawal …show more content…
and Mark S. Brown. 2014. “Legalization of Medical Marijuana and Incidence of Opioid
Mortality.” JAMA, Internal Medicine 174(10):1673–74. This time-series was conducted to analyze the mortality rate of opioid-related deaths in the United States by comparing between states that have legalized medical marijuana with those states where it is still illegal. Researchers sought to determine the association between the presence of state medical cannabis laws and opioid analgesic overdose mortality.
“The opioid analgesic overdose mortality rate in each state from 1999 to 2010 was abstracted using the Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research interface to multiple cause-of death data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention” (1673). Researchers included all fatal opioid drug overdoses regardless of intent, age, and other variables.
The strong evidence that medical cannabis legalization is associated with a reduction in opioid fatalities in the United States supports my belief that with the enactment of supportive laws will further the cause to reduce the opioid epidemic that we are currently faced
Sociology 318
Dr. Rowland
September 25, 2017
Annotated Bibliography
Hsu, Jeremy. 2016. “Can Medical Cannabis Break the Painkiller Epidemic?” Scientific American 315(3):10–12. Author Jeremy Hsu addresses the opioid epidemic in the United States, citing some of the many health and social costs that are associated with the abuse of these prescription drugs. More specifically, in this journal article, he refers to a study conducted back in 1999, which spans over the course of eleven years, which revealed that states which allowed the use of medical marijuana, had an average of nearly 25% fewer opioid overdose deaths. A research team, led by Marcus Bachhuber, assistant professor of medicine at the Montefiore Medical Center in New …show more content…
2015. “Is Cannabis Use Associated With Less Opioid Use Among People Who Inject Drugs?”
Drug and Alcohol Dependence 153:236–42. In this paper, eight researchers from California and Colorado sought to learn whether or not there is a statistical association between cannabis use and the frequency of nonmedical opioid use. They targeted a large cross-sectional sample group of “street-recruited” people in California who inject drugs (237). Subjects that participated in this study came from different socio-demographic and socio-economic groups. Age, ethnicity, and other variables that may have had an impact on the results were accounted for and corrected in their analysis.
Their findings are very useful for my research paper, as they discovered that “people who use cannabis used opioids less frequently” and that “it is also feasible that cannabis is being used by street-recruited people who inject drugs to self-treat pain” (240). More specifically, participants might be deliberately or unintentionally self-medicating with cannabis to reduce psychological distress, cravings, or withdrawal …show more content…
and Mark S. Brown. 2014. “Legalization of Medical Marijuana and Incidence of Opioid
Mortality.” JAMA, Internal Medicine 174(10):1673–74. This time-series was conducted to analyze the mortality rate of opioid-related deaths in the United States by comparing between states that have legalized medical marijuana with those states where it is still illegal. Researchers sought to determine the association between the presence of state medical cannabis laws and opioid analgesic overdose mortality.
“The opioid analgesic overdose mortality rate in each state from 1999 to 2010 was abstracted using the Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research interface to multiple cause-of death data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention” (1673). Researchers included all fatal opioid drug overdoses regardless of intent, age, and other variables.
The strong evidence that medical cannabis legalization is associated with a reduction in opioid fatalities in the United States supports my belief that with the enactment of supportive laws will further the cause to reduce the opioid epidemic that we are currently faced