This is a bit of some older news, but we didn’t cover it at the time and it’s just such great food for thought.
A study was published back in January that finds a correlation between increased pot shops and decreased opioid-related deaths.
Specifically, counties where the dispensaries increased from 1 to 2 saw a 17% drop in opioid fatalities. Bring that dispensary number to 3, and the deaths drop another 8.5%.
“If consumers use cannabis and opioids for pain management, increasing the supply of legal cannabis might have implications for fentanyl demand and opioid related mortality rates overall,” says the study.
It is encouraging to see proof that there is demand for using legal cannabis as a substitute for currently illicit opioids like heroin or fentanyl. There is little doubt that it’s a safer option and generally much less addictive.
As more studies like this are released that shed light on the large benefits of having legally available marijuana in counties with drug issues, we’ll have more and more statistical backing of the complex ways in which marijuana can save lives and truly effect communities for the better.
