By Noelle Skodzinski
"Deaths from drug overdose have been rising steadily over the past two decades and have become the leading cause of injury death in the United States. Every day in the United States, 120 people die as a result of drug overdose, and another 6,748 are treated in emergency departments for the misuse or abuse of drugs."
These are the opening sentences of a Fact Sheet ("Prescription Drug Overdose in the United States") from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Also according to the CDC:
- Among people 25 to 64 years old, drug overdose caused more deaths than motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2012.
- The drug overdose death rate has more than doubled from 1999 through 2013.
But truly eye-opening are the facts regarding pharmaceutical drugs. According to the CDC, in 2013, of the 43,982 drug overdose deaths in the United States, more than half (22,767) were related to pharmaceuticals. And of those related to pharmaceuticals, nearly three-fourths (16,235, or 71.3%) involved opioid analgesics (opioid pain relievers or prescription painkillers), and nearly a third (6,973, or 30.6%) involved benzodiazepines (tranquilizers such as Valium or Xanax).
So prescription drugs contributed to the deaths of more than 20,000 people in one year. And more than 16,000 deaths involved prescription painkillers.
The number of deaths from marijuana overdoses: zero. In fact, the Huffington Post reported on a widely cited study that found, "a marijuana smoker would have to consume 20,000 to 40,000 times the amount of THC in a joint in order to be at risk of dying."
Emergency Room Visits
Those statistics should at least make people and legislators question why marijuana is illegal, while other drugs–that contribute to the deaths of tens of thousands of people annually–are legal. In addition, emergency room visits contribute to this misunderstood picture.
The number of emergency room visits related to marijuana has been a hot button for some media and marijuana opponents. And while it's certainly worth monitoring (as it is for any drug, including prescription), especially as legalization continues, the results need to be put into context.
According to the latest figures I could find from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) (reporting on 2009, but updated in 2011), "In 2009, there were nearly 4.6 million drug-related emergency department visits nationwide."
Of those, nearly half "were attributed to adverse reactions to pharmaceuticals taken as prescribed." So nearly 2.3 million visits to the ER were attributed to prescribed medications being used as directed–not even attributed to abuse or misuse.
More than half a million (550,000) involved "nonmedical use of pharmaceuticals." (The CDC has more recent statistics (from 2011) available on the number of ER visits that involved the nonmedical use of pharmaceuticals; it places that number at about 1.4 million–a huge increase over the NIDA's 2009 stats.)
These drugs are widely used and accepted in our society.
According to the NIDA, in 2009, marijuana was involved in more than 375,000 emergency department visits, either alone or in combination with other drugs. (So the NIDA findings do not clearly show how many ER visits involved only marijuana.)
Also of note is NIDA's findings that alcohol was involved in "approximately 32 percent (more than 658,000) of all drug abuse emergency department visits in 2009," again, either alone or in combination with another drug. This is approximately 75 percent more visits than involved marijuana.
And consider that even though people went to the emergency room after consuming marijuana, the reasons they went to the ER are not tracked, and the risk of them actually dying from marijuana use alone is, apparently, nil, which you cannot say about alcohol or other drugs.
Side Effects
One last factor to consider is the "laundry list of unwanted side effects" that can be caused by pharmaceuticals, as the Medical Marijuana Association explained in its article, "5 Reasons Why Medical Marijuana Is Legal." (Note: Medical marijuana still is not available or legal to the extent that other prescription medications are, and it still is banned for most diseases and ailments in most states.)
Reading the list of possible side effects for just one type of commonly used prescription medication can cause one to question the fear that surrounds marijuana legalization–especially medical marijuana. According to the Mayo Clinic, potential side effects of Prednisone and other corticosteriods (oral, topical, injection or inhaled) can include:
- increased blood pressure
- swelling of the legs
- mood swings
- fat deposits in your abdomen, face and the back of your neck
- cataracts
- thinning bones and fractures
- high blood sugar, which can trigger or worsen diabetes
- slower wound healing
- pain
- shrinking of soft tissue … and many more.
It's only fair, however, to look at the reported possible side effects of marijuana. According to WebMD, "Use of marijuana can cause dry mouth, nausea, vomiting, dry or red eyes, heart and blood pressure problems, lung problems, impaired mental functioning, headache, dizziness, numbness, panic reactions, hallucinations, flashbacks, depression, and sexual problems."
Note that the "impaired mental functioning" is a likely reason many people enjoy marijuana in the first place–similar to consuming alcohol. But, if you're looking at marijuana as a medication, that side effect may be undesirable. And, as WebMD also reports:
- "The cannabinoid, dronabinol, which is found in marijuana, is LIKELY SAFE when taken by mouth appropriately as a prescription medication. Dronabinol (Marinol) is an FDA-approved prescription product.
- Marijuana is POSSIBLY SAFE when used as a standardized mouth spray (Sativex).
- Marijuana is POSSIBLY UNSAFE when smoked or taken by mouth as a plant or plant extract."
We've all seen the commercials that list all kinds of horrifying potential side effects of pharmaceutical medications (even some over-the-counter meds)–including death. When you evaluate and consider the facts above, is marijuana really something we should fear?
Note: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and are not necessarily the views of Cannabis Business Times.
