2018/05/09 Council Agenda Packet

:gal marijuana could help offset opioid epidemic-CNN https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/02/health/medical-cannabis-law-opioid-. Health + Live TV U.S. Edition + laws, according to the studies. "This study adds one more brick in the wall in the argument that cannabis clearly has medical ,I applications," said David Bradford, professor of public administration and policy at the University of Georgia t and a lead author of the Medicare study. r �� C ; a "And for pain patients in particular, our work adds to • the argument that cannabis can be effective." Medicare Part D, the optional prescription drug benefit plan for those enrolled in Medicare, covers more than 42 million Americans, including those 65 or older. Related Article: Poll: Majority of Medicaid provides health coverage to more than 73 million low-income individuals in the US, according to Republicans support marijuana the program's website. legalization "Medicare and Medicaid publishes this data, and we're free to use it, and anyone who's interested can download the data," Bradford said. "But that means that we don't know what's going on with the privately insured and the uninsured population, and for that, I'm afraid the data sets are proprietary and expensive." 'This crisis is very real ' The new research comes as the United States remains entangled in the worst opioid epidemic the world has ever seen. Opioid overdose has risen dramatically over the past 15 years and has been implicated in over 500.000 deaths since 2000 -- more than the number of Americans killed in World War II. "As somebody who treats patients with opioid use disorders, this crisis is very real. These patients die every day, and it's quite shocking in many ways," said Dr. Kevin Hill, an addiction psychiatrist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, who was not involved in the new studies. "We have had overuse of certain prescription opioids over the years, and it's certainly contributed to the opioid crisis that we're feeling," he added. "I don't think that's the only reason, but certainly, it was too easy at many points to get prescriptions for opioids." Today, more than 90 Americans a day die from opioid overdose, resulting in more than 42,000 deaths per year, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Opioid overdose recently overtook vehicular accidents and shooting deaths as the most common cause of accidental death in the United States, the CDC says. f 6 5/8/2018,4:25 PM