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A new study found that deaths from opioid overdoses have fallen sharply in the 23 US states where medical marijuana is now legal. Coincidence? Not likely.

For those with chronic pain, medical marijuana can be life changing, allowing a safer, natural form of treatment than the conventionally recommended pain-relieving drugs called opioids.

There is a wealth of research linking marijuana with pain relief. In one study, just three puffs of marijuana a day for five days helped those with chronic nerve pain to relieve pain and sleep better.1

Meanwhile, deaths from prescription opioid overdoses are skyrocketing with little sign of stopping  except in areas where people in pain have access to marijuana instead.

Medical Marijuana States See Significant Drop in Opioid Deaths

In states where medical marijuana is legal, overdose deaths from opioids like morphine, oxycodone, and heroin decreased by an average of 20 percent after one year, 25 percent after two years and up to 33 percent by years five and six.2 As the researchers explained:3

“Medical cannabis laws are associated with significantly lower state-level opioid overdose mortality rates. Opioid analgesic overdose mortality continues to rise in the United States, driven by increases in prescribing for chronic pain.

Because chronic pain is a major indication for medical cannabis, laws that establish access to medical cannabis may change overdose mortality related to opioid analgesics in states that have enacted them “

According to 2010 data, there were enough narcotic painkillers being prescribed in the US to medicate every single adult, around the clock, for a month.4 By 2012, a whopping 259 million prescriptions for opioids and other narcotic painkillers were written in the US, 5 which equates to 82.5 prescriptions for every 100 Americans. And those narcotics are responsible for 46 deaths each and every day…