Thank you to Rep. Bruce Poliquin and other community leaders for the recent Town Hall regarding the opiate and heroin problem and treatment alternatives.

As we all well know, the opiate and heroin epidemic in America and especially in Maine is a critical issue. I offer a new opinion on the matter in a white paper titled “Medical Cannabis Access for Pain Treatment; A Viable Strategy to Address the Opioid Crisis” offered by Americans for Safe Access, an association of 50,000 medical cannabis patients across the nation that is headquartered in Washington, D.C.

In it, you will learn that that opiate overdose deaths were reduced by 25 percent in states like Maine that have state-regulated medical cannabis programs. Also noted in this paper is that researchers have found that THC works in concert with opioid-based painkillers to increase their combined effectiveness, particularly in cases of neuropathic pain. In addition to enhancing the pain relieving effects of opioids, THC also serves to lower the dose of an opioid necessary for relief, thus minimizing the inherent risks of opioid use.

In the June issue of the Journal of Pain, researchers at the University of Michigan conducted a retrospective survey of 185 patients who frequented a medical marijuana dispensary in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Those patients reported cutting their opioid use by more than half in treating their chronic pain. Meanwhile, animal studies have shown that cannabinoid chemical compounds found in marijuana can work synergistically with opioids to mitigate pain, meaning one can use less opioids when used with cannabis.

The Clinical Journal of Pain reported a study that followed a group of 176 chronic pain patients in Israel over seven months and found that 44 percent of them stopped taking prescription opioids within seven months of starting medical cannabis. Finally, Scientific American reported that medical cannabis is unlikely to prove a replacement for opioids in all medical situations. For example, prescribing opioids is relatively uncontroversial in end-of-life care and in treatment of acute pain from cancer, major surgery or broken bones. But for pain not caused by cancer, medical cannabis may prove a better candidate in the long run.

More than 35,000 Maine residents turn to medical cannabis under the DHHS regulated program today, and some 4,000 obtain relief at the dispensary I operate in the Auburn Plaza. Sometimes I feel like we’re in the middle of a big flood and the experts are huddled together planning for the rescue mission while I am busy in the lifeboat already shuttling passengers to safety.

No doubt research and science need to catch up with the reality that medical cannabis saves lives when compared to opiate therapy abuse. But we cannot ignore what people self report every day at Remedy and all across America, that they have reduced or given up opiates when using medical cannabis.

If only because opiate users are 40 times more likely to move on to heroin and cannabis users are only three times more likely to move on to heroin, that would be enough to study medical cannabis as an option for the opiate and heroin epidemic.

When we also consider how medical cannabis users report getting their life back, being more present with people and their surroundings than with opiate therapy, suffer less side effects like constipation and irritability, being less physically dependent, and not worried about dying of an overdose or adverse drug or alcohol interaction, the harm reduction with medical cannabis as compared to opiates is a compelling case worthy of serious consideration by researchers, medical professionals, legislators, and the general public.

Timothy Smale is the owner of Remedy Compassion Center in Auburn.