There is a large and growing body of evidence to support the usage of medical cannabis (marijuana) both with or instead of opiates for pain relief.
One of the problems with opiate use is the tolerance the patient tends to build up to it. Using medical marijuana can benefit the patient in a couple of ways. First, it can reduce the development of tolerance to the opioids. Secondly, marijuana can “reset” the ability of opiates to create pain relief from a previously smaller dosage amount that had become ineffective.
This article states that not only can using cannabis with opiates create greater pain relief, but that using cannabis may be helpful in the treatment of problematic substance use (abuse). This finding indicates that increasing safe access to medical marijuana may reduce the personal and social harms associated with addiction.
