A new law in Illinois encourages patients to request marijuana as a substitute for prescribed opiates. A recent article on Medscape described the initiative and asked healthcare professionals for their opinions. The responses came quickly and ardently. Many were completely in favor of the new idea. A physician's assistant saw it as an issue of basic decency:
We have an epidemic of undertreated pain. This suffering is cruel and unnecessary. Just because a small percentage of people who use opioids end up abusing them isn't justification for withholding pain management for the patients who need it.
An internist continued in this vein:
Cannabis has the safest therapeutic index of any scheduled drug. It is safer than acetaminophen and NSAIDs... As a physician who has seen the broad scourge of the opiate epidemic decimate towns all over the land, I find this therapeutic substitution not only timely but essential.
But more than a few were worried about how well-regulated marijuana would be. One primary care physician spoke for many:
I live in a state where marijuana use has been legalized, and I watch people using it on a daily basis in my community with less instruction than what you receive on a bottle of ibuprofen...
