Patrick Kennedy, Pot and Opioids

[Berzerker]

Former representative Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island crusades against drug use... He became addicted apparently so maybe thats his motivation, but for years he railed against legal pot. Now he's mad the opioid crisis isn't being met with the resources he wants spent. Here's one of my problems with Kennedy:

https://drugabuse.com/legalizing-marijuana-decreases-fatal-opiate-overdoses/

Over the past two decades, deaths from drug overdoses have become the leading cause of injury death in the United States. In 2011, 55 percent of drug overdose deaths were related to prescription medications; 75 percent of those deaths involved opiate painkillers. However, researchers found that opiate-related deaths decreased by approximately 33 percent in 13 states in the following six years after medical marijuana was legalized.

“The striking implication is that medical marijuana laws, when implemented, may represent a promising approach for stemming runaway rates of nonintentional opioid-analgesic-related deaths,” wrote opiate abuse researchers Dr. Mark S. Brown and Marie J. Hayes in a commentary published alongside the study.

So while he's been blasting away at pot with a reefer madness mentality more people died from opioids in states disallowing the drug he hates with a passion. And he still gets invited on TV to lecture us about drugs? Btw, his drug problem was not with pot, he was abusing prescription drugs and he uses that as a springboard to condemn pot.

I gave up pot because it aggravates my acid reflux - it (when smoked) can relax the esophagul muscle keeping digestive acid in the stomach - so I no longer view the drug in the same somewhat benign light, albeit it wasn't the pot that caused my reflux, but I still see this issue as swatting at gnats while being surrounded by hornets. Kennedy and people like him are one of the reasons the opioid problem grew so large. Now to be fair to Kennedy, I dont know if he's been opposing medical pot... But his crusade against pot hasn't helped medical pot gain acceptance.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

The guy's an idiot...but a former representative will always get play on cable news.

No doubt that he also plays well to the "as long as we keep it illegal of course no one that really matters is hurt by it" crowd. They blame the opioid situation, with some merit, on the doctors who prescribe it to anyone who asks and has insurance. Being good midwest and bible belt Republicans the opioid addicts would never have gotten hooked if it weren't legal, according to their fellow Republicans who talk constantly out the other side of their mouth about how government shouldn't be involved in our lives so much.

 

[rah]

I had a surgery a few months ago and without even asking for it, they gave me a subscription for some. After the first day I switched to Tylenol because it made me too loopy. I didn't throw it away, just in case.

 

[warpus]

Why are they so many Kennedies?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Why are they so many Kennedies?

Irish Catholicism.

Spoiler :

Sorry for the stereotype, but that was a straight line that was just begging.

 

[rah]

The block over from us when we were growing up was right next to a Catholic school. You paid for the first two you sent and the rest were free. SO, the average number of kids on that block per family (all Catholic) was probably between 8 and 10.

 

[Zkribbler]

Why do we have a thread on this now-private citizen?

 

[Berzerker]

Because he's on TV demanding more money to deal with an opioid problem he helped create... He's not alone, many people oppose legal pot while complaining about opioids.

 

[Zkribbler]

Because he's on TV demanding more money to deal with an opioid problem he helped create... He's not alone, many people oppose legal pot while complaining about opioids.

I understand he was a VICTIM of the opioid crisis.
I understand the opioid crisis was & is caused by over-prescribing opioids.
I don't understand why he is the creator of the opioid crisis.

 

[Berzerker]

He's an opponent of legal pot, the war on pot means more opioid overdose deaths

 

[GoodEnoughForMe]

Not to be snarky or diminutive but the US government has a track record of 0% in correct policy regarding drugs of basically any type. Like I get wanting to criticize here but our current attorney general wants weed and opioid users locked away for a long ass time, so I don't think this dude as a target is all that important given that he's mostly a local public figure now.

 

[Ajidica]

He's an opponent of legal pot, the war on pot means more opioid overdose deaths

Not digging into the study, but all the quoted bit shows is that there is a correlation, and not a causation. It could be that states that legalize marijuana have a more progressive drug policy and, by extension, greater emphasis on addiction treatment. Indeed, in Colorado there apparently has been an increase in deaths from heroin as opioid prescription deaths went down, suggesting the decline wasn't due to legalization of weed but rather addicts switching their drug of choice.

In addition to the stronger monitoring program, 2014 also saw increased public education about the dangers of opioid prescribing and wider distribution of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone. The Colorado Consortium for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention, which brings doctors, pharmacists, policy officials and others together, was also just getting up to speed.

Valuck also noted that, even as prescription opioid deaths have fallen, deaths from heroin have been rising in Colorado — meaning it is possible that what appears to be progress in combating prescription drug addiction is actually just a large-scale switch to a different opiate.

https://www.denverpost.com/2017/10/16/study-marijuana-legalization-reduced-opioid-deaths-colorado/

Some preliminary studies have suggested that medical marijuana legalization might be associated with decreased prescription opioid use and overdose deaths, but researchers don’t have enough evidence yet to confirm this finding. For example, one NIDA-funded study suggested a link between medical marijuana legalization and fewer overdose deaths from prescription opioids.1 But this study didn’t show that medical marijuana legalization caused the decrease in deaths or that pain patients changed their drug-taking behavior

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entr...c-separating-fact_us_59525407e4b0326c0a8d0b3e

While I'm all for legalized weed, its links to reducing opioid abuse are shaky at best.