Health Experts Oppose Addition of Opioid Use Disorder to RI Medical Marijuana Program
GoLocalProv News Team
Health Experts Oppose Addition of Opioid Use Disorder to RI Medical Marijuana Program
In testimony on Wednesday morning, former president of the RI Society of Addiction Medicine, Dr. John Femino, claimed that cannabis “is not a safe or effective treatment for Opioid Use Disorder.”
The Testimony
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTIn his testimony, Femino cited a study which showed that “cannabis use significantly increased the odds of non-prescription opioid use three years later.”
His testimony also challenged the assertion that "Pennsylvania and New Jersey added OUD as an indication justifying the use of cannabis to treat it."
According to the testimony, Femino’s research and review of their regulations show that those states “only addressed chronic pain and opioid prescribing and not the treatment of OUD. In the case of New York’s regulation, it has been widely critiqued by the American Society of Addiction Medicine as well as NY addiction clinicians and treatment programs out of concern that prescribing cannabis to patients who already suffer from the disease of addiction would only worsen the problem and be a regulatory nightmare to manage.”
Therapist Michael Cerullo also challenged the petitioner’s assertion that "adding OUD as a condition would reduce overdose deaths."
Cerullo said, “Since then, through 2016, opioid overdose deaths increased nearly 250%, while the number of deaths involving Heroin, Fentanyl and other non-marijuana illicit drugs went up nearly 800%. Why then are people who are struggling with OUD not switching to medical marijuana when it is in such large supply and so easy to obtain through our existing program?”
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