CANNABIS, OPIATES TEAM UP

Combination of Opiates, Marijuana Provides Effective Pain Relief

A University of California, San Francisco study has concluded that
the combination of opiates and marijuana is a more effective means of
pain relief than opiates alone.

Despite a small sample size of 21 chronic pain patients, the study's
participants reported more pain relief when they introduced vaporized
cannabis in addition to their regular doses of oxycodone or morphine,
according to a UCSF press release. The study, which was published
earlier this month in Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, is the
first of its kind to examine the interaction between cannabinoids and
opiates in humans. While the original goal was to determine whether
marijuana would alter opiate levels in the bloodstream, researchers
were surprised with the results.

"This preliminary study seems to imply that people may be able to get
away perhaps taking lower doses of the opiates for longer periods of
time if taken in conjunction with cannabis," said Donald Abrams, the
paper's lead author and professor of clinical medicine at UCSF.