CooCoo Cannabis Dispensary

1234 Notaral Plas NW

Albuquerque, NM 87107
(505) 555-1234

____________________________________________________________________________________
May 11th, 2018

Christian Warren,
4321 Alsuno Treal NW
Albuquerque, NM 87107

To whom it may concern,

The purpose of this report is to review and recommend going against the U.S. Attorney General's decision
to seek further imprisonment of medicinal cannabis patients. Beyond that, the purpose of this report is to
lighten the negative connotations associated with cannabis.
This report takes a study from the University of New Mexico that deals with cessation from opioids and
cannabis' role in helping deal with that. Many people assume a negative stigma towards cannabis without
much thought towards the pharmaceutical industry, and this report helps to bring that forward. I
recommend cannabis patients not be sought for imprisonment, and those who look negatively upon it
reflect on the negative aspects of using opioid based products instead. Beyond increasing costs in the
pharmaceutical industry, opioids can be physically addicting especially for those with chronic pain. If
cannabis' negative connotation can be put aside, maybe we can learn to use it truly as a medicine and not
harm those who are already trying to do so.
This is very important for cannabis patients. These people are just trying to use their medicine and have
no need for imprisonment. What is that going to teach? Is there a rational reason to seek these people?
This report will help to answer questions of this nature.
Thank you for giving cannabis a chance. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to call me
at (505) 555-1234, or you can email me at warrenc@unm.edu.

Sincerely,

Christian Warren
 Cannabis vs. Opioid Use In New Mexico: Why Christian
Care? Warren

Introduction:

According to an article on New Mexico In Depth, the U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has

"reinstated a policy of imprisoning medicinal cannabis users." New Mexico legalized cannabis for

medical use in 2007, and more and more people are seeking its medical properties each day. If the

patients of New Mexico are benefitting from the use of cannabis, why seek to imprison them?

Cannabis has been linked to helping several conditions such as PTSD or epilepsy, as well as

helping quit opiate addiction. Also, it's often forgotten that there is a medical attribute of cannabis that is

non-psychoactive. This is Cannabidiol (CBD), and CBD is the part of cannabis that helps deal with

anxiety and pain (THC helps in these aspects too, but THC IS psychoactive). There's no high attached to

CBD, so why include this in the criminalization of cannabis? If patients felt that their use of cannabis was

going to land them in jail, then they may be more likely to resort to the use of opiate-based substances. I

recommend that a Memorial be sent to the House of Representatives, protecting New Mexico medical

cannabis users. I also recommend that the negative connotations associated with patients and their use of

cannabis be dismissed. Some hold it in a much different light than alcohol or prescribed pills, without a

rational thought as to why that is.

This report will help in showing the negative outcome of cracking down on patients, as well as

the positive benefits of cannabis as a medicine. I will discuss the steps to a specific New Mexican study

that examines medicinal cannabis use. The limitations of the studies conducted must also be discussed.

The results will also be summarized and described more fully, and a formal recommendation will be

concluded.

Methodology:
 Cannabis vs. Opioid Use In New Mexico: Why Christian
Care? Warren

In a study titled "Associations between Medical Cannabis and Prescription Opioid Use in Chronic

Pain Patients: A Preliminary Cohort Study" by Drs. Jacob Miguel Vigil and Sarah See Stith at the

University of New Mexico, a distinct connection between reduction of opioid use and legal ability to use

cannabis was found.

This study was conducted by examining association between being in the Medical Cannabis

Program (MCP) and using opiate based prescriptions. 37 habitual opiate prescription users with chronic

pain were examined. These patients chose to join the MCP between 2010 and 2015 and were compared to

29 other patients with similar health conditions; these 29 patients chose not to join the MCP. The

researchers then went over Prescription Monitoring Program records for opioid use over a 21-month

period of observation for all patients in the study. They were trying to measure opioid cessation, or the

absence of opiate based prescriptions during the last three months of observation. The patients enrolled in

MCP were also asked personal questions pertaining to their use of cannabis and how it affects their daily

lives. This study is very useful, however it's important to note limitations.

As far as how this study pertains to New Mexico patients specifically, there's not much limitation.

However, when looked at nationally, something like this is very hard to accurately judge. UNM's study is

good for a small model, but it's hard to look at results nationally if it's federally illegal (not many people

want to study cannabis in depth because of this reason). There's no true way of seeing how cannabis and

opioid addictions are related at this point as a country; but it's useful to see that a majority of New

Mexican MCP patients claim to handle cessation better when on cannabis. MCP patients have also

claimed an overall better quality of life. The specifics of these findings will be discussed in the next

section.
 Cannabis vs. Opioid Use In New Mexico: Why Christian
Care? Warren

Results:
 Cannabis vs. Opioid Use In New Mexico: Why Christian
Care? Warren

Overall, the conclusions of these experiments were as expected; "a significant proportion of

chronic pain patients [report] to have substituted their opioid prescriptions with cannabis for treating their

chronic pain," said by Dr. Vigil. Beyond that, the patients enrolled in the MCP for one year reported to

have improvements in "pain reduction, quality of life, social life, activity levels, and concentration. Of

course, it wasn't all positive, as is usually the case with any substance used daily; however, this is

compared to these patients' time being on opioid based pain prescriptions. Therefore, the researchers

found a statistically significant association between being enrolled in MCP and cessation/reduction from

opioids, as well as an improved quality of life.

 Cannabis vs. Opioid Use In New Mexico: Why Christian
Care? Warren

When observation was finished, data showed that being enrolled in the MCP was associated with

a 17-times higher odds of stopping the use of opioid prescriptions and 5-times odds of reducing daily

opiate based prescription dosages. A "47 percentage point reduction in daily opioid dosages relative to a

mean change of positive 10 percentage points in the non-enrolled patient group" was also found.

On a separate note from the researchers, the economic benefit of cannabis compared to most

pricey opiate-based prescriptions should also be considered. Many programs that deal with the negative

effects of opioid use (i.e. prescription monitoring programs, drug screenings, etc.) have caused prices in

the pharmaceutical industry to rise significantly. This should be considered when discussing the quality of

life using cannabis vs. opioids medicinally.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, there appears to be very little harm associated with the use of cannabis as a

medical substance, and much less harm than the legal use of opioids. So why seek to imprison the patients

that choose cannabis over opioids? Beyond the reports of improving of quality of life, cannabis is still

significantly cheaper than an opiate based prescription. I recommend that someone in power for New

Mexico seek to protect medicinal cannabis users. I also recommend trying to keep an open mind for the

sake of those using cannabis positively; it's understandable to be a little conservative when dealing with it,

but one must consider exactly why that is. Is this negative connotation of cannabis an opinion that should

be kept going into the future, or should we try to explore the benefits and negatives rationally with

various studies? Who knows, maybe one day cannabis won't be grouped with something like heroin

(which ironically, is opioid based), and we can treat it like a substance that has its proper applications.
 Cannabis vs. Opioid Use In New Mexico: Why Christian
Care? Warren

Thank you for your time in reading this. If you would like to view the study for yourself, it can be

found at http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0187795 . If there are any

questions, please feel free to contact me at warrenc@unm.edu.