Florida Opioid Crisis
The Florida opioid crisis is a growing healthcare concern. Fueled in part by the excessive physician prescribing of prescription narcotics and consequent patient overuse of opiates, a clear solution seems lacking. There has been early research showing a beneficial effect of cannabis on pain and the potential of its use as a replacement for opiate therapy. More studies are necessary and sure to come with rising social acceptance and availability of cannabis. KindHealth medical cannabis doctors will evaluate you for your medical marijuana qualifying condition and work with you to see if your chronic pain is responsive to the use of marijuana.
Drug-related Deaths per 100,000 (2017)
Florida – 24.2% National – 21.6%
America at War on Opioids and Prescription Narcotics
America has been waging an insidious war on a narcotic epidemic for years now. Here in Florida, “Opioids were the direct cause of death of 2,538 Floridians and contributed to an additional 1,358 deaths in 2015, the last year data is available.”1 Florida’s Gov. Rick Scott officially declared the epidemic a public health emergency in May, 2017 giving public health officials greater ability to respond to the crisis with more resources for prevention, treatment and recovery services. President Trump has since declared the crisis a national emergency. Of note, Florida saw a statistically significant drug overdose death rate increase from 2016 to 2017 of 5.9%.2
- Rudd RA, Seth P, David F, Scholl L. Increases in Drug and Opioid-Involved Overdose Deaths — United States, 2010–2015. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. ePub: 16 December 2016.
- https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/statedeaths.html
- CDC. Wide-ranging online data for epidemiologic research (WONDER). Atlanta, GA: CDC, National Center for Health Statistics; 2016. Available at http://wonder.cdc.gov.
- Chang H, Daubresse M, Kruszewski S, et al. Prevalence and treatment of pain in emergency departments in the United States, 2000 – 2010. Amer J of Emergency Med 2014; 32(5): 421-31.
- Daubresse M, Chang H, Yu Y, Viswanathan S, et al. Ambulatory diagnosis and treatment of nonmalignant pain in the United States, 2000 – 2010. Medical Care 2013; 51(10): 870-878.
- CDC. Wide-ranging online data for epidemiologic research (WONDER). Atlanta, GA: CDC, National Center for Health Statistics; 2016. Available at http://wonder.cdc.gov
- By Michael Auslen, Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau. May 03, 2017
- CDC Understanding the Epidemic
