Could cannabis help minimize post-surgery opioid addiction?

• Author: IDAN ZONSHINE
• Date: 07 January 2021
• Published date: 07 January 2021

The studies are a joint effort between one of Israel's leading medical cannabis companies, Bazelet, and the Pain Relief Unit, the Intensive Care Unit and the Orthopedic Unit at Hadassah-University Medical Center in Jerusalem, where the study will take place.

While there have been several clinical studies that have shown cannabis to be an effective treatment for patients who experience chronic, long-lasting pain, very few such studies have so far been done on the effects medical cannabis and its derivative components can have on acute pain and trauma.

The current accepted treatment for acute pain involves a mix between highly-addictive opioids – a term which includes drugs from organic opium derivatives such as morphine and codeine to synthetic derivatives such as tramadol and fentanyl – and other pain relief drugs, though the overlapping effects of cannabis on different anesthetic and pain relief medications have not been thoroughly examined.

During the first study, doctors will prescribe post-surgery patients and those suffering from severe radicular pain (orthopedic pain which radiates from the spine to the back and hip into the limbs) with a pain-relief drug regimen that includes a single dose of cannabis oil, along with opioids, to see whether the change in regimen could ease patients' dependence on opioids.

During the second study, patients will be given a single dose of cannabis oil before surgery, and during their recoveries a machine that automatically adds to their morphine drip will register the amount of doses, to see what effect the cannabis has on the amount of morphine requested by each patient.

Veteran chemistry professor and head of the scientific research department at Bazelet, Ari Eyal, spoke with The Jerusalem Post on the importance of the studies, saying that the current situation is "absurd."

The studies come as part of an effort by the worldwide medical community to lower opioid dependence due to their intensely addictive nature and its other harmful side effects such as constipation, nausea and death.

Since the introduction of synthetic opioids in 2013, the US in particular has seen an explosion in opioid addiction, with two of every three overdose deaths in the US in 2018 a...