A growing body of experts and patients say cannabis should be prescribed before painkillers.
Derek Pedro has been in pain for his entire life.
Pedro, 44, suffers from migraines and a form of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which affects the collagen in his body, making his joints incredibly loose. Together, the two conditions have caused him pain since the age of six.
Pedro, who lives in Hamilton, Ontario, told VICE he was prescribed demerol, an opioid painkiller, when he was 12 years old. As he grew older, and underwent surgeries for his knees, shoulders, hernias, and spine, he was prescribed other opioids, including fentanyl patches, percocets, and oxycodone.
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Still, the Canadian Pain Society recommends opioids over cannabinoids. And Bell says many of his physician colleagues “are far more comfortable prescribing opioids, which is completely illogical.” Doctors from the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS expressed a similar point of view in an editorial in the Canadian Journal of Public Health last year.
Eden Medicinal Society, a chain of dispensaries with locations in Vancouver and Toronto, tried an opioid reduction program in BC through which patients were given cannabis capsules to augment methadone replacement therapy.
In a statement to VICE, the dispensary said informal observation suggested the program was effective in reducing methadone dependency. It is currently being studied further.