Correlation Between Cannabis and Healthcare

SLOANE SIMON

The question posed for this article was whether or not medical costs had been declining with the introduction of legalization of both medical and recreational cannabis around the United States.

The simple answer is no. Anyone that follows anything pertaining to medical costs or has been lucky enough to have to deal with our healthcare system, knows well that there is absolutely zero decline in costs. In fact, costs continue to rise, despite access to different options.

Or, maybe this is why the prices are going up? Are less people utilizing traditional, mainstream health care options and turning more towards cannabis, causing the greedy big Pharma and big Medical to increase their costs?

Several studies have found that certain prescriptions have been prescribed far less for patients that have opted to use medical cannabis. Many of these medications are opiate-based or pharmaceuticals used for anxiety and depression diagnosis.

In fact, some numbers showed around 1,800 fewer opiate prescriptions written a day. A DAY. As we all are very aware, prescription opiates have been a huge moneymaker for big pharma for a long time.

To take away that many written prescriptions a day, is a huge money loss for pharmaceutical companies, pharmacies, and health care overall. On the other side of the coin, medical cannabis isn’t always the cheapest option. The beauty behind it, though, is that there more than likely will be a cap on how much cannabis prices increase.

The quality of flowers continues to improve as we learn more and more about the best way to grow, with what soils, how to properly cure, etc. in order to get the best benefits from the plant. In turn, the better the plant, the better the terpenes and cannabinoids, the better the product.

As more and more research is conducted on medical cannabis, the more we will see that it can be a very viable “drug” to treat many, many ailments with way less side effects than many of the pharmaceuticals currently being shoved down our throats.

The cost of cannabis can be a deterrent to those on a fixed or lower income. This is where things can get tricky on the better options for a patient and how they medicate, whether through cannabis or pharmaceuticals.

For instance, when you take into account the costs of the doctor’s visit to obtain the medical card in Oklahoma, the application fee for the medical card, a patient can expect to spend around $250. However, if the patient is already on Medicaid, the application fee is $20.

Many local doctors are on a cash only basis for the recommendation in order to receive the card. I know when I applied for my initial card in 2018, my doctor’s visit alone was $185. So, once I paid my doctor, then paid my application fee, it was dang near $300. Not everyone can drop that and then pay for quality medicine on top of that.

An option to fix this conundrum would be for patients to have the option to utilize their insurance they already have to help pay for the medical cannabis. But, and this is a huge but, that will never happen until the federal government decides to remove cannabis as a schedule 1 drug.

To refresh our memories, other schedule 1 drugs would be heroin and cocaine. But hey, those lovely opiates all doctors love to push and prescribe, those are not scheduled one, yay. Thus, insurance covers those, making it very easy for patients to still turn to that option where filling a prescription is under $5 for about a month's supply. A gram of decent cannabis, around $12.

The other issue with cannabis still being a schedule 1 drug is that doctors can not prescribe a schedule 1 drug, nor do they know the proper dosage to prescribe.

Again, research. The more we research our endocannabinoid system, the cannabinoids present in the plant, and the way they interact, the more we can determine in ways to prescribe.

There are already studies being done to determine the best amount of cannabinoids we intake to help fight cancer.

Geraniol, a terpene found in some cannabis strains, has been shown to target cancer cells specifically and help keep the healthy cells healthy.

On a personal level, I’ve opted out of having health insurance and really using any kind of pharmaceuticals, rarely going to the doctor unless something is just totally wrong. I was relying heavily on anti-depressants and anxiety medications to make it through my day. Yeah, I could get a three month prescription filled for my Lexapro, but I could also still experience panic attack after panic attack, feeling numb to the world, and just overall blasé. So, I researched, I learned, I conducted my own experiments with different strains to treat my symptoms. And guess what, no more pharmaceuticals.

I don’t know what I typically spend a month on medical cannabis, but I know damn well it is nowhere near what I’d pay for health insurance to get those pharmaceuticals.

So, let us circle back to the original question. In the present day, legal cannabis has absolutely zero effect on declining health care costs. Health care costs continue to rise yearly, and with the way the last almost two years have gone with Covid, I highly doubt they will be coming down any time soon.

It would be wonderful to see an option for medical cannabis users to utilize their already established insurance to help cover the costs of their real medicine, however, until the federal government declassifies the schedule 1 assignment wrongfully given to cannabis, that can’t change either. In fact, it is much more likely that we will see a change to recreational cannabis being legalized, thus negating the need for any kind of doctor recommendation given to a patient in order to obtain cannabis. Our best bet, hope our government can get their shit together and get the people the medicine they truly need.