Among the US population, sizeable number of people is suffering from certain chronic pain however there are very limited options available for their treatment. In most of the cases, doctors prescribe Morphine, which comes with various risks of addiction.
Therefore, many patients as well as medical practitioners are looking for some other alternative solutions to treat this chronic pain. Often the name of Marijuana is mentioned, which too is listed among the schedule of controlled substances.
Marijuana is appearing to be quite effective as pain killer and often people tend to use them as another alternative to Morphine. You may also visit our website and learn how marijuana is used for various kinds of treatments.
If you too are suffering from such chronic pain then you need to understand about both Morphine as well as Marijuana, so that you may decide which can be your better option to get rid of your chronic pain.
Pros and cons of using Morphine
Morphine is quite fast acting and effective medicine to control pain and following are its benefits:
- Short-term efficacy
Morphine is found to be a quite effective medicine after short-term use however for long-term use, it can develop tolerance.
- Medical familiarity
As compared to Marijuana, morphine is well researched medicine and people have been using it for many years and it is quite well-known medicine among the doctors who will readily prescribe it.
Following are few adverse effects of Morphine
- Develop tolerance
As mentioned above after prolonged use, the effectiveness of Morphine gets reduced as a result patient start increasing the dose.
- Addiction
When the patient becomes psychologically dependent on use of this medicine which leads to addiction and as a result lots of side effects are observed.
- Overdose
Higher doses of morphine can have negative consequences in our brain which can be quite serious in certain cases.
- Constipation
Among its various side effects, constipation is very common which a health concern becomes if it is not properly treated.
Pros and cons of Marijuana
Following are the benefits offered by Marijuana as painkiller:
- Reduced risk
As compared to morphine, there is very little risk of addiction and abuse with Marijuana. Also, it is almost impossible to take overdose.
- Targeted pain management
In Marijuana, cannabinoids are few active ingredients which are medically helpful for certain types of pain. Many researches are going on about its effectiveness for cancer, HIV and AIDS related pains.
- Treatment for nausea and appetite
Various side effects like nausea and appetite loss takes place for cancer patients can be treated with cannabis.
- Improved sleep
Lots of research is going on to discover various benefits of cannabis on sleep for patients who suffer from pains and encouraging results are found.
Having said this, there are few adverse effects too.
- Decreased brain function
It can slow down our thinking and also reaction times.
- Lung damage
If it is smoked, then cannabis produce similar risk like smoking tobacco, which can damage lung hence doctor suggest various other alternate ways of consuming marijuana.
- Dosage considerations
Usually dosing has to be carefully done based on each patient’s tolerance level.
- Lack of regulation
As cannabis is Schedule I drug, hence no federal regulatory is available currently.