Minnesota Expands Medicinal Canabis to Include Chronic Pain

Minnesota has expanded its list of uses for medical marijuana to include the treatment of chronic pain.

Previously cannabis products were only available to patients suffering from illness like epilepsy and terminal conditions such as cancer and HIV and AIDS.

With the opioid epidemic claiming so many lives in the state some feel this will be a safer alternative to the use of drugs containing opioids like OxyContin and Hydrocodone.

“There’s at least one million chronic pain patients in Minnesota and there’s a lot of folks that can benefit from this. If you are on opioids if you have severe pain on a daily basis and you’re taking things like Vicodin and Percocet. It’s worth talking to your doctor about this,” says Dr. Kyle Kingsley CEO of MinnMed.

Chronic pain is described as ongoing severe pain that has failed to respond to conventional methods of treatment.

Dr. Kingsley says one out of every three Americans suffers from some type of chronic pain.