Cannabis has been proven to be an effective alternative form of pain relief for elderly patients, allowing many to quit taking dangerous medications, it is a mystery that in spite of all evidence pointing towards that unavoidable benefits of cannabis, the US government have refused to legalize the drug, some people believe that this is because big pharmaceutical companies would never want to patent a drug with no side-effects, a drug that is free, natural and safe might mean big losses for the pharmaceutical industry. Therefore the US government continually insists, "We don't recommend... more research is needed".

Medical cannabis is still regarded as a Schedule I drug by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) schedule I drugs are basically substances deemed to have no currently accepted medical use. They continually ignore the fact that cannabis has been proven to provide a lot of health benefits — one of those benefits, is relieving certain age-related ailments such as chronic pain.

According to a report on Natural News, President Trump hadannounced last year that the opioid epidemic was a “public health emergency” and entreated the medical community to look for alternative therapies to battle the growing crisis. Trump quoted statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) which places drug overdose as the leading cause of injury death in the United States, outnumbering both gun-related deaths and traffic crashes. According to the report, an estimated 175 people die each day in the U.S., because of a drug overdose.

Painkillers or opioid analgesics are a class of drugs most commonly abused and these are drugs frequently prescribed to treat chronic pain. Natural News states that "Of those who are given these drugs, medical professionals have stated that the elderly (or those 65-years-old and older) are the most at risk of overdosing. Doctors have warned that while older Americans represent only 14 percent of the total population, they comprise 30 percent of all those who use opioids.”

As a result of this, many health institutions are actively searching for better and more natural ways to treat chronic pain, research keeps suggesting that cannabis could be the answer we’ve all been searching for.

The report cites anew study conducted by researchers from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and the Cannabis Clinical Research Institute at Soroka University Medical Centre. “The researchers observed around 3,000 elderly patients suffering from chronic pain brought about by various conditions including cancer, Parkinson’s disease, and multiple sclerosis, among other things. More than 60 percent of patients were prescribed medical cannabis to alleviate their pain.” The research found cannabis could aid pain reduction with no added side effects.

“The researchers saw that in only six months, 93 percent of patients reported a significant reduction in the amount of pain they felt. Moreover, 60 percent of the participants claimed that their quality of life was raised from ‘bad’ or ‘very bad’ to ‘good’ or ‘very good’ within the same time period. Seventy percent likewise reported moderate improvement in their condition.”

The research concluded that medical cannabis therapy is a safe and effective treatment for chronic pain among the elderly.