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Legally prescribed opiates<\/a> kill more people than illegal heroin and cocaine combined. Meanwhile, the ugly stepsister on the Schedule I drug list, cannabis, has yet to take a single soul. The federal government, however, stubbornly maintains that opiates have a medical use while cannabis does not.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Have they lost their minds? On the take? Or are they simply ignoring the facts?<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Roughly 23% of adults reported consuming opiates in some form between 2015 and 2017 \u2013 mostly in the form of legally prescribed painkillers. The CDC reports that 55,043 of these people died from an opiate overdose in the same amount of time. In contrast, cannabis is the most commonly used illegal drug in the United States with 22.2 million users, according to the CDC, with no recorded deaths.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Then why are opiates so commonly prescribed while our federal government attacks cannabis like an instrument of biological warfare?<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [Click any of the section titles below to jump there]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The general consensus remains that cannabis is a far-safer alternative for treating ailments associated with serious illness than opiates. Here are a few reasons backed by science, not just anecdotal evidence:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1) The LD50 (the median lethal dose) for cannabis is many times higher than for any other comparable medicine. <\/p>\n But what does all this scientific jargon mean, and is it still possible to die from a cannabis overdose? Is cannabis truly a safer alternative, or would patients who use it just trade \u201cone life-wrecking dependency for another that’s only slightly less awful,\u201d as Attorney General Jeff Sessions<\/a> says?<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Let’s take a closer look at the facts.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Yes, it\u2019s possible to die of a cannabis overdose. But unlike opiates, this is incredibly difficult to accomplish. And, contrary to some controversial news reports, no one has actually succeeded.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n This is commonly accepted knowledge, yet there are few people who can explain\u00a0why<\/em> this is so. There are plenty of articles online claiming it’s feasible to overdose on edibles with high-potency concentrates<\/a>. Some even estimate you could die from eating a 2,000mg THC treat. It’s a good idea to consider the source for such an unreasonable claim.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n All of these speculations add to the confusion that fuels the nationwide legalization debate, and some of them merely defy common sense. For instance:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n That last is a legitimate question for anyone who’s ever experienced a massive case of couch lock from that hypothetical 2,000mg candy bar.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n LD50<\/a> is an abbreviation for the dose that would prove lethal in 50% of test subjects. For this reason, tests to determine lethal doses are only administered on test animals \u2013 often genetically modified lab rats. These are done under controlled conditions where varying doses are given to test subjects; meanwhile, control groups receive the same substance without the active ingredient.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n If a lab tests the LD50 for oral THC administration in a corn oil base, it would have to test groups with varying doses of THC, and the control groups would get the corn oil. The dosage for the measured substance is in mg\/kg body weight, or milligrams of the substance per kilogram the subject weighs. So if we have a freakishly large test rat weighing one kilogram that was in the 50mg\/kg test group, it\u2019d receive doses of 50mg THC.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n It’s important to understand because these tests are performed on animals, not humans \u2013 making it impossible to measure the exact toxicity for any substance. There are physiological differences in metabolism and biology that come into play. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n It’s also true that every substance we ingest has an LD50 \u2013 including the ones we need for basic biological functions like water and vitamins. You can die from drinking too much water at once, water intoxication, and it happens quite often. So, it’s important to look at these figures with this understanding.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Scientists have obtained extremely varied LD50 estimates with tests using Marinol \u2013 synthetically produced Delta 9-Tetrahydrocannabinol on rats:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\nHere's what you'll learn in this article:<\/h2>\n
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Is Cannabis Really Safer Than Opiates?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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\n2) There’s a huge gap between the effective cannabis dise and the estimated LD50, while there’s a tiny gap between the effective dose of opiates and the LD50.
\n3) The body’s own physiological responses when cannabinoid receptors are activated add protection from an\u00a0overdose of THC, while opiates can easily fatally depress respiration.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\nYou Can Die from a Cannabis Overdose \u2014 But It’s Practically Impossible<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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What\u2019s an LD50?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
What\u2019s the Cannabis LD50?<\/strong><\/h2>\n