Poll: Pot Is Safer Than Prescription Drugs For Pain
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com/AP) — A new national poll says Americans think it's safer to user marijuana than opioids to relieve pain.
A Yahoo/Marist poll out Monday found two-thirds of the those surveyed said opioid drugs such as Vicodin are "riskier" than marijuana.
Only one in five said pot is more dangerous than powerful painkillers. The rest weren't sure.
Those questioned overwhelmingly (83 percent) said pot should be legal for medical use, but 70 percent said it is not acceptable for pregnant women to use marijuana to reduce nausea or pain. And the survey respondents were about evenly divided on whether marijuana should be recommended for children if it were legal.
Every day, an overdose of prescription opioids or heroin kills 91 people, and legions more are brought back from the brink of death. About 2 million Americans are thought to be hooked on the pills.
Last month, President Donald Trump appointed an opioid commission to look into the problem.
Marijuana by itself is not fatal. Doctors technically don't prescribe it for pain or other purposes, but most states that allow medical marijuana do require patients to get a doctor's written recommendation to purchase it to treat their conditions.
(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)