Marijuana eyed as safer substitute to reduce prescription narcotic addictions, overdoses

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The routine back operation Bob Deslauriers had in 1987 was supposed to fix damage wrought by a rugby-playing youth. Two decades after the fact, it nearly killed him.

The 58-year-old unknowingly received a tainted blood transfusion during the surgery, and 18 years later discovered the resulting hepatitis C infection had virtually destroyed his liver.

A transplant last year saved Deslauriers’ life, but by the time he left hospital, the engineer and former corporate CEO had another problem: He was on so much opioid painkiller, he could do little but blankly stare at the TV.

His salvation, surprisingly, came from marijuana. Pot helped wean him off all but a small dose of morphine — and made his intellectually demanding work possible again, according to a unique case study published this month.

A multi-hospital research project has now been launched to test the novel idea of using a historically illicit drug to...

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