Could Cannabis Help the Ohio Opioid Epidemic?

There are many areas of the United States that are struggling with opioid and heroin epidemics, and Ohio is one state that is definitely in the thick of it, and the epidemic there shows no signs of ending anytime soon.  In fact, it seems like there are news stories every day about addiction and overdose on opioids which begs the question: could cannabis help the Ohio opioid epidemic (both in Ohio and in other states)?

As reported by The Washington Post:

Drug overdoses have led to a spike in the number of bodies coming to the Stark County [Ohio] morgue — an increase of about 20 percent in the last year. The additional bodies led to the need for more space, so the coroner’s office borrowed a trailer from the state until it gets caught up.

“I’ve been involved in public safety for 40 some years; I remember the drug problem we had in the late ’60s and early ’70s when I joined the department,” Rick Walters [an investigator for the Stark County coroner’s office]said. “The fatality numbers are nothing even close to this.”

Last year, the coroner’s office processed about 500 deaths, more than 100 of which were drug-related, Walters said.

These numbers…