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Medical Marijuana Advocates Believe it Could Be Used to Treat Opioid Addiction

photo of Jimmy Gould
JO INGLES
/
OHIO PUBLIC RADIO

One of the three people who plan  to build a medical marijuana campus in Southwest Ohio thinks the drug can be used to treat one of the state’s biggest problems – opioid abuse.

Jimmy Gould, an investor who also served on the task force that developed Ohio’s medical marijuana law, thinks pot can be used to relieve symptoms of withdrawal from opioid use. Under Ohio’s new law, medical marijuana isn’t approved for that purpose; Gould thinks it should be.

“What they are doing is they are introducing a drug that is a natural plant that will definitely deal with those symptoms. So one of the best things I can tell you is, assuming we are picked, we are going to go back in and ask for a condition for opiate withdrawal relief for those people who want to get off opioids.”

Gould says a research center is planned for the Wilmington campus he’s working on, to study different strains of marijuana as possible cures or treatments. Ohio leads the nation in overdose deaths from opioids.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.