title:  Elizabeth Warren Just Did Something Amazing For Medical Marijuana Policy
text: This week, Senator Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to the Center for Disease Control s Director, Thomas Friedman. In the letter, Warren urges them to begin to consider medical marijuana as a way of combating skyrocketing rates of opioid addiction.Warren called for the CDC to do two things specifically in her letter. Warren wants the CDC to work with other organizations to fill in the  gaps  in the government s knowledge on the  the use, uptake and effectiveness of medical marijuana as an alternative to opioids for pain treatment in states where it is legal . Warren also asked for them to find out more about the  the impact of the legalization of medical and recreational marijuana on opioid overdose deaths .The CDC s own website makes it very clear that there is a problem with patients being overprescribed opiates and the deadly consequences it has had on society. They write: In a period of nine months, a tiny Kentucky county of fewer than 12,000 people sees a 53-year-old mother, her 35-year-old son, and seven others die by overdosing on prescription painkillers obtained from pain clinics in Florida. In Utah, a 13-year-old fatally overdoses on oxycodone pills taken from a friend s grandmother. A 20-year-old Boston man dies from an overdose of methadone, only a year after his friend also died from a prescription painkiller overdose.These are not isolated events. Each day, 44 people in the United States die from overdose of prescription painkillers. Chronic pain is the number one reason that people are prescribed medical marijuana. As much progress as has been made in efforts to legalize medical marijuana have been, there is still a long way to go. 27 states still have yet to legalize medical marijuana. If the CDC were to find enough evidence to come out in support for the legalization of medical marijuana as a way to curb opioid prescriptions, it would be a huge win for medical marijuana advocates.Featured image from elizabethwarren.com