Literally everyone we know knows somebody who has died of an overdose. And 2. 5 million americans are currently struggling with opioid addiction. Its completely hopeless where i just was like suicide at all cost and thought. People need to take some aspirin sometimes and tough it out. A solution some believe is this. Cannabis. Its controversial to many. Is cannabis a gateway drug . But a gateway to recovery for others. Did it help you get off of the opiates . Absolutely. Cannabis has given me a reason to live. Join us as we investigate, search for answers and meet potential pioneers in outspoken critics, whether you struggle with opioids or know one of the millions who do, decide for yourself. Im dr. Sanjay gupta and this is weed 4 pot versus pills. November 13th, 2013. Second and goal. Monday night football. James to the goal line. Ah, man. That is that day changed my life. You know . Theyve lost mike james. Mike james was starting in the nfl. A childhood dream finally coming true. A dream born years ago in a small town in Central Florida by a young boy and his single mom. My mom was a huge football fan. I heard. I heard. Huge, huge, huge. She used to chase you down the sidelines. Oh yeah. Huge. And i got into football through her. I mean, she put me in it. She knew i needed something to do with all the energy i had. And something to keep him out of the trouble that mike says landed his absent father in and out of prison. That trouble was drugs. Drugs tore my family. You know . So i wanted to just play football, go to school, stay in my books, not get in any trouble. By senior year he was one of the nations Top High School running backs, offered a full scholarship to the university of miami, a known launching pad to the nfl. My mom, she was crazy excited. I mean, it was everything that i ever hoped for. It was everything i wanted, you know . And then, overnight, mike lost his biggest fan. His mom died in a car accident during the holidays of his sophomore year. Mikes wife, aubrey, first met him not long after that accident. For him to be all right and mentally deal with this he was going to lean on football. The funeral was new years eve 2010. Heres the pass. Left side. Michael james. The same day as one of mikes biggest collegiate games, the sun bowl. An excruciating decision. I was going to do the thing that made both of us happy. Play ball. You know . She would have wanted you to be at that game. Yeah. My mom i know my mom. You know . Driven by grief, mike became relentless. Pursuing that boyhood dream of playing professional football. He was drafted in 2013 by the tampa bay buccaneers. Second and goal. And that takes us back to monday night football. James on the carry. Two yards from the goal line, mike went in for a touchdown. He comes right down on that left ankle. The pain i was feeling was excruciating. Hes in some pain. Aubrey raced down to be with her husband. He just was very calm and was like, yeah, i broke my ankle. And immediately i just burst into tears. Mike needed surgery, wires, screws and a rod were put in to repair the break. He was in so much pain he told me that he wanted to just cut his leg off. And like so many postsurgical patients, mike was given a cocktail of opiates to take home. Did you worry about these opiate pills yourself given what youd seen with your own dad . No. Why . Because i was getting them from a doctor. You know . So i was like, im not getting this off the street. Must be cool for me to take it. You know . Doctor gives it to you, it must be okay . Yeah. Aubrey was worried, though, and tried to control how many he took. But mike couldnt seem to get enough. At one point, taking nearly two dozen painkillers a day. Im like you cant be taking all these pills. You have to slow down. I didnt want to stop. I didnt feel the need to. And i didnt see the harm in it. And thats something weve heard over and over as weve reported on opioids. I dont want to stop. I cant stop. Truth is, in the beginning the opioids work well, really well for certain kinds of pain. But as youre on them longer and longer, they become less and less effective. The result . You take more and more. And thats when they become dangerous. Opioids, unlike just about any other drug, can turn off your bodys natural instinct to breathe. Take too many, fall asleep and never wake up. And studies show opioid dependence happens fast. Within weeks, mike james had joined the millions of americans dependent on opioids, putting himself at risk of dying every day and making him feel awful along the way. Nauseated, constipated, still in pain. I became immune to the painkillers, like i still had pain and now im sedated with pain. Our son was very young at that point. Im trying to take care of mike, take care of this small baby. I couldnt be around my kid sedated like that. I didnt want to be around anybody. It was a scenario that started to look frighteningly familiar. The notion that i would do what my father did to me to my boys i knew i had to make a change. You know . And that change came from the most unlikely place. I thought weed . No. Thats street drug. Not even wanting to hear of what it had to offer. Hes always been very antimarijuana. I thought this is going to be a stretch. But with their lives falling apart, aubrey made one final plea asking mike to try pot instead of pills. Mike finally tried it in february 2014. My pain subsided. I never had something where i could be coherent and still have pain relief. Mike was once again himself. Clear of mind. And nearly pain free. But there was a problem. Cannabis is banned in the nfl. Using it can get you fined. Suspended. Even fired. A risk mike wasnt willing to take. If we get that stance right a risk former nfl lineman kyle turley understands. He was offered cannabis early in his career. This guy saw me and said, kyle, you need to try this. Okay . I said, no way. Im not going to risk my career and get positive on a drug test. I want to be in the hall of fame. When im done with this game, maybe i will. Ill try it. And he did. As soon as he retired. Hey, booboo. Now, every morning kyle begins his day with a cup of coffee and a few hits of something he calls a necessary medicine. Marijuana. Its replaced all those pills he used to take. Since 96 when i blew my knee out, it was a painkiller, a muscle relaxer, a sleep aid, an antiinflammatory. Those four are staples in an athletes regimen of medicine. Its the opioid, the painkiller i think that people are coming to terms with. Yeah. Because its very easy for those to go from one to two to three. To more than a dozen a day. It became a neardeadly addiction. I was completely hopeless. These side effects are very real. Suicide is a constant thought. Raging on my family. All these things. And raging on the football field. And now turley throws the helmet. Everybody talks about marijuana as this gateway drug and reality is this was my gateway to drugs. Football was . Yeah. In many ways, Football Players are the perfect population to see just how bad the Opioid Crisis really is. One study shows former players abuse opioids four times more than the general population. Its a tough, brutal game after all. Constant pounding. Hard hits. Lots of pain. Kyle turley, mike james. They felt they needed the opioids just to be able to do their job. Your production is how you get paid. And you cant produce, you know, without playing on the field. Opioids they were told by doctors were the best way to keep going. I got into Pain Medicine at a time when we didnt have very good treatments for pain. Dr. Mark wallace is the director of the center for Pain Medicine at the university of california san diego. He, like most of us doctors, was taught in medical school to prescribe opioids. We were told, well, theres evidence that the use of opiates are probably not that risky and that we should use them more liberally. They dont wear off. It was the 1990s and doctors were seeing a lot of commercials like this one. These drugs which i repeat are our best, strongest pain medications should be used much more than they are for patients in pain. Problem is, while they were fda approved for some kinds of pain, they were never intended to be used long term. We started to see patients who were prescribed opiates for their pain condition who had never been addicted to anything becoming addicted to those drugs. Dr. Nora volkov, the director of the National Institute on drug abuse, believes that was the beginning of our Opioid Crisis. We knew that there was a danger. We knew that they werent as effective after a period of time and yet it still happened anyway. Marketing. Weve started questioning whether we should be using opioids. But we didnt have a lot of good alternatives at the time. Proposition 215 made medical marijuana legal. Prop 215. Allows the sick and dying to use medical marijuana for medical reasons. When it was legalized, i didnt jump on the bandwagon, saying im going to start using it. I was asking myself, are we going to make the same mistake . Because there was not a lot of evidence with cannabis either at the time. But there was history. Before marijuana was banned in the 1970s, it was used for more than a century as a treatment for many disorders, including leprosy, epilepsy and pain. And so you have to consider that. I started looking at medical cannabis as an alternative to opioids. In 1999, the california State Government gave 10 million to wallace and others to study the plant at the center for Medicinal Cannabis research in southern california. Within a decade, there were half a dozen studies to show that cannabis could relieve certain kinds of pain. The results made the cautious doctor more comfortable. He started to use cannabis in his practice as an alternative to opioids. 80 of his patients, hundreds of patients, were weaned off of pills using pot. How are you . Nice to meet you. You, too. Patients like mark schechter. Feeling okay right now . Feeling pretty good. Which is amazing when you consider mark has an extremely painful spinal disorder that left him partially paralyzed ten years ago. The nerve pain was something i never experienced before in my life. Relentless and chronic, doctors offered opioids. Percocet. Oxycontin. Fentanyl. Roughly ten tablets, different medications, a day. Yeah. Every day . Every day. I had doubts how well they were working. Almost 4,000 pills a year. Yes. Ten years. 40,000 pills roughly. 40,000 pills. That really didnt do anything for you. Were you addicted to them . Physically. That led him to dr. Mark wallace, who then recommended medical marijuana. It was amazing. I had immediate pain relief. Not that it was gone. But it was so tolerable that i was like in heaven. Almost two years later, mark is opioidfree. And nearly painfree. On a scale of one to ten . Two. I mean, it feels like a little bit of pressure in my leg instead of burning. Its amazing. It really is. What type of exercise are you doing . Yet despite wallaces success in the lab and now in his clinic, most doctors he speaks to still favor opioids over cannabis. I lecture all over the country on medical cannabis use and i still get some speaking up saying im not comfortable with this. Not comfortable with a plant. More comfortable with the Traditional Medicine they can prescribe. Its the same concern mike james had after using marijuana that one time. This is not regulated. Where am i going to get this from again . You know . The pills was much easier to get. At least thats what he thought. More on that when we come back. You wouldnt accept an incomplete job from any one else. Why accept it from your allergy pills . Flonase relieves your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills dont. Flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. Most pills only block one. Flonase. Is your floors best friend. Only roomba uses 2 multisurface rubber brushes to grab and remove pet hair. And the roomba filter captures 99 of dog and cat allergens. If its not from irobot, its not a roomba. You get the price match guarantee. So if you find your room at a lower rate, hilton is like. Were gonna match that rate and give you an extra 25 off. What would travel sites do if you found a different price . Thats not my problem, its your problem. Book at hilton. Com and get the hilton price match guarantee. When heartburn hits, fight back fast with tums smoothies. It neutralizes stomach acid at the source. Tum tum tum tum smoothies. Also available tums sugarfree. Oh yeah, this counts as a sit up. Its nice. But its kinda pricey. Hi. Hi. You cant skimp on a decision this important. Just use pay it plan it. Split large purchases up over time with american express. Need me to help you carry this to your car or. Dont live life without it. For everything that i give, i get so much in return. Join our family of home instead caregivers and help make a world of difference. Home instead senior care. Apply today. Its growing season at one of las vegass largest medical marijuana dispensaries. Shango. Is this what the grow fields of today look like . They are. Indoor. These are a lot larger. 50 different kinds of cannabis are grown and cultivated here. Thank you very much. Kyle turley is a loyal customer. Heres shango. I drive all the way back from southern california. Thats nearly 500 miles round trip to restock his supply of cannabis every month. Theres a lot to say for cleanliness, purity of product, consistency, all these things that in the Marijuana Program in california even is hit and miss. At the end of the day this is my medicine. And while it may be his medicine, this plant is still not regulated like a Traditional Medicine. Despite the fact its now legal to use marijuana medicinally in more than half the united states. There is still no standard prescribed dose. After getting a recommendation, not a prescription from a doctor, a patient is pretty much on their own. Whoa. A little different. Yeah. Its a lot of trial and error. How many strains did you try . Everything californias had to offer. Is that right . Yeah. And the one that helped him as a substitute for painkillers, a strain high in nonpsychoactive cannabidiol, cbd. Remember, cannabis is made up of 400plus ingredients. Two scientists know the most about are thc which is a psychedelic component of cannabis which makes you feel high and then theres cbd, cannabidiol, the nonpsychoactive chemical. We told you about this one for years, especially how it stops chronic epileptic seizures in young children. There is also Research Showing that cbd is particularly helpful when it comes to pain. In fact, cbd can do something opioids cannot. With opiates youre talking about killing the pain, masking the pain, youre done. Dr. Julie holland edited the pot book a complete guide to cannabis. With medical cannabis you are not just talking about decreasing pain but you are decreasing inflammation. Thats because opioids do a good job of interfering with pain signals going to the brain. But cannabis works on two receptors. One that blocks that pain and one that decreases inflammation. Its ironic that cannabis can do more than opioids, yet prescription opioids are legal and cannabis is not. Historically, that was not the case. For centuries both cannabis and poppy, two plants, the natural forms of marijuana and opioids, were commonly prescribed by doctors and dispensed at pharmacies. But that all changed in the 1930s. Opioids would go on to become a bestselling drug and cannabis became increasingly fringe. In part because one kind of cannabis, called hemp, was a threat to big business. Hemp is a cheap fiber, good for making paper and canvas, more absorbent than cotton and could be used as a potential fuel. So there were a lot of vested interests that sort of put cannabis down, took it away from the doctors, made it illegal. Despite many efforts we have reported on for the past five years, marijuana is still an illegal schedule 1 controlled substance. Same as heroin and meth. The opportunities that are available something kyle remembers every time he crosses state lines with his months supply of cannabis. The medicine he says he cant live without. They could pull me out of my car and file federal charges against me for trafficking marijuana across state lines. You know kyle turley . Yeah, yeah. All of those guys, man, i have the courage to be here sitting in front of you because of all that came in the summer of 2017. Injured at practice, the opioids didnt help, so he decided hed stop using them for good. I was excited. You know . I felt like i was beginning a new life. You know . A new life, pot. Over pills. I was looking for something to maybe help me with inflammation, muscle spasms. He got advice from friends and doctors and mike got more comfortable with cannabis and what strains to use. I like that dosage, though. He got the medical marijuana card and like kyle turley, went to the dispensary and found strains that worked for him. Leg and foot. This would be good for my ankle right here. But also like kyle, it was a risky decision. Remember, what we told you earlier. Marijuana, even nonpsychoactive cbd, is banned in the nfl so mike had to be careful not to test positive. He was willing, however, to take the chance. But then mikes luck ran out. A couple of months later. Marijuana positive test. The nfl put mike in their Substance Abuse program. But what if he continued to test positive . They could ban me from the league forever because of marijuana. And it could happen any day. An uncertainty mike was not willing to live with as the 2018 football season approached. Hi, mike. Oh, its great to see you. With two months until training camp, mike decided to be the first nfl player to file a t. U. E. , a therapeutic use exemption for cannabis, basically he wanted approval to use medical marijuana even though its banned. This is the first active player whos been willing to put their professional career on the line to openly admit that they have been using this cannabis. So they want to know dose dr. Sue sisley is taking on the fight to help nfl players like mike to use medical cannabis legally as part of a group called doctors for cannabis regulation. They understand the risks that i have by playing in the nfl and being a child of Substance Abuse. They take all that into consideration. It does take a tremendous amount of fortitude to be able to question the nfl openly when youre getting a paycheck from them. Mike knows hes put his career and his family in jeopardy. I just want people to listen. It would open the door for so many guys to use this as their medicine. But will the nfl slam the door in mikes face . That, a little later. But first, researchers using cannabis to open the door as a new way to break the chain of addiction. Were finally back out in our yard, but so are they. Scotts turf builder triple action. It kills weeds, prevents crabgrass and feeds so grass can thrive, guaranteed. Our backyard is back. This is a scotts yard. Its kind of unfair that safe drivers have to pay as much for insurance. As not safe drivers ah that was a stunt driver. Thats why esurance has this drivesense® app. The safer you drive, the more you save. Dont worry, im not using my phone and talking to a camera while driving. Im being towed. By the way, im actually a safe driver. Im just pretending to be a not safe driver. Cool. Bye dennis quaid when insurance is affordable, its surprisingly painless. clinking of glasses i knew this was going crowd laughs dos equis is known for its refreshing taste and perfect balance of flavor. And refreshment. Its okay daddy. Im sorry. I love dos equis so much. dad collapses into tears crowd breaks into tears and applause ay, pa. Make weddings unforgettable with dos equis. Keep it interesante. Poppy. A beautiful flower that looks harmless enough. But the opioids derived from this plant can turn people into addicts. They start seeking them out and at the cost of everything else, even their death. Yasmin hurd at mt. Sinai in new york said its because these pain pills make profound changes in the brain soon after you start using them. This is where you actually get to look at the brains . Exactly. Hurd collects brains, hundreds of them, from opioid addicts who have overdosed. Its grim work. Is there anything thats different about the brain of someone whos an addict versus someone elses brain . Its not the gross changes. Its how the cells communicate with each other that are changed. Hurd showed me under the microscope. This is a healthy brain. Lots of cells, lots of connections. Beautiful, the branching, the communication is essential for every single thing we do. This is a brain on drugs. Specifically, opioids. So one of the things you can see is that theres not that many networks. Looks like a poorly populated neighborhood. Exactly. This is what a brain disease looks like. Opioids have damaged these receptors, the glutamate receptors in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, making it harder to make decisions, use good judgment, making it harder to just say no. The craving is so prominent. Its so enormous that they cant stop themselves. Even if they want to stop they cant. Their newly wired brain wont let them. It could help explain why some therapies to treat addiction arent successful. Take abstinence. I think its egregious. Youre telling someone whose brain is fundamentally changed that all they have to do is just say no when those circuits that mediate those aspects of cognition are altered. Thats why hurd says abstinence programs are usually only 5 to 10 effective. There is more success, however, with whats called medication assisted treatment, m. A. T. You substitute lower dose slightly safer opioids like methadone and suboxone instead of the potent painkillers. These drugs do reduce the risk of overdosing by more than 50 but hurds biggest concern is m. A. T. Is still dependent on opioids. And as youve just seen, that means the brain disease of addiction is never fully treated. Which is why hurd started to focus on the cbd in cannabis, to not only treat the underlying pain but to also heal the brain. Cbd normalize thats. So by normalizing glutamate you can restructure and normalize back the impairments at the cellular level, at the molecular level. Helping get rid of the cravings that keeps taking someone back. Exactly. Exactly. And its not just the pain. Or even the cravings that cannabis could help but also the withdrawal symptoms of getting off opioids, the nausea, the insomnia, the bonesearing pain. Its like having an intense flu that just wont go away. The withdrawals from opiates was horrific. They say well get you through that as were trying to wean you. Over the last several years dr. Wallaces team has figured out the right strains to soothe the withdrawal symptoms which are very similar to the side effects of chemotherapy. No surprise because for decades studies have shown that both thc and cbd can help Cancer Patients in treatment. Did it help you get off of the opiates . Absolutely. 100 . You hear about cbd being able to help people with withdrawal type symptoms they get trying to come off of opiates. You have been here as you mentioned that cbd can help repair the brain. Is that as promising as it sounds . As a scientist, i definitely try to be optimistic. But also cautious. She knows we need more research but getting that done is not easy. Its something we have reported on for years. Because cannabis is a controlled substance, getting federal funding is difficult and getting the actually cannabis to study is challenging. It took yasmin hurd four years just to get started. I just dont understand why we cant go on to have more indepth studies to really see indeed if this does work and can be effective for at least a subset of people even if its not for all the 50,000 people who will die this year. Its hard for to do. Harvards stacy gruber has also struggled to do this kind of research. Her early studies show subjects who were given cannabis for the very first time reduced their opioid use by 47 . Its a staggering number. And like hurd, gruber also showed their brains changed when off of pills and on pot. The brains white matter which is what allows it to communicate from one region to another, became better organized. Those same folks show improvements in cognitive performance, so its very exciting. Exciting for opioid addicts and now raising the question, could this help with other brain diseases . Like alzheimers and dementia. The latest Research Shows that in labgrown neurons, cannabis removes the proteins that accumulate in the brains of these patients. Again, nothing else has been identified to do that. That doesnt surprise kyle turley. He was diagnosed with early cte, a sort of alzheimerslike disease, and he is a Firm Believer cbd has helped return his memory, quell his anger and ease his depression. We have a potential resolve to allow individuals to live better lives. But to know for sure means more research which as ive told you is hard enough. And it might get even harder. If i was sick i wouldnt suggest you take marijuana. That when we come back. Pardon the interruption but this is big now at tmobile buy any Samsung Galaxy s10 and get a galaxy s10e free door bell rings its ohey. This is amazing. With moderate to severe ulcerative colitis, are you okay . Even when i was there, i never knew when my symptoms would keep us apart. So i talked to my doctor about humira. I learned humira can help get, and keep uc under control when other medications havent worked well enough. And it helps people achieve control that lasts. So you can experience few or no symptoms. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. Before treatment, get tested for tb. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. Be there for you, and them. Ask your gastroenterologist about humira. With humira, control is possible. I had nomine. Ms of hepatitis c. Caused liver damage. Epclusa treats all main types of chronic hep c. Whatever your type, ask your doctor if epclusa is your kind of cure. I had the common type. Mine was rare. Epclusa has a 98 overall cure rate. I just found out about my hepatitis c. I knew for years. Epclusa is only one pill, once a day, taken with or without food for 12 weeks. Before starting epclusa, your doctor will test if you have had hepatitis b, which may flare up and could cause serious liver problems during and after treatment. Tell your doctor if you have had hepatitis b other liver or kidney problems, hiv or other medical conditions. And all medicines you take, including herbal supplements. Taking amiodarone with epclusa may cause a serious slowing of your heart rate. Common side effects include headache and tiredness ask your doctor today, if epclusa is your kind of cure. New lower price. Wow. Thats a lot of asparagus. Yeah, you said get a bunch of asparagus. Oh, you. A bunch. I. Thought you kinda. nature, ambient sounds, birds in flight, Running Water a bunch. car horn barely audible car horn increasing in volume and intensity car horn loud jane, this is jim from onstar. Ive contacted help and theyre on their way. O. K. Dont worry im going to stay with you until help arrives. Thank you. That deer, it just, just came out of nowhere. Its springtime in ann arbor, michigan. For 47 years, this rally has been held every first saturday in april at high noon to fight for the reform of marijuana laws. Its time to put players on the field with a less harmful medicine. With his career and reputation on the line, mike james is telling the world that cannabis worked for him. Its time for their doctors to start listening to my doctors. Dr. Sue sisley and mike is traveling around the country with dr. Sue sicily with doctors for cannabis regulation. Its been a month now since he petitioned the nfl for a therapeutic use exemption for cannabis. This is my medicine. Its not like its not a game or anything. Mikes case is such a perfect example of why cannabis needs to be made available because hes really not a candidate for opioids. This crowd seems receptive to that message. But thats not the case 500 miles away in the nations capital. The use of marijuana is detrimental. Marijuana is not a healthy substance. If i were sick i wouldnt suggest you take marijuana to cure yourself. Attorney general jeff sessions, who declined to be interviewed for this documentary, has made it crystal clear, he sees no good to come out of marijuana. Including cannabiss role in the Opioid Crisis. Im astonished to hear people suggest we can solve our heroin, crisis, have you heard this, by having more marijuana. How stupid is that . This bills become so addictive. The dea said a huge percentage of heroin addiction starts with prescription. We think a lot of this is starting with marijuana and other drugs. Marijuana as a gateway drug to more dangerous, more lethal narcotics. Its a notion that has steered policy and Public Opinion for decades. Leading medical researchers are coming to the conclusion that marijuana, pot, grass, whatever you want to call it, is probably the most dangerous drug in the united states. But what if that longheld notion isnt true . Theres really no evidence that cannabis is the gateway to hard drugs. Ten years of Clinical Experience i have never seen it. Gateway sure. Gateway to recovery. Gateway to feeling better. Gateway to getting my life back. Cannabis is opposed to being a gateway, it can be a terminus. It can stop drug use. These are the researchers who write the books, advance the science, grow our knowledge and they are seeing an increasing body of Research Suggesting marijuana can actually stop addiction and help offset the opioid epidemic. A Rand Corporation study funded by the National Institute on drug abuse showed something few initially expected. Between 1999 and 2010, states with legal functioning medical marijuana dispensaries have seen lower opioid prescription rates and fewer deaths from opioid overdoses. Fewer. Not greater. Were going to be looking at 64,000 deaths in 16. We got to stop the deaths. Both former governor Chris Christie and former congressman Patrick Kennedy served on president trumps commission on combating addiction and the Opioid Crisis. So i had assembled a whole litany of recommendations for Better Mental Health and addiction for this country. Kennedy has been very public about his own addiction and recovery. I was on suboxone for a number of years. It definitely stabilized me. When someone is out there in the throes of opioid addiction it is 100 sure that if you give them opioid replacement therapy you get them stabilized. For kennedy and the rest of the opioid commission, the best way to save lives is expanded access to m. A. T. , medication assisted treatments, not marijuana. The commission was reacting to a number of questions about whether you could substitute marijuana for opioids and obviously people would be stoned but they wouldnt be dead. Zero fatalities. Its a point that has come up over and over again. No one has ever reportedly died from a marijuana overdose. Would you say that cannabis is safer than opioids . Is that a fair statement to make . In terms of overdoses, absolutely. If physical pain could be treated in this way, in a way thats less risky, were in the midst of this opioid epidemic. Isnt that worth considering . No, its it seems eminently sensible to if youre looking at the lesser of two evils. But by that logic, you know, wed be accepting a lot of stuff in this country. And in my view if we really want to get medicines to people then we go about it in the way that weve always gone about it, sanjay. And thats called nih research, clinical trials, fda approval. And the reason we have that as you know, sanjay, is because of safety, efficacy and risk. Its a fair point. But the president s commission did not recommend any research into medical marijuana nor any of its compounds, including nonpsychoactive cbd. A mistake, a missed opportunity according to researchers like yasmin hurd. It should just be treated like everything else. Let it have its due process and lets see what evidence is there for it treating or not treating a particular symptom or disorder. Whether its cannabidiol in hurds lab or cannabis prescribed by dr. Wallace, its marijuana as medicine. An idea shot down time and time again by the countrys top Law Enforcement official. Im afraid that the public is not properly educated on some of the issues related to marijuana. What would you say to the attorney general . I would say hes wrong. And i think that he needs to be educated. If he came and spent a week with me in my clinic i think i could probably convince him otherwise. Education and understanding, the same goals mike james has by going public with his story. Early word from the nfl is that they only give therapeutic use exemptions for drugs that are fda approved. Cannabis, of course, is not. But the league is still considering it as is the nfl players union, which has already been looking at cannabis as part of the initiative to study pain and the best therapies for it. Executive director d. Maurice smith. Our job is to find the best medical science to support your therapeutic use exemption. What i would say to him and every nfl player, our job is to figure out how do we build the best medical support for the best treatment for you . And while mike waits, we are now closer than ever to the first fda approved cannabisbased drug. So how did it happen . That when we come back. At hilton. Com, i can choose from all their Different Hotel brands. Like a doubletree for my cousins. A homewood suites for my uncle. A hampton for my sister and her kids. And the waldorf astoria Beverly Hills for me. Can i get a. . Thank you. Book at hilton. Com and get the hilton price match guarantee. Book at hilton. Com forget about vacuuming for weeks. The new roomba i7 with Clean Base Automatic dirt disposal empties the roomba bin for you. So dirt is off your hands. If its not from irobot, its not a roomba. Oh yeah, this counts as a sit up. Its nice. But its kinda pricey. Hi. Hi. You cant skimp on a decision this important. Just use pay it plan it. Split large purchases up over time with american express. Need me to help you carry this to your car or. Dont live life without it. Xfinity watchathon week has sadly come to an end. What, what, what no but dont let that stop you from watching the best shows and movies from showtime, hbo, epix. Jesus, what happened . And more. Its just the tip of the iceberg. Upgrade now to get more into what youre into. Thanks just say watchathon into your x1 voice remote to upgrade and keep getting more of what you love. Thousands of miles away from mike james and the nfl, a big break through brews in the secret labs. This is one of the most for weed i heard of. Absolutely. When we visited here five years ago, it was a dream that is now about to become reality. Gw pharmaceutical ceo. We are a couple of months away from potential approval and launch from the first ever plant derived cannabis based medicine in the united states. A prescription medicine made from cbd, a liquid solution that potentially helps thousands of kids that suffer from epauletic seizu seizures. Young children who you met in the previous weed documentaries. When it came to finding the right treatment for the kids the families were left to trial and error. More oil or more weed. In some cases extracting the badly needed medicines in their own kitchens. We assure patients they receive the same product day in and out. Five years ago things were desperate. Parents, left with the choice of cannabis or death. Researchers were not behind them. Society turned their back. Now we are on the eve of a new drug being approved. Could the same thing happen with opioids. Could pot become a reasonable and accepted alternative to pills . We have seen in early studies the potential for cannaboids and others. Like in many areas we are at the cusp of many new potential uses. The fda commissioner. If you can demonstrate a product based on marijuana or a derivative of marijuana can be used for some condition. We want to look at that. But cannabis based pharmaceuticals are far off on the horizon and in the meantime people have taken action. Unwilling or unable to wait any longer. Like in maine. Known for a rugged coast line, fishing villages and iconic light houses and now known for Overdose Deaths which doubled here over the past three years. Jamie higgins lost her brother to opioids. It will come down to us doing things a lot of us feel uncomfortable about. It will be a shocking change that really brings change to the epidemic. Shocking changes and bold steps. Cannabis, i think you are using it really well. When will the medical Community Catch up with what the patient populations are doing. Two Outpatient Clinics in the states, dustin has treated hundreds of people that used cannabis to wean off of opioids. We have seen the drug list down and down. No spray or drop or puff can solve the problem. But cannabis can take a big bite out of it. So far it worked for angie. I know i will never be painfree ever. But cannabis has given me a reason to live. Cannabis has worked for doug campbell. They are both patients. They believe without medical marijuana their addiction would have killed them. Doug tried everything to quit opioids. Dozens of rehabs. But nothing worked. And then tried the cannabis. It filled the void. I dont want to overstate or understate this. Decades of opioid use, you try the cannabis and it works instantly. Is that real . That is real. No craving or desire. I do not have any thought about it at all period. But to so many these stories, the thousands of stories around the country are simply not enough. I have not seen a single story that has shown by giving a patient an opioid they are able to stop taking opioids. We cannot be guided by wishful thinking. We need objective data. People are dying. You cannot help dead people. This is pain cream. 400 milligrams of active cannaboids. Roxanne opened up one of the recent pot based treatment system in the country. Everybody knows someone who has died of an overdose. How ahead of the curve is maine and what you are doing in this . We are pioneers and get a lot of pushback. Having experienced it, to not share it would be immorale. It is a message heard even by the most conservative politicians. Eric breaky is proposing radical legislation. He wants to add opioid addiction, making it easier for opioid addicts to access cannabis. It is the idea, are you trading one drug for another . Even if we are doing a trade from a narcotic that people can overdose on to a plant that is not a narcotic. You know, if that is the trade we are making, that sounds like not so bad of a trade. The senators is not the only one willing to make the deal. A big announcement by governor murphy. Recovery from opioid addiction. Other states like new jersey, connecticut and new mexico are considering similar legislation. All people are asking for is the freedom to try something for themselves as they are attempting to break the grip of addiction. It is the same freedom mike james is asking the nfl for as he fights for a therapeutic use exemption for marijuana. If approved it would be the first of its kind in any Sports League and would mean mike james no longer has to choose between the sport he loves and his health. It tell probably say professional Football Player on the first line. Medical marijuana advocate. Yes. I am not ashamed of it. It is something i will continue to use because i have a life to live. Mike james. Just one of so many people who claims their lives were saved because they traded the pills for pot. Now the struggle continues for researchers to catch up and to gather data and for the Scientific Evidence to once again prove the power of this plant. Anothony seattle, a city with a collective identity, constantly in flux, always changing. But what its always been and continues to be is a magnet for creators to come experiment and to make their own. Anthony oh and weed is legal here