safe, Wurm believes.
On the plus side, marijuana users are not at risk of the respiratory arrest opioids can cause, and pot won’t make you dependent as some sleep medicines do, she said.
“That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have its own risks,” Wurm cautioned. “But until we can begin to study cannabis use, we are really not going to know how best to counsel patients.”
Other pain and sleep medications can have serious side effects, Wurm noted. Opioid addiction is an epidemic in the United States, and fatal overdoses are not uncommon. And over-the-counter pain relievers like ibuprofen can cause stomach bleeding if used for extended periods, Wurm said.
Also, people can become dependent on sleeping pills, which
