Could cannabis be a pain relief alternative to opioids?

According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, deaths related to opioids in the state rose 13 percent between 2016 and 2017. In response to rising opioid use and associated deaths, the Alternative to Opioids Act of 2018 created the Opioid Alternative Pilot Program. The IDPH commissioned Dr. Julie Bobitt, the director of the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences program at the University of Illinois, to evaluate the program. She discussed the preliminary data and the feasibility of cannabis as an opioid alternative in an interview with News Bureau biomedical sciences editor Liz Ahlberg Touchstone.