Nevada Considers Treating Opioid Addicts With Medical Marijuana

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - Nevada lawmakers want to give people addicted to heroin, painkillers and other narcotics the option to treat their condition with medical marijuana.

Senate Democrats introduced a bill Tuesday that would allow registered nurses, psychologists, counselors and social workers who treat opioid addicts to prescribe those patients medical marijuana.

Currently physicians can make referrals by providing written testimony that pot would help treat a patient's cancer, AIDS, glaucoma, seizures, spasms, chronic pain or nausea.

Very little research points to marijuana as a helpful treatment for opioid addiction.

Activists in Maine proposed a similar rule , but the state's top health official denied the request last year.

Nevada's Senate Bill 228 comes amid a national opioid epidemic that has parents and government officials searching for new treatment options.