CT rejects medical marijuana treatment for opioid addiction

Opioid addicts in Connecticut will not be able to use medical marijuana to treat their addiction following a state ruling Monday.
News 12 spoke with medical marijuana patients who say they know marijuana can help kick a painkiller addiction because it helped them do it.
One of those patients is Will Bosch, of Redding, who was on opioids to control his pain after major spinal surgery. He says medical marijuana not only got him off the drugs but also helped control the pain itself.
A state physicians' board heard from dozens of people like Bosch, but on Monday voted against allowing medical marijuana to be used to treat opioid addiction. They said there's just not enough research yet on whether it works better than traditional treatments such as methadone.
Little research has been done about whether cannabis can wean someone off of painkillers, but one study found that states with medical marijuana programs have much lower addiction rates.
So far, only two other states let doctors treat opioid addiction with marijuana: New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Advocates say they'll keep pushing to get it approved in Connecticut.