Since the introduction of Vicodin and Percocet in the 1970s and the introduction of OxyContin in the late 1990s, doctors have prescribed potent opioids to injury victims, including injured workers, so they could manage their chronic pain. But as we’ve seen in recent years—many of us firsthand—opioids can be highly addictive and have nasty side effects, which together impose significant costs on society and impose trauma on both the people who become addicted to them and their loved ones.

There has been a growing chorus among medical professionals that marijuana is a safer alternative to opioids for chronic pain management. In response, many states have passed laws allowing the use of marijuana for medical purposes. After Pennsylvania adopted its Medical Marijuana Act (MMA) in 2016, some doctors wanted to move patients suffering from chronic pain from opioids to marijuana.