It recently occurred to me that medical massage and medical marijuana have a lot in common.
They both offer tremendous therapeutic and medicinal benefits, yet also face similar challenges in gaining wider acceptance within the medical world (including among insurance companies).
This article takes a glance at some of the parallels between these emerging therapies, including remarkably similar benefits in many cases, and similar struggles with “establishment” medical and pharmaceutical power-players.
Massage and marijuana (or “cannabis”) have both proven to offer real medical benefits to address numerous types of conditions.
These therapies can offer both physical and psychological benefits, from chronic pain to PTSD, in ways that are incredibly safe and non-invasive. The research and evidence supporting the therapeutic value of both mount year after year.
The latest example gaining notoriety involves the use of either one as a safe, completely natural (non-chemical, non-surgical) therapy for pain management.
This includes their application as an alternative to opioid-based pain medication, and as a treatment for opioid addiction and withdrawal.
Recent reported studies actually show that in states where medical marijuana has been legalized, rates of opioid related overdoses and hospital visits have a dropped as much as 25%. It’s not a coincidence.
On the massage side, the National Association of Attorneys General wrote a September 18, 2017 letter to the largest American health insurance association urging insurance companies to look at alternatives to opioid-based therapies, including “massage therapy”.
Recognizing both massage and marijuana as effective tools to fight opioid-related problems is only scratching the surface when it comes to their potential to improve health and medical outcomes.
Both therapies are still largely excluded from modern healthcare policy and are not covered by most health insurance plans.
When a new “blockbuster” drug gets FDA approval, in no time doctor’s shelves are packed with free patient samples. Prescriptions are flying off their desks! Insurance companies cover the costs as they do with most therapeutically effective medicines, as they should.
So why do massage and marijuana continue to face such a struggle to gain mainstream acceptance?
In my view there are two reasons, and I will briefly discuss what is at the heart of each:
- Old fashioned and/or prejudicial views of both
- Corporate greed.
The history of drug prohibition and shifting attitudes about illegal drugs over the past 50 years in the United States is part of a longer discussion.
But we cannot go without naming the 40+ year failed “War on Drugs” in the U.S., which to this day continues to classify Marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug (meaning it is as dangerous and therapeutically useless as crystal meth or street heroin).
Americans were taught that illegal drugs are all equally bad and users are immoral and shameful.
While cultural attitudes have definitely been shifting dramatically in recent years, as evidenced by many states legalizing marijuana for both medical and recreational purposes, within the medical industrial complex, acceptance of “pot” as medicine still faces what seems to be an uphill slog.
On the same token, massage has its own moral “dark side” that elicits prejudiced views, preventing some from taking it more seriously.
If you ask just about any professional massage therapist, they will tell you they’ve heard that “do you offer happy endings?” joke a thousand times before, and most likely within the past month at any given time!
Again, we won’t get into the entire history of massage and its unfortunate (yet understandable) association with prostitution.
“Like cannabis, massage can be used non-therapeutically and may be illegal in the US, affecting its therapeutic value.”
DeTorres Group CEO says marketers promoting massage and cannabis struggle to dominate Google & Bing search sites.
Medical professionals are not likely to lead culture-wide changes in attitudes on taboo subjects or common knowledge.
The motto “First, do no harm” does not exactly lend itself to more progressive concepts.
On the topic of “greed” it’s not a difficult equation to calculate. The pharmaceutical industry makes billions upon billions of dollars selling manufactured pain and other medications.
Industry leaders and major associations have strong ties to influential figures in medicine and politics.
Plainly stated; making simpler, natural therapies and remedies more widely accessible in mainstream medicine threatens their profits and their power.
Powerful for-profit interests will vigorously oppose and delay alternative promotion to protect their profits. Pretty basic capitalism essentially.
Others in the medical-insurance industry also fear losing out to alternative therapies. No one willingly gives up a piece of the pie to newcomers.
Massage and marijuana do have a few things going for them:
Both have grown in popularity and appreciation nationwide in recent years.
More Americans every year are discovering the health benefits of therapeutic massage, and we see increasing respect for the profession.
Each election cycle brings legal cannabis to more states, helping or saving more lives.
Each year, more scientific research validates the anecdotal evidence accumulated over time.
So we see increasing public support for both therapies, and that’s a positive trend.
Help from within the medical establishment?
Insurance companies are always looking at the cost-effectiveness of different treatment approaches.
In the future, influential people must realize that using massage and cannabis can save money by treating acute issues and preventing costly, life-threatening events.
If insurance company economists can evaluate costs objectively, there may be hope for changes in the pharmaceutical industry.
Various patients with different medical conditions, and of all ages, can benefit from cannabis or massage therapy.
Most Americans cannot legally or easily have medical marijuana covered by insurance like other prescribed medications.
We need to support policies for using massage and medical marijuana’s benefits.
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